12 Thought Leadership Articles

12THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
ARTICLES
BYBRUNOSCHENK
EDITION2022

TOPICSONSUSTAINABILITY,ECONOMICS,
BUSINESS,TECHNOLOGYAND
EVERYTHINGINBETWEEN.
S
BYBRUNOSCHENK
CEO,ATOSAG,SWITZERLAND

EDITORIAL
The year 2022 has almost come to a
close, and what a year it has been! We
continue to
fi
nd ourselves on a
rollercoaster ride, with Covid, the war in
Ukraine and climate change all playing a
big in
fl
uence and having an impact on
both our personal and professional lives.
With such a fast-paced, ever-changing
world around us, it’s now more important
than ever to take time to pause and re
fl
ect
on things, especially before making any
big decisions both in business or outside
of work.
In this booklet, you will
fi
nd my own re
fl
ections from this year on topics such as
change management, sustainability, business innovation, and sports agility. I’ve
also re
fl
ected on IT-related subjects such as cybercrime, High Performance
Computing and big data. I hope that these opinion articles can spark your
interest, bring you some value and trigger your own ideas. I would be delighted
if you share your own re
fl
ections and thoughts on some of these topics with me
or with others around you. Connect with me on LinkedIn with the QR code
below.
Wishing you a smoother journey for 2023, good health and continued
happiness, and of course I am looking forward to our ongoing collaboration –
despite the turbulence of the past months, the future remains bright!
Bruno Schenk
December 2022

CONTENT
1. Staying competitive: A long, winding and steep road
2. What can business learn from sports?
3. The race against cybercrime
4. It’s time to wake up…
5. The data opportunity: What do we need to drive innovation?
6. Make your idea succeed
7. The dance with the clouds
8. Future skills: It’s a case of give and take!
9. The technology opportunity
10. The fear of change
11. Powerful computing, beyond our imagination
12. Better customer experience: A risk worth taking!

1
STAYINGCOMPETITIVE:ALONG,WINDING
ANDSTEEPROAD
“INNOVATIONANDDISRUPTIONSOUND
EASY,BUTTHEYARENOT”
The quest for competitiveness in the business world is never ending. Whether
you’re a leader or a follower, your position is not assured unless you remain
competitive. To give an example, look at the top 10 global companies by
revenue in 1985 – go forward 20 years, and only
fi
ve remain in that list. As of
last year, the top 10 now only have one company that was there in 1985 –
Walmart – while all the others are new entrants. Many of these new leaders are
serving necessities such as service and platform providers or energy and
transportation, but even these giant multinationals have experienced tough
competition that has forced them to adapt – often rapidly – to stay ahead of the
chasing pack.
THOUGHTFULAGILITY
Becoming and staying competitive is the sum of many parts and one of the
fi
rst
key pillars is agility. It is a word that is often used in the context of business, but
its meaning is nuanced and dependent on where within the organization it is
uttered. Agility can become shorthand for several attributes: How quickly you

can adapt products or bring new lines to market to meet customer demand?
Are you able to rapidly retool your production lines to meet challenges such as
component shortages or supplier disruption? How quickly can you ful
fi
l orders,
or scale output?
Even though it encompasses many areas, agility is not an absolute function: It is
relative to your competition, and there are historic reminders of what happens
when a business fails to adapt quickly to change.
Without wanting to kick such a great brand, Kodak is unfortunately the poster
child for missing out on agility. As the leader in photographic
fi
lm and cameras,
Kodak failed to adapt to the rise of digital photography. Its decline is well
chronicled elsewhere, but its failure to see the changing market, new
technology and – critically – its leadership’s ability to enact change, was
detrimental to the business.
Yet agility needs to be tempered by an appreciation of the inherent value within
the business and the fundamental requirement of the customer. Consider the
luxury watch market. In simple terms, you can argue that a Rolex, Montblanc,
Hublot, Tissot – or whatever your preferred brand – is just about telling the
time. Simple logic might say that, just like the Kodak with its analogue
fi
lm and
camera, a digital timepiece is simply better! However, the precision engineered
luxury watch could be considered art, heirloom, or status symbol. Its value to
loyal customers goes far beyond its function, and the value of the respective
brands surpasses the ability to accurately tell time.
Consequently, the luxury watch market is still worth more than the digital
equivalent. And even though a few years back some were predicting the end of
classic watches, it hasn’t materialized yet. Instead, many luxury watchmakers
have made a smart move in turning to hybrid watches. These are not fully
digital, much cheaper and still stylish (one can argue about that). Compared to
their fully analogue counterparts, hybrid watches tend to be bought by younger
people. Then, once you’re hooked on the brand, you may eventually fancy a
luxury watch – after all, less is often more on the wrist.
TIMINGMATTERS
Alongside agility we need to consider the notion of being
fi
rst to market. This is
often considered a great strength – and it is – but soundbites such as “Always
be a leader not a follower!” or “If you are not
fi
rst, you’re last!” are misleading in
the real world. When it comes to internet browsers, mobile device operating
systems and web searches, Google is the clear, undisputed market leader.
However, the tech giant was not
fi
rst to market in any of these areas. When it

launched Android in 2008, there had been a dozen or so mobile operating
systems during the preceding 15 years from rivals including Microsoft, Nokia,
Palm and Apple. As it had done with its other products, the innovation was in its
business model. It created a ‘free’ market enabler for eager third-party
manufacturers keen to break into an emerging market that would ultimately
build an ecosystem to support its core advertising-led revenue streams.
Being
fi
rst is not always essential for competitiveness. Being able to capitalize
on your core strength and purpose, however, is vital. Whether its luxury
watches or smart operating systems, understanding why your customers
choose you rather than a competitor is essential.
STRATEGYOVERTACTIC
And this brings us to the third entry in our list, strategy, which can also be
described as “mission” or “vision”. For a business to be successful it needs to
understand its purpose and strategy, and its ability to create value-adding
products and services. That is not to say that strategy can’t adapt over time
because of a rival or technological change – but the core of it should be almost
timeless.
For too long, Kodak’s strategy centered around helping its customers use
photographic
fi
lm, rather than helping its customers get access to photography.
Google’s mission statement is to “[…] organize the world's information and make

it universally accessible and useful.” Atos Switzerland’s vision and mission
statement revolves around “[…] Accelerating digital journeys, putting
sustainability, value & experience creation at the heart, or in short designing the
future of the information space” and “[…]to be a recognized leader on the Swiss
Market with all the core o
ff
erings”.
Having a strategy, vision and overarching mission makes it easier to align
disparate business activities and stay competitive. One of the key parts of this
way of thinking is being critical of yourself and recognizing where you have
strengths, weaknesses, and where partnerships can help you to align with your
overall goal.
Unbiased analysis of yourself and your business can be a painful process. We
all like to think of ourselves as perfect (wink!), but critical thinking is vital. If your
Net Promoter scores are declining –
fi
nd out why! If a rival is using a di
ff
erent
manufacturing process, what are the bene
fi
ts? If sta
ff
turnover is rising, what is
the underlying reason? These critical thinking examples are all tactics to carry
out, but the goal should align with helping you deliver against your strategy.
There are obviously more areas than just agility, timing and strategy, and these
three pillars are weighted depending on where you are within your respective
markets. Just remember; staying competitive is a continual journey of self-
improvement. You don’t always have to be the pioneer, but you do need to
understand what your inherent value is to your customers – and have a suitable
strategy to help guide you along the road.

