Why Business Leaders Must Learn about Web3 and AI

Our work at Blue Cypress is primarily focused on not-for-profit organizations. We provide products and services to help reinvent the industry. Part of this includes helping people who work within the not-for-profit world learn new skills and open their minds to new ideas. The goal is to help folks in the space redefine what's possible and then go do it!

One of the companies in our family, Sidecar, defines its Core Purpose as Growing Leaders at Every Level. Sidecar does this through free articles, resources, an extensive online academy, webinars, and of course conferences. We've recently been talking a great deal about Sidecar's upcoming in-person event digitalNow, October 4-6 2022 in New Orleans (link below). digitalNow is often described by attendees as being at the intersection of innovation, strategy and emerging tech.

This year, we're focusing the event on just two themes instead of a wider array of topics. The two themes are Web 3 and AI. The reason for the narrower focus this year is that these two themes are incredibly critical for people in the sector to learn about, and frankly they themselves are pretty broad themes.

An interesting point of feedback has come up from non-technical leaders. Some of them have said something like this:

"Why would I be interested in this content? It is technical and I have a CIO/CTO I can send to learn that."

I'm writing this article to explain why.

The simplest answer is - you can't afford to pass off tech to your CIO anymore. It is your job as the CEO, CMO, CFO, and any other role, to have a basic level of competence in tech. More importantly, you need to stay curious and learn what is happening and what is coming next.

Why is it so critical for all leaders to invest in this level of competence? Because tech is no longer just a department within the business, it is the business. You have to understand what is possible, the basics of how stuff works, and why various kinds of tech might be good or bad for different opportunities. Not understanding the fundamentals is a massive and unnecessary handicap.

Now, those of you that know me know that I'm a Silicon Valley nerd, I grew up coding and still love all things technical. While I acknowledge that bias, I am not suggesting other leaders get deep into technology, not even close. What I'm saying is much simpler - you live in a world where technology isn't some isolated tool that you can delegate to a department to keep running. To take advantage of air transport in your business, you don't need to know how to fly the plane. You don't even need to really know that much about how planes fly. But you do need to understand that (a) airplanes exist and (b) airplanes can do some pretty amazing things, and (c) airplanes aren't the best at everything.

Similarly, with Web3/AI and other emerging technologies, just relying on your IT person to make sure your organization is "up to date" is equivalent to not being aware that airplanes exist and what they can do.

Yes, I'm a biased lifelong software geek. I enjoy this stuff. I know many others don't share that joy. The thing is, when I see leaders who are even slightly educated on the basics of what is happening in technology, what those capabilities imply for their businesses, and where things might be going, it is truly stunning how different the organizations perform. What I'm after is simple: I want to arm everyone in the not-for-profit world with this power.

Let's go back to Web3 and AI for a moment. I feel these two topics are must-learn areas for all leaders right now. Both categories of tech represent mature or rapidly maturing technologies that are being used for real-world applications in other industries. In many cases their uses are so disruptive as to create entirely new markets or transform existing ones. These are not new technologies that are just emerging from a lab. I'm proposing people learn the basic capabilities at a non-technical level. I'm proposing that they learn what these technologies are best used for and what they're not suitable for. Not a PhD, just a short course.

Another objection people often cite is:

"We are so busy, we just can't take on anything else."

I empathize with that challenge. That said, while I realize that many things that you'll learn today won't be possible to implement for some time, I still think they're worth learning. Learning itself is fundamentally good for you (especially if you learn as a team). Learning primes you and your team for innovation independent of the subject matter. Also, even if you don't use the newly acquired knowledge directly in your day-to-day, you'll be better prepared for a future where opportunities and challenges demand this knowledge.

The problem with the "we're too busy" challenge is that we all hear the same thing month after month, quarter after quarter, and year after year. Sometimes it is worth examining your priorities and putting some existing projects on hold(or stop them) in order to create room to learn things that are new and "out there". Ultimately, if you took zero action after learning about something new, you'd still be better off in so many other ways.

So, what do you think?