Cloud computing and the explosion of mobile devices is leading to a democratisation in the way people work. Aaron Levie, Box’s founder and CEO, talks to Joy Macknight about what employment will look like in the future.

Aaron Levie

Modern digital companies such as Uber and Airbnb, which tend to be at the bleeding edge of innovation, provide a sense of what the future of work will look like, according to Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of enterprise cloud company Box.

“In general, these organisations are more responsive to disruption and industry change because they don’t have the same strict hierarchy information flow and decision making that you tend to see in larger, more traditional organisations,” he says. “These companies are defined by how quickly the best ideas can surface to the decision makers. They are much more data-driven and collaborative in nature.”

In addition, the technology these companies use is becoming almost indistinguishable from the culture and the way the company operates. This is a differentiator between companies that are able to leverage modern tools – such as Box, Slack and Salesforce – and companies that still use legacy systems or are progressively modernising.

Down to the core

When large incumbent organisations attempt to draw lessons from these disruptors, there is a tendency to focus on the digital application or experience created by that company, according to Mr Levie. “This trend has developed because it is the core customer disruption that is visible. If you think of Netflix going after Blockbuster, Uber going after taxis, or Airbnb going after hospitality companies, the digital experience is the disruptive capability,” he says.

However, he believes that they are missing the critical element that enables the disruptive business model or digital experience. Fundamentally, the way these organisations run and operate, as well as their underlying processes, is very different from the incumbents.

“Banks are a great example. The innovation team will go off to build a digital app or experience for customers, but the underlying organisation isn’t re-engineered to actually sustainably stay innovative,” he says. “Having a digital app that is backed by manual or legacy processes is a more cumbersome and less modern experience than one that an Uber or Airbnb designed from scratch, which puts the customer experience at the heart of everything.”

Reimagining work

Working in a modern way is more relevant to going digital in terms of the sequence of events than often meets the eye initially, according to Mr Levie. “Many companies believe they can wait to fix the way they work or reinvent their business model, but such change is not possible if their company isn’t agile and able to move quickly, share information and collaborate," he says.

“You can’t deliver an experience like Uber if you don’t work in the same way Uber works. That is the fundamental difference between companies that aren’t able to leverage modern strategies, but do it superficially and then ultimately fail at these efforts.”

He believes that work will look significantly different in a decade’s time because employees will have better access to information across all parts of an organisation, unlike the traditional power structure or hierarchy. “The old way of working was based on who had access to the best information or the best network. In the future, it is going to be much more about ideas and execution,” he says.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will completely change the working world because the technology will perform more of the redundant tasks. “Computers are more capable of being able to execute, and therefore people’s jobs will focus on more of the higher value or value-add tasks,” says Mr Levie. “This is going to dramatically change what we are working on and where we spend time.”

Contrary to popular belief that such technology will destroy jobs, he is optimistic that more jobs will be created over the medium term as new industries emerge, as well as new ways for people to be more creative and productive.

Power of cloud

Cloud computing, alongside mobile phones, has been the catalyst for transforming the way people work, according to Mr Levie. “The way companies used to work was full of complexity and non-user-friendly processes with lots of cumbersome software. Employees couldn’t share information very easily and were forced to work in a confined environment, on a desktop PC within the corporate network, to access information or send e-mails,” he says. Then came an explosion of mobile devices, coupled with cloud computing, which meant that people could access information from anywhere at anytime.

This completely changed the way businesses could work, share, communicate and collaborate because now all devices could access any piece of information stored in the cloud. “This fundamentally transformed the way we work because all employees have access to the information that they use to do their job in the best way possible,” says Mr Levie. “Services such as Box make it easy to share and collaborate inside and outside the business. Products such as Salesforce provide automated ways to sell to and work with customers.”

Mr Levie believes that every job function in an enterprise can be completely redefined because of cloud computing. The technology makes it possible to access better software, which in turn allows employees to work in a more modern and powerful way across enterprises. For example, Box has an open platform from which customers can integrate with any software they are using.

“The promise of cloud computing is more openness and interoperability, where the technology seamlessly works together,” he says. “Customers can buy best-in-class tools and systems from different vendors as if they were buying the technology from just one company – that is a powerful change in the software industry that is new for all of us.”

Blurring lines

Outside the IT industry trends, cloud in general means that the dividing line between a company and its partners and customers is becoming far more seamless. “We are beginning to collaborate, share and work across business boundaries in a way that was never possible even five years ago,” says Mr Levie. “Imagine a digital supply chain that integrates all your partners, so you can efficiently share and collaborate across suppliers, partners and customer base.”

He adds: “This is an incredibly exciting trend because I can now compress time and space, getting more done, exchanging more information and working more rapidly across my ecosystem because there is no technological barrier that is slowing down the exchange of information, or preventing me from being able to collaborate securely with my broader ecosystem. Cloud is the glue that allows all our companies to stitch together whenever we choose. That wasn’t possible before cloud computing.”

Additionally, technologies such as machine learning and AI can only be delivered by cloud platforms. “The sheer scale of computing resources needed to be leveraged [for these technologies] means that the cloud will inevitably be the future of all technology and IT services,” he predicts.

Calling himself an “extreme optimist”, Mr Levie does not foresee any particular limits to cloud. “We are currently working through a number of challenges, such as international data residency and data privacy. In addition, we need to ensure that we continue to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to security. These issues still require a significant amount of attention and investment, but I don’t see any particular limits because the trends only continue to increase in the favour of these more advanced platforms.”

Getting ahead on security

Importantly, cloud companies are getting better at mapping technology and security to the needs and regulatory environment that enterprises face, particularly in heavily regulated industries such as financial services, life sciences and federal government.

“We have better tools and functionality live in the cloud that allows highly regulated industries to adopt this technology. On the cyber side specifically, in many cases cloud service providers and platforms can provide more advanced security than their on-premise counterparts,” says Mr Levie. “Leveraging platforms such as Google, Workday and Salesforce will give customers better security than within their corporate environment.”

Highlighting the perception shift seen in financial services, Mr Levie reports that chief information security officers at banks are now the ones advocating Box. “Ten years ago, financial institutions would have been the most sensitive about moving to the cloud, mainly because it was a new concept. Today in many cases it is the security teams that are the champions of cloud because it is proving so difficult to keep up with the numerous security threats,” he says.

“They see the value in leveraging more modern platforms that can help keep data secure and the information protected.”

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