2
WHATCANBUSINESSLEARNFROM
SPORT?
“GAMEON”
There are many analogies between the worlds of sports and business. Both are
activities that are tiring yet rewarding. It starts with a vision, a plan, discipline,
training and adjustments, if your plan is not working out as anticipated or
desired. A team captain or coach and a CEO must make critical decisions that
will have a major impact on the result. And, winning the next big deal or a
championship seems like the only goal – although victory is not an absolute but
rather a relative term in business. Millions of people around the world are
addicted to sports and hundreds of thousands are competing against each
other at local or global events in order to win.
Apart from that, sports is also a big business: According to our recent report,
the global sports market is worth around $190 bn. Even with the slight dent due
to the pandemic, it is experiencing strong growth as new technology such as
lower cost TV production methods and over-the-top (OTT) of the internet
content distribution empowers smaller clubs and niche sports to grow
audiences. Gami
fi
cation also found its place in this big business area providing
endless services and platforms to connect fans and supporters. Apps are often
used to create transparent data on trends, results, or experiences at real time
speed. Like many, I often pick a benchmark goal from sports tracking apps like
Strava, Zwift or Rouvy to both improve performance results and have fun along

the way. Business like sports is highly competitive in the boardroom or on the
fi
eld, road or track. Rules that ensure fair play in a competition, like the
regulations to ensure lawful business, are vital for both. Unfortunately, both
fi
elds have instances when rules have been bent and even broken. Yet, having
more and more data available helps catch cheaters more quickly and
encourages fair play.
MINDSET,HEADLEADSHEART&TRUST
But perhaps the most import similarity lies in the mindset of athletes and
businesspeople. I’m sure many people reading this article will have been to a
corporate event or seen an after-dinner speaker from a sporting background; a
coach or player recounting stories of success, achievement and victory
interspersed with motivational anecdotes about fortitude, persistence, and
mental strength. Look at the face of a long-distance runner in the
fi
nal 200
meters, or the leader towards the end of a Tour de France stage as the pack

starts to close – the body is at its limit, but the mind is willing this athlete
forward.
Yet this mental strength is also a group trait: Winning teams in football, rugby or
cricket may have superstar players but if the weaker links break, it is almost
impossible to win against a motivated and equally skilled opponent. As in
business, your manufacturing processes might be state of the art and your
logistics processes super-e
ffi
cient. But if your sales force is lacking training or
your marketing e
ff
orts are badly targeted, your business will su
ff
er.
The main mental challenge is dealing with both victories and defeats – after all,
in sports and business there is only one winner. Sounds harsh, but to quote the
Swiss Racing Academy, “you need to learn to fail”; You may have been ahead
of the chasing group for 99.9 percent of the race and still get passed on the
fi
nal stretch. Losing a race on the home stretch is tough and sometimes very
frustrating. But in the end, it’s about what you learn during the race. If there’s a
true appetite to win, one day you will. It requires strong discipline, dedication,
and sharp focus – be it in sports or in business.
There is another power that is key to every success and holds high performing
teams together. Trust. Trust is connecting relationships by enabling people to
live and work together, creating psychological safety and often creating the
desired culture. Trust in a coach, leader or other players, allows organizations
and communities to thrive. That’s why the better we trust our leaders, our family
members, our friends and our co-workers or sport team mates, the better the
results. It's not always easy to have trust, it's very much upon every individual
and it is also culture driven, but we always feel when trust is not there or is lost.
Without trust every purpose and mission is at great danger, because our
energy, engagement and performance e
ff
orts are fast declining.
THETECHEDGE
Another fundamental similarity between both
fi
elds is technology. We perceive
it every day in business through digital transformation and the increasingly
critical part played by data. At the same time, sports has also been in a lockstep
technological revolution. Just look at cycling: In the 1960s, the average weight
of a bicycle wining the Tour to France was around 9 kilogram. Yet in the late
1990s, weights started to plummet, and in 2003, Lance Armstrong won the
competition with a bike weighting a crazy 6.35 kilogram.
Although weight is just one factor, this technological arms race was, in the view
of some, negatively impacting the sport. The dispute prompted the Union
Cyclist International (UCI) to introduce a weight limit of 6.8 kilogram in 2004
that remains in force today. Similar issues exist in motor racing, where the

engineering side of the sport can have a huge impact on victory. Today, the
new battleground for sports technology and the wider business world is data.
Technology is a fantastic enabler, making everything around and within sports
and business easier, faster and very often safer. Alongside this, other future
topics like sustainability, cloudi
fi
cation or cybersecurity keep gaining traction –
with great bene
fi
ts for all parties involved.
For instance, digital twins (which I describe as a virtual representation that
serves as the real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process) have
already found their way into sports: In the 2021 Tour de France, one team
digitized their rides in real time. The constant collection of data resulted in
various bene
fi
ts like predicting trends and guiding stakeholders with
information, something that was never possible before.
DATA-SPORTS-CENTRIC
By now, we all recognize the value of data in business. Sales data. Customer
data. Supply side data. Every metric o
ff
ers potential value to a business, if
insights gleaned from it allow better decision making. In sports, the importance
of data is growing at a similar rate. Take Formula 1, where the average car has
around 300 sensors, capturing over 4,000 parameters within a typical race
while generating around 7 GB of telemetry data. All this information is valuable
both during the race and even more so for the engineering e
ff
orts behind the
scenes.
But it's not just motor sports anymore! Technologies such as Abbott’s
Supersapiens insert a tiny
fi
lament into your arm that monitors your blood
glucose in real time. This feeds advanced biometric software and visualizations
and helps performance athletes manage aspects like diet, energy and training
regimes. The patch links to smartphones as well as other mobile devices and is
endorsed by numerous athletes including Eliud Kipchoge, an Olympic Marathon
winner and world record holder. However, the use of data during an event is
still a contentious issue. Although accepted in F1 – often on the grounds of
safety, would it be welcomed onto a football pitch to allow a manager to check
a player’s condition? Or for rule enforcement with sensors on balls and players
to determine each and every o
ff
side decision?
Many years back I learned about the theory of the transparent customer. Fast
forward to now, that theory has turned into reality. In sports we’ll soon reach a
similar level, promising even more transparency and gami
fi
cation. But at that
point, is it still sports? I strongly believe data privacy should still play an integral
part in any kind of sports.

IoT is advancing so quickly that these could be real issues for governing bodies
across dozens of sports over the next couple of years. However, the area
a
ff
ected today is training: with the ability to digitally analyze everything from a
pro golfer's swing to a cyclist's seating position, data is enabling new training
methods and re
fi
ning existing best practices to give athletes the tiny
advantages that can lead to victory.
THINK,ACT,RELAX
Yet, data by itself cannot guarantee success. Data cannot instill courage and
commitment, because ‘knowing is not the same as doing’ – another key lesson
that business can take from sports. Collecting vast amounts of data about your
business, rivals, markets and trends is only useful if you can turn that data into
action that results in a bene
fi
t. And sometimes that comes with both risk and
reward. Do you make the easy pass back to an open mid
fi
elder, or try and beat
the defender and take a long shot from the edge of the penalty area? In sports,
sometimes we must rely on instincts born from experience. The same is true in
business where data can help you validate what your instinct says is the right
course of action.
In terms of agility, we can also compare a software development sprint or the
program increment method, shorter timeframes, faster adaptions possible and
aiming at always creating the best valuable product – or in sports, adapting
your training plans. Emotions and positivity are the elements required for agility
and
fl
exibility.
It's clear that business and sports can learn from each other. Both rely on skill,
training and increasingly technology as leaders and teams bene
fi
t more from
insightful data. However, the one area that I strongly believe is undervalued is
recognizing that top performers, whether they are stars of track and
fi
eld – or
amazing salespeople and engineers – are not machines. As business
community, we also need to help ourselves and our teams to re
fl
ect, relax,
recharge and refuel. Unhappy or unengaged people tend to underperform.
Motivation through sports can also build team unity and push people to new
heights.
FINALTHOUGHTS
If you haven’t guessed already, cycling is the sport that helps me to do just that.
It allows me to re
fl
ect on challenges, opportunities, or to simply recharge and
clear my head. And as a business leader, I urge you all to think about how
sports can help you both at work and in life. Whether it’s hitting a ball or
pushing a pedal, or even just helping your sta
ff
to gain access to sporting
facilities – I can guarantee you that the bene
fi
ts will be there, and you might
aim higher and higher, as the results are very much motivating. Ride on!

