Page 68 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

will be forced to change their approach when it comes to the creation,

revision and enforcement of regulation. In the “old world”, decision-makers
had enough time to study a specific issue and then create the necessary
response or appropriate regulatory framework. The whole process tended to
be linear and mechanistic, following a strict top-down approach. For a

variety of reasons, this is no longer possible.

With the rapid pace of change triggered by the fourth industrial revolution,

regulators are being challenged to an unprecedented degree. Today’s
political, legislative and regulatory authorities are often overtaken by
events, unable to cope with the speed of technological change and the

significance of its implications. The 24-hour news cycle puts pressure on
leaders to comment or act immediately to events, reducing the time
available for arriving at measured, principled and calibrated responses.
There is a real danger of loss-of-control over what matters, particularly in a
global system with almost 200 independent states and thousands of different

cultures and languages.

In such conditions, how can policymakers and regulators support

technological developments without stifling innovation while preserving the
interest of the consumers and the public at large? Agile governance is the
response (see Box C: Agile Governance Principles in an Age of

Disruption).

Many of the technological advances we currently see are not properly

accounted for in the current regulatory framework and might even disrupt the
social contract that governments have established with their citizens. Agile
governance means that regulators must find ways to adapt continuously to a
new, fast-changing environment by reinventing themselves to understand

better what they are regulating. To do so, governments and regulatory
agencies need to closely collaborate with business and civil society to
shape the necessary global, regional and industrial transformations.

Agile governance does not imply regulatory uncertainty, nor frenetic,
ceaseless activity on the part of policymakers. We should not make the

mistake of thinking that we are caught between two equally unpalatable
legislative frameworks – outdated but stable on one hand, or up-to-date but
volatile on the other. In the age of the fourth industrial revolution, what is
needed is not necessarily more or faster policy-making, but rather a

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