Page 34 - Harvard Business Review (November-December, 2017)

SPOTLIGHT ONE COMPANY’S EXPERIENCE WITH AR

One

Company’s

Experience

with AR

Guido Jouret joined the Swiss facing. The first is the aging of the skilled
industrial giant ABB in 2016, after workforce. In the oil and gas industry, for
spending more than two decades example, there was a massive employment
in technology leadership roles at surge in the 1960s and 1970s and then a
hiring lull. As a result, you now have a
Cisco and Nokia. As chief digital lot of older workers retiring, taking skills
officer, he helps lead the $34 billion and institutional knowledge with them.
company’s technology strategy A similar dynamic is happening in many
in green power, transportation, other industries. Second, we have a lot
robotics, and automation in over 100 more machines in remote locations, and we
want to be able to monitor, operate, and fix
A CONVERSATION WITH countries, and he champions its AR those machines with fewer people on-site.
initiatives. Here, Jouret describes
ABB’S CHIEF DIGITAL AR’s transformative potential—and And the third challenge is the growing
OFFICER, GUIDO JOURET why many businesses underestimate complexity of new technologies, which
require new technical skills.
BY GARDINER MORSE the change that’s coming.
What pilots are you doing?
Why is ABB interested in augmented In our pulp and paper business, we’re
reality? working on AR that will allow us to service
AR can help address three macroeconomic the equipment of remote customers without
challenges that we—and our customers—are sending in technicians. Today a customer

60 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2017