3
THERACEAGAINSTCYBERCRIME
“CYBERCRIMEISLIKETOMANDJERRY,
IT’SABOUTSURVIVING”
Living in Switzerland is wonderful: We have some of the cleanest air in Europe,
low crime and unemployment and we’re the third happiest country in the world.
We may not think of ourselves as the prime target of organized crime – but
according to the Network for Investigative Support in the Fight against
Cybercrime (NEDIK), 2,000 Swiss businesses could have been the victim of
ransomware in 2021 alone.
NEDIK, an organization set up by the Conference of Cantonal Police
Commanders of Switzerland (CCPCS) to help tackle cybercrime, suggests
attacks across the country have risen dramatically over the last
fi
ve years.
There are several contributing factors including the relative a
ffl
uence of the
Swiss economy and our government recommendation that
fi
rms pay ransoms –
with some experts estimating that half of all victims actually do pay up.
KEEPITREAL
This submissive attitude may potentially lead to more attacks, but I’m not going
to get into whether paying ransoms is a good idea (too much of a hot potato).
What I will say is that as an industry, Atos and others in the cybersecurity space

are not just accepting this situation but are actively
fi
ghting back. So, what can
companies do to stay ahead of the attacks?
First, we need an honest starting position and that means accepting that no
organization is immune to attack. If the US National Security Agency (NSA), the
world’s largest and best funded intelligence agency, can get hacked and have
thousands of top-secret documents stolen, then I doubt that any single
technology can make you entirely hacker-proof.
RISKYBUSINESS
Instead, good cybersecurity uses a combination of well thought out controls,
skilled security sta
ff
and informed employees that are given the right tools to
mitigate risk themselves. This last element is critical and should resonate with
every business leader. Cybersecurity – like other parts of a business from
manufacturing to supply chain – is fundamentally about reducing risk and
putting in place strategies to negate damage if the worst should happen.
When we talk about risk, we always need to consider what it means to the
overall business. Let’s use the example of Garmin. As a keen cyclist,
Garmin is a brand I absolutely love – but in 2020, it was hacked and held to
hostage with ransomware, which meant tens of millions of users of its online
services were impacted by the downtime. If this situation had continued for just
a month, I am certain that Garmin, a company with a current market
capitalization of around $20bn, would have gone out of business. So, the
fi
rm
allegedly paid an estimated $10 million ransom and managed to get everything
back up and running within a few weeks. However, the longer-term brand
damage could be considered as much higher.
For any business, the risk assessment needs to consider the worst-case
scenario and build mitigation strategies that recognize what would happen if
core systems were breached and incapacitated. “Is there a recovery plan in
place?” and “have you tested this plan against the worst-case scenario?” should
be the two questions that the board must ask and that must be answered by
the CIO and the company risk management board. The Governance of how you
measure, test and anticipate situations will become vital. Like with any event, if
you face something unexpected and you are not prepared for it, then panic,
chaos and frustration often occurs – which in turn confuses the recovery team
and blocks rational and “stress-free” thinking. Having a script, a “war room”
ready etc. sounds so obvious, but most companies do not have it – and that
lost time to get organized, can later decide how big your damage is. Having a
single business, without any links to supply chains, productions or partners is
today not easily possible – therefore those entities need to be part of your
Business Continuity Planning and you should be part of theirs. Lately, we have

discovered during several events how little it takes to take down
fi
rms, slow
down processes or simply block logistics. Of course, this is not always linked
with cybersecurity, but it might trigger the dark side of the net and in turn
provoke a more di
ffi
cult situation such as hacking chains.
THEHUMANELEMENT
However, whether you’re an international brand like Garmin or a mid-market
Swiss company, one of the biggest challenges you face is not technology but
rather people. People are both the best defense and often the biggest potential
liability when it comes to cybersecurity. Finding and retaining skilled
cybersecurity specialists is a well-known issue, and although we are slowly
bringing more graduates with the right skills into the labor market, the threat
landscape is changing rapidly – which means that we need to continually invest
in training. But it’s crucial to remember that training and education can’t just be
focused on security teams. If you look at the data from in
fl
uential publications
such as the Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR), it’s clear that human error
and lack of awareness are still in the top three causes of a breach. Many high-
pro
fi
le breaches start with inexperienced users doing something that
compromises security and unintentionally leaves the door open to hackers.
However, if you haven’t educated these users on cybersecurity best practices
proactively – a process which needs to happen continuously due to the
changing threat landscape – it’s hard to be surprised at the outcome.
Therefore, regular awareness trainings, phishing tests and social engineering

stories are needed to make users, partners and shareholders aware of how
little it takes to enter your
fi
rm because of human error.
GETTINGPRESCRIPTIVE
The last two key areas are technology and process. These twins are intrinsically
linked due to the nature of cyberattacks that predominately exploit technical or
process weaknesses to breach defenses and establish a foothold inside an
organization’s IT infrastructure.
As such, technology to prevent and detect threats needs to be married to well-
designed processes to create a secure operating environment. There are many
ways to do this and our teams at Atos work to a philosophy called Prescriptive
Security. In simple terms, it is based on having threat intelligence that covers
the entire attack surface in real time. This includes internal environments such
as Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT), as well as an
organization's external environment, up to and including the Internet of Things
(IoT).
This continual monitoring generates activity data which is sent to HPC-powered
analytics engines to detect persistent malicious activity – which in turn instructs
security components (and these get more complex day by day with connected
devices…) in the environment it controls to adapt to the threats. This is a very
top-level description and in the technical area, it combines elements of
automated systems. The systems utilizing AI & ML, spot the subtle signals of an
attack and automate prescriptive responses and generate alerts for skilled
analysts within our Security Operation Centers (SOC) in order to assist with
human led investigation.
While I'm not a practicing cybersecurity expert myself, I do work with some of
the best in the business – and what they tell me is that best practice methods
like Prescriptive Security reduce risk as far as possible. Even if we can’t
eliminate it completely, we can certainly reduce the threat level to a point that
both the CIO and board can accept.
Make them work for it! We need to have a realistic long-term view about
cybersecurity as it is a challenge that will not go away anytime soon. Just
consider these two statistics: The
fi
rst is from the US, where 60 percent of bank
robbers get arrested. Compare that to a UK study that found that less than 1
percent of cybercriminals are ever caught. Not surprisingly, bank robberies are
falling as crooks and instead turn to cybercrime with the chance of a multi-
million-dollar payout and little chance of capture. The complexity of
fi
nding and
arresting cybercriminals is mired in a geopolitical and jurisdictional web that I’m
not going to try and untangle. The result is that all we can do is keeping
fi
ght
back, reducing risk and ensuring that our own business has the best defenses
to keep the never-ending tide of cyberattacks at bay.

4
IT’STIMETOWAKEUP…
“CANYOUHEARTHEECO?”
You know when the alarm clock goes o
ff
in the morning, and you instinctively
reach for the snooze button? Well, society has been collectively pressing
snooze for too long on the issue of climate change. Many of us have
recognized from the beginning of the industrial revolution, when cities started
to become engulfed by smog, that fossil fuels are harmful to health. As
ecological science progressed over the last century, clearer evidence has
emerged. Acid rain, melting ice caps and rising temperatures have resulted in
extreme weather - including severe
fl
oods and droughts, and these cannot be
just coincidences. Individually and collectively, many of us have pressed
snooze. Yet, the last decade has seen more action than at any time in history as
we now realize that we must awake from our slumber. We must get up and
meet the challenge of climate change head on, as individual, family, team or
organization.
In the journey to net-zero there are leaders and exemplars that highlight that
change is possible. And when you take a longer-term strategic view, this
change is essential for commercial success.
The changes in the business landscape need to start at the top, with
management boards setting clear vision, strategies and putting the resources in
place to make changes that have a quantitative impact on an organization’s
sustainability and CO2 footprint.

PLANTHENACT!
But this goes beyond just internal realignment. It must also push outwards to
how suppliers work with customers and how service providers, like Atos,
structure their o
ff
erings for the market. Perhaps even realigning or creating new
business units that actively tackle climate change.
Nearly 20 years ago, EcoAct, an international climate consultancy and project
developer, launched with a simple aim: to help businesses and organizations
succeed in their climate ambitions. The 250 strong team which spans Europe,
the Americas and Africa has helped organizations to simplify the challenges
and complexities involved in delivering sustainable business solutions for a low
carbon world.
In fact, we worked with EcoAct for several years and not only are they
established experts, but they are also extremely passionate about what they
do. In 2020, they became part of Atos, with the aim of rapidly expanding what
they have already achieved via organic growth to a wider international
audience. EcoAct are just part of a massive shift that is taking place within the
industry which recognizes that wanting to change is great, but having the skills,
tools and data to do so is possibly one of the most di
ffi
cult challenges when
facing the journey to net-zero.
These changes need careful planning, but if they are well executed, they can
deliver transformative results with vast bene
fi
ts. And crucially, these changes
can be both bene
fi
cial for the planet and businesses alike. To give just one
example, consider supply chains: how do you make everything from
smartphones to tractors, raw materials, components, and manufacturing
capacity needs work in unison to deliver goods that are cost competitive with
the right level of quality for the consumer? Many supply chains are wasteful,
with elements transported needlessly across borders which often results in a
high carbon footprint. Redesigning supply chains or even switching to localized
production may well o
ff
er signi
fi
cant cost and carbon e
ffi
ciencies.
PRACTICALSTEPS
Sometimes, the change can be as simple as how you power your supply chain.
I love the example of Scottish Water, a supplier of water and sewerage services
across Scotland. The company has managed to cut its annual operational
carbon footprint by approximately 45 percent over the last 15 years – even
while delivering higher service levels, growth in demand and improved
statutory compliance. How? By investing in green technologies to power their
business, including anaerobic digestion, cutting edge photo voltaic and heat
from wastewater technologies. This type of forward-thinking approach should

