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COMPANY SECRETARY AND 4IR IN PURSUIT OF GOVERNANCE

Bipul Kumar Bhowmik FCS

The first major change came about as a result of using steam and water to power production. The second industrial revolution was notable for mass production, division of labor, and electricity. The third industrial revolution took place at the turn of 1969, with automated production and the emergence of computing and electronics. The fourth will be as a consequence of the digital transformation, a result of the fusion of technologies that is breaking down the limits between the digital, physical, and biological spheres.

This reality, which is becoming increasingly evident—especially in certain production sectors—frightens many people, perhaps because of the examples we have seen in fiction. Far from heading toward a grim future in which machines decide to turn against human beings, and contrary to all kinds of pessimistic predictions with regards to the mass destruction of jobs, let us look at the consequences that previous industrial revolutions had on humanity as a whole. Just think that every technological advance has improved working conditions for the majority of people, making the world a progressively more humane place, which tells a different story from those mechanized and dehumanized societies that have sometimes been portrayed in cinema and literature. As an example, our relationship with robots will not be like that shown in “Terminator,” but more like the one we saw in “Star Wars” with R2D2 or C3PO. Such advances in artificial intelligence won’t result in a fight against robots, as we have seen so many times in films, but more a gradual decline in manual labor. Thanks to this collaboration with robots, people will enjoy a greater ability to balance both their professional and personal life, as well as to spend more time innovating, developing new products and services, and making more informed decisions. Robotics will have a decisive impact on the consumer sector, not only in product development but also in production, storage, and distribution phases. However, to achieve this harmonious future, it will be necessary to maintain a degree of ethical control and responsibility in the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, paying close attention to the advice given by influential persons in the technological world—such as Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk—who have raised the importance of keeping powerful technology under control to ensure it is not allowed to turn against humankind.

It is well said that automation potential must be distinguished from automation adoption. While a high number of tasks might be technically automatable, the adoption of particular technologies will depend on a complex interplay of factors including the cost of manpower; levels of education and skilling; legal frameworks for innovation; manpower protection policies; the availability of supporting infrastructure; and the social and cultural norms that shape attitudes towards technological change and innovation. Getting ahead of these coming challenges will mean investing in the sector’s capacities to become more agile and adaptive to new changes in their ecosystems. Getting ahead of the Fourth Industrial Revolution also means deepening foresight and critical understanding of the impact of digitization and emerging technologies through knowledge sharing. The last two centuries of human society have produced unprecedented technologies, but we still need society independent and companies to keep our industrial revolutions human-centered.

Our enterprises should stay ahead of the curve in understanding the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution, identifying future challenges and possibilities and ensuring tailored governance whereas business intelligence is required to understand the impact of the fourth industrial revolution to find out the side effects of the technology along with its benefit in business. The fourth industrial revolution will add unpredictability to the future work, requiring people’s opportunities and well-being to be localized and re-examined.

Corporate professionals suggest to do emphasis on digitalization of businesses and cyber security to face the challenges. Company or chartered secretaries as corporate professionals stressed the need for a minimum standard of compliance in governance and believes that audits with special emphasis to secretarial audit should be responsibly carried out by the recognized and authorized professionals as well. Company/chartered secretaries also believe that global corporate governance standards should be maintained in-house and for clients to ensure sustainability of business values with a comment that artificial intelligence would make it easy to do business, so skilled professionals would be highly sought after.

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Fellow Member of the Institute