become the template for others across the water industry and other essential
utilities.
Businesses also need to think about how they can help their customers in
practical ways. For example, are the yearly product updates sustainable?
Customers tend to lower the hardware lifecycle year by year – the collision and
perhaps not aligned priority in the board rooms are part of the root cause.
Shareholders want better returns, faster and wider, and yet the willingness to
compromise is rare. To give another example, Atos has expanded its leasing
businesses based around multiyear contracts that mean equipment is recycled
or refurbished and put back into use – rather than
fi
lling up land
fi
lls to kick start
another wasteful cycle of manufacturing.
Scottish Water, EcoAct and other pioneers are not alone, millions of businesses
across the globe are also doing their bit to reach net-zero. Yet, we also need
action on an individual level. For example, when you buy your next car why not
go electric or hybrid? When you throw away rubbish, make sure you sperate
and recycle ( I admit, even I have some improvement potential here). When you
work with suppliers, choose those that are enacting real green policies rather
than just spouting words. Support brands that are quanti
fi
ably making active
changes. I would also urge you all to promote the steps you take. This last part
is crucial, and we should all be proud of our participation in helping to reach
net-zero. It is not boastful to want to tell everybody we can, because it will
inspire our peers to act.
CRADLETOCRADLE(C2C),WHAT?
When I did my online studies at
the London Business School
about sustainability and corporate
social responsibility some months
back, I learned more about the
C2C idea.
The C2C methodology was
developed in 2001 by Michael
Braungart and William
McDonough and it has been used
as stimulus in giving sustainability
a broader purpose - especially in
products, buildings and production
systems. The C2C system obviously drives sustainability to the next level, all
materials in products need to be clean and reusable. C2C methodology builds

on the concept that “waste = food”, meaning that what is considered waste can
become material for new products.
I liked this model a lot, as this emphasizes a very strong correlation towards the
ongoing eco system changes, where businesses also take a holistic, new and
often disruptive steps – I think the two models together can make a very strong
impact, not always for the shareholders bene
fi
t, but for our planet and next for
the next generations.
DISRUPTIONANDPOPULARISM
But let’s not kid ourselves. Decarbonization is not going to be easy. And along
the way, disruptive events and technologies may help or hinder. Clean fusion,
large-scale o
ff
shore wind and solar fuels are all at various stages of
development and may well give us a way to accelerate our journey to net-zero,
while also providing the energy that society needs to advance. The other
challenge is political. We must collectively accept that governments are likely to
bring forward policies that will be unpopular, but probably vital for us to meet
our climate goals. For example, the EU carbon tax set to kick in by 2026, and
the ban on the sale of new diesel cars by 2035, might be unpopular with
lobbyist and motorist but are probably needed to reach our aims. As citizens,
we must recognize that being a popular politician or a practical one is
dependent on how voters react to proposed policies. We all need to do our bit
at home, at work and at the ballot box.
Also, the sports industry is undergoing massive changes, from green and
sustainable clothes (such as running shoes made out of beans), towards
transformed travelling behaviors. There is often a material advantage, for
example using a carbon bike for cycling is much more durable – the shift is
there and athletes enjoy the nature to the upmost.
A few
fi
nal words on the pandemic: while acknowledging and respecting this
global tragedy, pictures of New Delhi which show before and during lock down
is staggering. With massively reduced tra
ffi
c and economic activity, this majestic
city of 30 million people is transformed! I can highly recommend you watch on
Apple TV+ the movie “The Year Earth Changed,” an uplifting wildlife
documentary narrated by David Attenborough, heralding Earth Day 2021. This
is a stark reminder of what will happen if we fail to act – and what is possible if
we can
fi
nd a way to get to net-zero… The clock is ticking!

5
THEDATAOPPORTUNITY:WHATDOWE
NEEDTODRIVEINNOVATION?
“GOTYOURDATA,BUTKNOWWHAT?”
Data has been compared to oil as another incredibly valuable commodity. But
unlike the
fi
nite deposits of oil, data is seemingly limitless. It’s created,
compared, transmitted, collected and utilized for billions of activities that
happen every second of the day. Buying a latte in a Starbucks will likely
generate hundreds of individual data points, many of which will be stored
forever somewhere.
Data is vital for our modern society and its collection and storage is now
routine, although
fi
nding new ways to utilize data e
ff
ectively is probably trailing
behind its acquisition. However, there are great examples everywhere. Think
about watching Net
fl
ix: you enjoy a great show, and the service gives you a set
of recommendations based on the analyzed data of your viewing habits. Or
when you start browsing in an online store for a particular product and your
social feeds and YouTube adverts start to serve you related ads for rival
products. This targeting and pro
fi
ling is a result of data capture and analysis.
Although those adverts might annoy some people, I prefer them to be relevant
to me rather than random.
Also, not such a long time ago, data was rather a legacy: it proved a
fi
nancial
statement, sales numbers or simply created statistics from events of the past.

Of course, humans have always wanted to use the data available to their
bene
fi
t, for example for reading trends and for predicting a potential outcome.
However, what has happened in the last decade with data and ability to read it
real time so it can predict our next step purchases is worrying, but also
fascinating at the same time.
THERISEOFREALTIMEANALYTICS
In the business world, data is crucial. The ERP systems that form the hub of
many businesses are an incredible source of insight that can shape and
improve the entire supply chain through better utilization gleaned from data.
This is barely a new concept, but recent advances in areas such as machine
learning and arti
fi
cial intelligence are now able to unlock new insights that were
di
ffi
cult to uncover for human analysts alone.
Advanced data analytics can help to spot everything from fraudulent activity
through to new market opportunities. There is a famous example of a high-
street retailer that used sales data through its loyalty card to determine that
men buying nappies late at night were also more likely to buy beer. As an
experiment, they moved a less popular brand of beer on special o
ff
er to the
end of the nappy isle and saw a dramatic surge in sales.
It's clear that the internet age has accelerated the desire to collect data. And in
many ways, it has allowed the insights gleaned from data to move from
historical analyses to more real time models. Take for example in-car navigation
systems that can adapt the journey based on current tra
ffi
c patterns,
information about delays, road closures or accidents.
This move towards real time data analytics is profound and has unlocked new
business models with examples such as Uber – a business that dynamically
shifts what it charges customers and is prepared to pay its drivers based on the
real time data of supply, demand, location, time, day and even weather.
PRIVACYCONCERNS
Even with all the positive bene
fi
ts of our increasingly data driven society, there
are still many valid concerns. A major fear is the loss of privacy. This is not just
concern over the Orwellian scenario of 1984, where the state knows everything
about us. Today, consumers are increasingly worried about how data can be
used to manipulate politics, advertising, news coverage, and how it will shape
our society – not to mention cyberattacks and ransomware.

Although machine learning and arti
fi
cial intelligence are generally considered
positive, some people fear that autonomous, near sentient machines might start
to replace the need for human workers. This is a valid concern, but I would
argue that the same fears were present during the industrial revolution and at
the start of the digital age. And yes, there will be changes. When I started work
many years ago, a
fi
ling clerk attending to rows of
fi
ling cabinets was a full-time
job. Today, we rely on databases supported by query languages. The
fi
ling
clerks of yesteryear are gone and now doing more productive and meaningful
tasks.
We are also seeing a slight retraction of data collection in response to the
privacy concerns of citizens. GDPR was a big step in making organizations gain
consent before user data could be collected and shared, and its impact has
potentially helped to put data sovereignty back into the hands of people.
Another example is the imminent end of support for third party cookies in most
major browsers used to browse the Internet. Cookies are used to identify and
track individuals as they travel around the web and their revocation should
make online privacy a little better.
The ethical questions around data collection and use are ones driven by
societies own cost-bene
fi
t calculation. Do we want free email, cloud storage,
maps and search in exchange for being served personalized adverts? Can I live
without them? Or would I rather pay for these services without seeing any ads?
This is a conundrum that will likely be down to individual preference and
economic value.
DATAINNOVATIONATATOS
We are all continually making decisions in our personal lives about our
relationship with data. However, when speaking with our enterprise customers,
it becomes clear that many are actively engaged in developing a uni
fi
ed data
strategy that spans their entire organization. There are many elements to this
approach and no two businesses are the same – although according to my
colleague Parveen Jaswal, Head of Intelligent Automation, Analytics and AI, a
couple of common themes come up in many of his conversations with
customers: democratization and prediction.
Democratization centers around the idea of getting data out of silos – such as
knowledge buried in a single department or proprietary system - and making it
available in a digestible form to others across the organization. This can be as
simple as real-time sales data being shared with marketing teams to allow for
more e
ff
ective online advertising spend. Or teams dealing with product repairs,
feed their data into R&D to help build more reliable products.

Prediction then uses aggregated data from multiple sources to build better
forecasts that in turn help with business functions such as stock purchasing,
just in time (JIT) production, logistics and a whole host of aligned activities. This
is another area for real innovation through the use of Arti
fi
cial Intelligence (AI)
that can sift through vast amounts of seemingly disparate data to
fi
nd patterns
and trends that even the best analyst would have di
ffi
culty discerning. This
process is being accelerated through the next generation of hybrid computing
platforms such as Atos BullSequana, using advanced techniques combining
CPUs and GPUs with AI or even quantum computing hardware that can deliver
a real competitive edge for both traditional scienti
fi
c simulation work
fl
ows and
big data problems.
SHOULDWEWORRYORBEEXITEDABOUTWHATTHEFUTUREBRINGS?
Data privacy and ownership remains a battle. To keep the control on what's
stored, recorded or monitored remains a valid discussion. I'm con
fi
dent, for
example, that I have lost my own data ownership and control. Why? Looking at
all the thousands of actions and interactions happening every day with my
connected devices such as my car, my phone, my computers, the GPS system
and so on it's simply impossible to follow up and take control - some say that
Google, Alexa and Siri are listening anyway to what we do. That might be true,
however, we are anyway very transparent users - if we want it or not. In this
regard, I gave up on the battle to keep control and instead am trying to take the
positive bene
fi
ts out of it - nevertheless, I remain curious and careful, sharing
only the necessary data, to the extent I can in
fl
uence.
FINALWORDS
There is one critical point I want to make: Data is not the new oil or gold. Having
lots of it does not make you instantly wealthy. But data has the potential to be
transformative. No matter the industry or country, what we need is the courage
to explore. We need to be brave and experiment with new ways of structuring,
analyzing and generating insights. We also need to think about how we destroy
data after it is no longer useful – in a parallel with the notion of sustainability –
instead of wasting huge amounts of energy and space creating data centers to
store lakes of data we don’t really need.
As I discussed in a previous article on the role of data in sport, it’s not a black
and white discussion. How we choose to use data and the bene
fi
ts it can
bestow are a matter of choice. However, doing nothing and letting your own
data lake grow without purpose is a missed opportunity. What’s the point of
having a wonderful lake if you never get to swim in it?

6
PRACTICALMAGIC:HOWTODRIVE
INNOVATIONINTOYOURORGANIZATION
“MAKEYOURIDEASUCCEED”
It’s a bit like a magician performing in a packed theatre. We know that
something wonderful is happening, and behind the scenes there has been a
great deal of skill and technical engineering to create the illusion – but it’s still
amazing. Yet unlike a stage act, innovation can’t be conjured up on demand. It’s
a blend of science, insight, trial and error and even luck that turns a spark of an
idea into something tangible that can drive business success.
INNOVATIONWECAN’TIGNORE
In June 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a phone with no keyboard.
This truly disrupted the experience and value (much more functionality in one
device) from traditional mobile phone manufacturer. The music industry also
has something to say here, vinyl, tapes, CDs, data
fi
les… and now streaming. It’s
not only a shift in the way we hear music, it’s also a massive shift in getting
access to music you would never have had a chance in a shop to discover.
Also, the link directly to the artist, can be a wonderful addition and value. I
could go on with examples but you get my point. However, we should also
keep in mind that there were many innovations that failed, were too early on
the market or the competition simply overtook by mirroring or enhancing
features.

CUSTOMEREXPERIENCEMATTERS
Innovation is often touted as a key ingredient in overcoming the challenges
faced by companies and even nations. These challenges can be broadly placed
into two buckets, namely the demand and supply side. Let’s look at demand
fi
rst and recognize that we live in a world where consumer expectations are at
an all-time high. To give one example, ecommerce websites clearly o
ff
er a
convenient way for people to buy goods and services, saving time and money.
Yet now, just being online is not enough, as a survey last year by Digital.com
found that 1 in 2 visitors abandon a website that takes more than 6 seconds to
load.
The modern consumer in the smartphone and app age expects not just rapid
service but also new features. Snapchat, for example, grew its business from
the innovation of letting users instantly exchange pictures and videos (i.e.
“snaps”) that disappear once viewed. It grew massively and quickly until rival
social platforms started o
ff
ering similar capabilities. Today, key business apps -
like Microsoft O
ffi
ce that in earlier decades had a 3-to-5-year product refresh
cycle - are now delivered as SaaS products with feature updates measured in
just a few weeks or months. Once the genie of delivering fast and constant
updates to products and services is out of the bottle, it is impossible to get it
back in again!
SUPPLYSIDECONUNDRUM
So, on one hand, we are in a constant surge to meet and exceed customer
expectations. And on the other hand, the supply side of any business is
innovating. In simple terms, how do I make my products better or less
expensive without sacri
fi
cing brand quality? How can they become more
durable (or, if you believe the conspiracy stories about lightbulbs) – less
durable? How do we operate in a way that makes us more pro
fi
table or less
susceptible to market shocks? Innovating on the supply side is just as important
as demand – and in an ideal world, should work together to deliver success.
For example, delivering a service with a 99.9999% (six nines!) uptime equates
to 30 seconds of downtime a year. Yet, if you can o
ff
er a service for half the
cost that delivers 99.99% (four nines) – is the 52 minutes a year of downtime
acceptable? This idea can be mapped to product lines. Is it worth investing in
expensive precision engineering and robotics to reduce a product’s failure
rates, or do you just accept them to be able to produce lower-cost products?
It’s a tough call, but some customers might well prefer this seemingly counter-
intuitive innovation to gain more value. Developing a Minimum Viable Product
(MVP) service or product is here often the answer - if for being faster on the

market, but also getting faster feedback on features, quality and functionalities.
There is room in the market for both a beautifully engineered Montblanc
Meisterstück and a disposable Bic pen!
KEEPTHEFIREBURNING
In many ways, supply and demand are the wood for the
fi
re. People and culture
are the sparks that light the
fl
ame. There are so many inspirational origin stories
for businesses that started with a few people in a garage. From Cupertino to
Mumbai, great ideas often revolve around the combination of technical insight,
deep understanding of a particular market and either a new or dramatically
improved idea. The world has always had start-ups. Look at the automotive
industry as the combustion engine emerged at the turn of the century. By the
1920s, there were several hundred car manufacturers around the world.
Innovative ideas were rife and some stuck, like the seat belt, while others, like a
steering tiller similar to that of a sailing ship, were quickly discarded. Innovation
is often trial and error and for every success, there will be failures. The key is
making sure that ideas are scrutinized and challenged in a respectful but
constructive way by a diverse set of people. Some ideas that sound unfeasible
to a salesperson might be perfectly viable to a software engineer – and vice-
versa. It is also a myth that only start-ups can build a culture of innovation.
Using Atos as an example, we are creating so-called innovation boards as part
of our customer contract governance, where we look at new features or

capabilities that have emerged within the market during the life of a contract.
So, we go back to customers (1-2 times a year) and drive the discussion around
how this new capability can o
ff
er potential bene
fi
ts and explore ways to adapt
the contract for the here and now. This means speaking to customers more
often, as well as with a mindset of continual and immediate improvement –
rather than just waiting for the clock to reset. Here we often see the shift, that
the traditional IT business is
fi
nally really on almost every body, or at least the
business agenda. Radical ‘outside in’ views can help, looking end to end at you
current and future ecosystems and bridging the gap between them in order to
provide continuous value to your customers.
INNOVATIONASACULTURALMINDSET
Maturing innovation within the organization requires leadership support, proper
organizational design and good innovation practices. I am sometimes asked,
“But where does innovation start?” – Monday morning at 8. I don’t mean to be
glib, but the truth is that innovation is not a stop-start activity; it is constant and
immediate and, for it to be baked into organizational culture, needs constant
cultivation like a garden. And that does not just mean the o
ffi
ce of the CTO or
structured innovation teams, but also down to the sta
ff
that meet clients, design
and create products and operational teams that deliver products to the market.
Instilling culture can start with very practical steps, such as having a mechanism
for ideas to be submitted from anywhere in the company. These submissions
are collated and assessed by multi-departmental teams on a quarterly basis,
with the best ideas given a budget to run as proof-of-concept and evaluated.
This bottom-up approach is incredibly valuable.
Another key point to make is to look beyond your own walls. Sometimes, being
so close to an organization as a leader can make it di
ffi
cult to think from an
outsider’s perspective. Whether that external viewpoint is from a customer,
analyst or even the opinion of a rival, having the humility to listen to and
evaluate unfamiliar perspectives about how you can do things di
ff
erently or
more innovatively can be invaluable.
The last thing to say is that not every innovation will be feasible or deliver the
expected bene
fi
t. However, as leaders, we need to be brave enough to have
the courage to sometimes fail. That means committing an investment in time,
people, research and development that we must accept may not always pay
o
ff
. If we don’t, we may become out of touch with our supply and demand led
challenges and ultimately become consumed by a race to the bottom as a mere
commodity.

GO,TRY,FAIL,REPEAT,SUCCEEDANDCREATE&CAPTUREVALUE!
Innovation is not easy. It’s not magic. But it is something that any business can
achieve if you are prepared to commit to the task, empower the culture within
the organization and, of course, take a few risks. The higher the willingness to
pay for your services or products, the lower the resource costs to produce
them, the more margin you have, exploring future products.

7
NAVIGATINGTHEJOURNEYBEYONDTHE
CLOUDS
“THEDANCEWITHTHECLOUDS”
There was a time, not that long ago, when the question of whether enterprises
should move to the cloud was hotly debated. Many surveys found reliability,
security, and data sovereignty fears were limiting its adoption. Some experts
suggested that the cloud was not ready for "mission critical" and was only
suitable for start-ups. And with this advice, it was the start-ups that embraced
the cloud and quickly established themselves as both innovators and leaders.
Net
fl
ix, Salesforce and tens of thousands of other pioneers proved the cloud to
be practical and bene
fi
cial – from its usage-based pricing to rapid deployment
and the ability to operate at vast scales.
Spin forward a decade and almost every large enterprise will use the cloud
somewhere within their organization. According to Gartner "more than 7
percent of organizations use multiple public cloud services today and have
plans to expand." We have moved past deciding on whether cloud adoption is a
good thing. It is. The question is now much more granular and revolves around
what needs to stay within our own data centers. What does a hybrid approach
look like? How does the cloud change my business processes? Cloud
computing might sound somewhat simplistic, but it is just using someone else's
computer. For the grey-haired amongst us, who just about remember the idea
of IBM mainframe bureaus where enterprises rented time on super computers

to run batch tasks rather than trying to deploy their own systems, the cloud is
eerily familiar. Back then, even the largest enterprises were e
ff
ectively start-ups
at the beginning of the digital age.
HYBRIDFUTURE
Today, the cloud is ubiquitous. It has changed not only how we interact with IT
but also our development and business strategy. Yet, perhaps the most
profound change is how we operate as businesses. Gartner is suggesting that
¾ of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, but the reasons as to why this has
become necessary needs decoding. Geography and politics play a big part, as
the jurisdiction of where data is created, resides and is processed is a major
consideration for multinationals that operate within the US, EU and APAC.
Resiliency is also a factor. Hyperscalers have incredibly high levels of reliability
considering the billions of transactions they handle each second. However, just
like your own laptop, from time to time, things will crash. Mitigating risk by using
a base of alternative suppliers is good business practice and as cloud adoption
has progressed, so has the corresponding risk management position.
Although the same fears over data security and privacy related to the cloud
may still bubble under the surface for some senior executives, the truth is that
any enterprise with a well-implemented cyber security posture based around its
own data center can easily extend it to the cloud. I go back to my earlier point –
"it’s just somebody else’s computer," but crucially, you use and protect it in the
way that you need to meet your operational and security requirements.
COMPETITIONFORINNOVATION
This maturing cloud market has seen the emergence of competition, which is
great for customer choice and to propel innovation forward. A great example of
this trend is Gaia-X. Often mislabeled as an EU cloud, the goal of Gaia-X is to
promote innovation through digital sovereignty. In simple terms, it aims to
establish an ecosystem in which data is made available, collated and shared in
a trustworthy environment. Users always retain sovereignty over their data
through a federated system that links many cloud service providers and users
together. In 2019, we were a co-founding member, and today over 500
organizations are involved in the project, with the
fi
rst Federation Services set
to be launched in 2022.
Gaia-X is part of a wider conversation that we are increasingly having with our
clients about the cloud journey. It started with the why and how and now it is
more about the wider strategic decisions. Many of these are focused on hybrid

use cases. In some instances, that might mean redevelopment of legacy
systems to become cloud ready. Or even leaving them alone within data
centers. Or potentially moving things out of one cloud to a di
ff
erent platform, to
reinvent as SaaS or even back into the data center. It might sound counter-
intuitive to suggest that some processes are better delivered from traditional
data centers, but when you look at the bigger picture and analyse the
operational data, this might well be the case.
FREEDOMANDFLEXIBILITY
And this is an area where we deliver immense value to our clients. We are not a
hyperscaler. We don’t have a vested interest in selling cloud – our goal is to
fi
nd out what works best for the client and help them on their own journey.
This is why, in January 2022, we completed the acquisition of Cloudreach, a
leading multi-cloud services company specializing in public cloud application
development and cloud migration. Through this acquisition, we welcome over
600 highly skilled cloud professionals to further strengthen our global cloud
expertise.
Crucially, Cloudreach brings rich global partnerships with AWS, GCP and Azure.
That recognizes that just focusing on just one hyperscaler is not bene
fi
cial for
our clients – it is about their journey, not ours. Cloudreach also further
strengthens our cloud innovation and automation with the leading cloud

planning and assessment software Cloudamize, which brings new capabilities
in cloud migration along with innovative talents in an end-to-end set of services
to help clients navigate their cloud journey.
Providing the knowledge, deep skills sets and resources to turn the potential
into a reality is why we are having so many conversations and active projects
that revolve around the cloud. Another element of that journey is subject matter
expertise, which means we understand what the core challenges are within
each sector, whether it be
fi
nance, manufacturing, retail or other verticals. Being
able to look beyond technology and into process improvement is vital for the
cloud to deliver on its potential.
THEREISNOGIANTEUROPEANHYPERSCALER-NOWWHAT?
Another area, we often face is the fact, that in Europe mainly the 3 American
hyperscaler Google, Microsoft and AWS are leading the market. They all have
their clouds in Europe, often with satellites in every country like in Switzerland.
The aim with that “local” approach is to create trust, not sharing sensitive and
regulated data outside the agreed geography. The question remains, will there
be a large European hyperscaler on day taking on the battel against or with the
giants? I think yes, but can he/she then compete enough, as the bene
fi
t of the
cloud provider goes far beyond storing data. Time will tell, interesting times
ahead of us.
And this is the
fi
nal point to make. Cloud computing is no longer a tactical
decision – it is a strategic one. However, the decisions are not
fi
xed in stone but
instead dynamically evolving processes that will shift in line with the needs of
the business and the prevailing market. Cloud is your journey, with di
ff
erent
paths and destinations, and it’s a fantastic ride! Finally, the bene
fi
ts and
fl
exibilities cloud computing is o
ff
ering, are surpassing legacy infrastructures by
far and the created innovation and value creation, can be the one element,
keeping you ahead of the competition.

8
FUTURESKILLS:IT’SACASEOFGIVEAND
TAKE!
“THEFUTURENEEDSMOREETHICAL
SKILLS,COMBINEDWITHOLDANDNEW
CREATIVEWAYS”
There has been a narrative for an awfully long time that new technology will
make workers obsolete: mechanized tractors replacing workers in the
fi
eld,
textile machines making weavers antiquated and even digital databases doing
the jobs of departments full of
fi
ling clerks. And in each case, it did. Yet, after
each event, the workforce adapted. Today, there are still a few weavers, but at
the same time there are also 28 million software developers. They are joined
by hundreds of millions of engineers, marketers, designers and other subject
matter experts within a whole host of knowledge-sector jobs that have
emerged in the wake of innovative technology. The rise of the machines did not
end employment – we adapted and evolved as we always do.
Although European unemployment over the last 20 years has hovered
between a low of 7% and a high of around 12% during the post-recession
period, employment rates are just one benchmark of the modern workplace.
Also, the world is growing, and the new generations add more work power to

the marked, with new, refreshing skills. What is potentially more interesting is
the tempo at which work and skills now operate.
Although industries across every sector have undergone signi
fi
cant
digitalization to gain e
ffi
ciency and agility, people take longer to shift from one
skill set to another. Technology has made it easier to develop and utilize
knowledge skills, but there is still a delay between demand and supply when it
comes to skilled workers. Yet, unlike a component shortage or delivery delays,
businesses can’t just throw money at the problem to solve it. Attracting,
retaining and advancing skilled sta
ff
is a multi-dimensional challenge.
It is also a challenge that can’t just be solved by employers; it requires give and
take from both sides. O
ff
ering a higher-than-average salary to attract more
potential candidates is pointless if a toxic corporate culture means they are
more likely to leave sooner than expected. Hiring lots of low-cost,
inexperienced sta
ff
might solve capacity issues, but may lead to inferior quality
of service that ultimately damages the business.
Alternatively, having great sta
ff
but not providing a career progression path
along with the necessary training means that talented people never become
the great executives and leaders that are needed to progress a business – not
for the next year but for the next decade.
However, similar challenges reside with sta
ff
. Potential employees also need to
think strategically. Having a plan or a goal is crucial for self-development and
motivation. It is also a trait that can be nurtured by progressive employers to
not just improve skills but also to help people feel empowered.
At Atos Switzerland AG, we recently entered into a partnership with the Swiss
company Hypatia GmbH and its brands Recruiting Moms & Women. With this
step, we want to promote gender diversity both within Atos and within the IT
industry as a whole. The aim is to encourage more women into our workforce
by creating suitable and more accessible working models such as job sharing,
fl
exible hours and remote working. We want to be able to give women and
mothers a chance to gain a foothold back into the world of work and create
equal opportunities for everyone. I strongly believe that having a family and a
career should be possible for everyone, and companies need to adapt now to
achieve a more equal society in the future.
INVESTINSKILLS
A great example of this approach to structured skills training is highlighted by
the Atos Corporate University, which was created to train, develop and invest in

the skills and futures of our valued employees. There are hundreds of courses
available that we believe align with where we see a need emerging based on
what we do for our clients and broader market trends. Most courses are free.
Our sta
ff
works out what courses they want to take based on a career goal,
often arrived at through mentorship guidance.
Now, there is always a risk when investing in training. The fear is that sta
ff
will
absorb the training from you and then take these new skills to move on to
another employer. And, yes, that can happen. But if companies promote other
elements such as cultural values, workplace environment and clear
progression, the bene
fi
ts far outweigh the potential downside. This reminds me
of a famous quote "The CFO asked the CEO, if we invest in our talents with
more skills, spending money and time, they might leave us soon, the CEO
responded, well, if we don't then they will stay”.
It’s hard to overstate how big a deal corporate culture is to sta
ff
. For example, a
US pre-pandemic study by the Harvard Business Review in 2017 found that
fl
exible hours and working from home were ranked #2 and #4 respectively in
the ‘The Most Desirable Employee Bene
fi
ts’ category. Today, more
fl
exible
working is seen as normal. In fact, not o
ff
ering some degree of
fl
exibility would
make it harder to recruit certain types of high-value individuals. That is the key
point: the evolution of work and skills is a highly dynamic and ever-changing
process.

We are constantly reassessing where we have gaps in skills today, where our
customers are heading and the strategic direction of our own business. We
must consider the wider economic cycle, employment and wage rates across
di
ff
erent countries as well as attitudes towards in-sourcing, co-managing and
outsourcing. At the same time, we also need to look at how innovative
technology and processes can assist workers to become more e
ffi
cient while
counterbalancing growing regulatory requirements that might require more
sta
ffi
ng capacity. Some of the decisions we make today regarding skills and
training will have a signi
fi
cant impact on our business over the next decade. I
do not envy HR directors at the moment, as their jobs have never been so
demanding!
We also need to look to younger generations to bring in new skills in our
company. Investing in young talents has never been so important than now. We
know that Gen Z are more demanding when it comes to what they expect from
their employers: better pay, diversity, mental health, more
fl
exibility and
diversity and inclusion are all important factors for them when searching for
work. They value work-life balance and salary in equal measure and are often
willing to quit if they are unsatis
fi
ed with their job. By 2025, they will account for
around 30% of the workforce, bringing with them important new skills and
ideas. It’s vital that we start adapting our company strategy now so that we can
attract these younger generations in the future.
VALUESIGNALING
As a leader, I also recognize that we need to set the values of our businesses
supporting the vision and value we want to create. This is vital, especially for a
generation of sta
ff
that increasingly wants to work for an organization that
aligns with their own ethos. The values of Atos Switzerland are de
fi
ned as:
- Give Respect – Earn Respect
- Give Trust – Earn Trust
- Give Support – Earn Support
- Take Accountability – Request Accountability
- Be Proactive – Request Proactivity
Finally, be Honest, Reliable, Authentic & Fun in what you do
Having strong and achievable values is vital if we are to meet the expectations
of our customers. We estimate that there are 100,000 IT vacancies in the Swiss
market and even though our nation ranks in the top 5 of surveys such as the
World Happiness Ranking and the Quality-of-Life Index, we still need to do
more to bring in talent and deliver on our potential.

This process needs to start with education, there are positive signs from
universities around the world to address the gender gap and encourage more
females to study subjects such as maths and IT. Atos Switzerland is a partner of
the FH Graubünden, the Hochschule Lucerne and the ZHAW. Our joint goal is
to communicate our values and the opportunities we can o
ff
er early in a
graduate’s career to help align and develop their talents armed with the
knowledge of what we know the market needs. By establishing closer links
between industry and academia, we want to build a more sustainable pathway
to bring new talent into all our workplaces.
At Atos Switzerland AG, I am proud that we have over 34 di
ff
erent nationalities
in our 500-strong workforce. With each year that passes, I look forward to
developing our workforce and company to be even more diverse, gender-
balanced, and forward-thinking. Setting a culture for value creation and
capturing.
What steps are you taking at your company to do the same?

9
THETECHNOLOGYOPPORTUNITY
“TECHNOLOGY,TECHNOLOGY,
TECHNOLOGY–BUTHOWMUCHDOWE
REALLYNEED?”
The advancement of technology is, in my view, one of the most important
aspects of our society. From stumbling out of caves to boarding trains, planes
and cars – and now autonomous vehicles – transportation is just one of a
million examples where technology has helped us excel. Healthcare, education,
agriculture and technological advancement in general are the fuels that make
us better today than we were in earlier times.
At a business level, the digital age has seen us collectively speed up every
conceivable process. Today, literally trillions of data transactions happen every
second, replacing millions of legacy manual processes that unlock new ways of
providing goods and services for the 7.7 billion people across our planet. Also,
new technology is becoming more sustainable as the energy consumption,
production processes and materials that they use are much greener and more
environmentally friendly. Increasingly, brands and companies will o
ff
er modern
fi
nancing and replacement models for products and services once they no
longer work. You might think at
fi
rst that this is all about pro
fi
t, yet it’s also
reminding us to reuse, return, recycle, refurbish and even buy less. The latest
remarkable project I have seen has come from On, a Swiss shoemaker for

runners. Two years ago I signed up for a project called “Cyclon - shoes made
out of beans, which you will never own” – and two months ago I received my
shoes, based on a subscription, with the option to get them exchanged
whenever they are broken or too worn out. ON’s idea with the Cyclon project,
is to manufacture products which are lean and green. Cradle to cradle is a
massive innovation and a big step forward – as they say: Run. Recycle. Repeat.
VALUE(ROI)FIRST,TECHNOLOGYSECOND
Before you think of me as a Luddite, let me qualify this statement by saying that
technological innovation, just like research and development, must always be
tied to a return on investment. Sometimes, that return on investment is not
immediate. And in the case of pure research, like The Large Hadron Collider
near Geneva, the gain might be a shift in our fundamental understanding of the
universe. In my view, the most important thing when it comes to technological
innovation is to think more broadly about the goal rather than the technology
needed to achieve it.
If we consider the last century, business technology investment has moved in
two big waves. The
fi
rst was the industrial revolution of physical plants such as
machinery to make things faster, better or cheaper. The second half has seen
the introduction of digitalization to help businesses improve the ways in which
they create, manage and sell goods and services. The rise of ERP platforms like
SAP and e-commerce are great examples. Yet, as we progress further into the
internet age, we are more focused on areas such as software. From intelligent
tractors ploughing the
fi
elds to ride-sharing platforms, it is the ability to gain
advantages such as agility, automation, and speed through powerful software
platforms that decides the success of so many businesses.
The bene
fi
ts of technological innovation are also highly dependent on how it is
applied. For example, in the 1990’s, most large enterprises either built or rented
large data centers to deploy servers running their core applications. If you look
at the latest data from analysts like Gartner, private data centers are declining
as more
fi
rms turn to hyperscalers o
ff
ering cloud and SaaS with the advantages
of OPEX over CAPEX, scale, resiliency and faster time to market.
STAYINGAHEADOFTHEGAME
Another answer to the question: "How much technological innovation do we
need?" might be “Just enough to keep us advancing at the pace of our peers in
the industry” – and sometimes to stay ahead of an unexpected new entrant into
the market. We all need to be open for changes or even disruptions in the

ecosystem - here probably technology, the value creation and people habits
will be changed in the most extreme way.
Take, for example, the humble taxi. Although starting with the horse-drawn
carriage, the
fi
rst gasoline-powered vehicle with a taximeter entered service in
the late 1800’s. While vehicles have gotten more comfortable and faster, the
business model has stayed roughly the same for 150 years. Yet in just 13 years,
Uber disrupted an entire industry that McKinsey estimates is worth just under
half a trillion dollars with clever software, an indigenous business model and
the ubiquity of smartphones. The traditional taxi industry failed to keep up with
technological innovation and is being forced to adapt – quickly!
This might sound like an extreme example, but it happens every day, across
hundreds of industries where intelligent investments in technology can push
one company ahead of its rivals. Whether it’s better delivery, improved
customer service, more product reliability and increasingly meeting the needs
for sustainability in a climate crisis world that is fast running out of resources.
The answer to the question of how much technology innovation we need is not
a simple one – but in essence, we need as much as we can to gain a
competitive advantage. Or potentially, enough to turn a great idea into the next
iPod, Google search, Uber, or whatever game changer comes next. Like I said
before, one of the most important aspects to consider is ensuring that whatever
is produced is more green, sustainable and reusable and it creates great value.
CHALLENGEANDADAPT
But how do we make these decisions? I would argue that it takes a lot of critical
thinking and data. It means being aware of what your industry is doing – even
cross-industry developments, such as advances in arti
fi
cial intelligence or
emerging platforms like edge computing. It might also mean gaining advice
from external sources. We have teams at Atos that do exactly that for our
customers – to challenge, advise, and often take a de
fi
ned need and use the
application of technology to deliver an outcome. But crucially, this must be
geared towards a return on investment. Whether it's
fi
nancial saving, supporting
sustainability e.g. with less power consumption, business improvement, or even
a radical idea that could change the course of your entire organization.
There is one
fi
nal ingredient: Vision. Our Chief Technology O
ffi
cer, Sophie
Proust exempli
fi
es many of these visionary qualities, and I asked her to
contribute on the concept of technological innovation:

“The use of technology in digital transformation is a journey where we have
moved from managing things (ERP), replicating the physical world (emails),
optimizing (smart cities) and now augmenting our traditional world with the
characteristics of the digital space. Digital is adding to our world a new
dimension that completely transforms our ways of operating (in a hybrid virtual/
physical world), relating (human and robotics), making business (raise of data
economy) and being (virtual expressions of our human existence). For me, there
is a race between usage and technology, one is sometimes ahead of the other,
but both are constantly pushing each other: AI has been there since the 1960s
but was enabled thanks to computing power very recently; on the other side,
take virtual medicine appointments, technology was there, but before COVID
such an experience was not acceptable. What is key for me, is to consider in
the design of technology as an approach that is driven with an ecosystem: a
lean and sustainable mindset. Research needs to continue even if use cases
are not there to sustain its application, the race between usage and technology
needs to carry on!”
Technology innovation is not a “one size
fi
ts all” baseball cap. It requires
subtlety, proper application, industry nuance and courage. The last part is
critical, as it takes courage to admit that we can always do better than we did
yesterday. Investing in new technology and being ready to adapt to new ways
of doing things is not always easy. But in the modern world, standing still is
simply not a viable option.

10
THEFEAROFCHANGE
“CHANGELEADERSHIP:HOWTODRIVE
CHANGEINYOURORGANIZATION?"
We are living in a fast-changing world – no one could have predicted the
shocking, unexpected or bizarre events which have impacted us from late 2019
until spring 2022. We have already faced many personal and business
challenges, and due to the accelerated globalization, the changing eco and
related business systems, and the
fi
ght against global warming all in parallel,
things have not been made any easier.
The Covid pandemic and the invasion in Ukraine have remained in the
headlines recently. Some events, for example, have been caused by health-
related matters, some have a political background, and many businesses,
families and individuals have been confronted with hard-hitting facts, which
have changed the way things have needed to be done - or more precisely, how
things must be done in the future.
Despite these many tragic events and losses, there is often something
constructive that we can take from these happenings. But we need to ensure
that we zoom out and look at them through a wider lens. How can humans
cope with such big events? And more importantly, how can humans set
priorities? Both in our personal and business lives, we are in an interesting, yet

quite tumultuous decade - only history can tell if we made the right decisions
and set the right priorities.
Many of us, including myself, are faced with a situation that we are not used to.
Even though I am normally super optimistic, I need to
fi
nd motivation and the
important balance for what really matters. I know that there is only so much I
can in
fl
uence and at some point I just need to accept that I need to live with
certain situations.
PERPETUALCHANGE
According to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) there have been
fi
ve global
recessions since World War II: 2020, 2009, 1991, 1982 and 1975. Each one
forced signi
fi
cant change for businesses. However, it’s not just negative events
that force change. The
fi
rst IBM PC and the creation of the world-wide web,
which bookmarked the start and the end of the 1980s, could also be
considered as world-changing events. Looking forward, advances in quantum
computing could potentially break all modern encryption technologies, forcing
a major rethink in how we conduct electronic transactions. My point is that
major changes or disruptions will continually take place and organizations that
are unable to change are extremely vulnerable.
The ability of an organization to adapt easily to changes is clearly bene
fi
cial.
Yet, how organizations adapt to this transition process is based on the
circumstances and also on the leadership at the helm – and how they enact this
change.
Change does not happen without people, and as we know, people are not
machines, thankfully. Leaders feel, dream, have passions and harbor doubts. In
his book, “Managing Transitions: Making the most out of change”, author
William Bridges articulates this well when he says: “In other words, change is
situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events,
but rather the inner reorientation and self-rede
fi
nition that you have to go
through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a
transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition
happens, the change won’t work, because it doesn’t take.” I also like the simple,
but very powerful image from William Bridges on the next page it shows the 3
phases that humans undergo while adopting change. The
fi
rst phase: letting go
is crucial, often we do not want to let go of our work, often because it's not
needed from the perspective of an individual or team. There is a fear of losing
something that we have been used to.

COMMUNICATIONANDNUDGINGARECRUCIAL
Therefore, outstanding communication, buy-in and an explanation as to why, is
essential to get to the next phase. The neutral zone is the most di
ffi
cult, and for
some this phase is short because they follow others or simply accept the
change. Others need further help and e
ff
ort to change, they need to
acknowledge the need to change and
fi
nd their own way. Help can be provided
from change agents, leaders and managers at all levels in an organization,
additional coaching and mentoring might be required. Once individuals and
teams are reaching the 3rd phase, (called the new beginning) change is visible,
and the acceptance and support of the new vision becomes accelerated.
However, having people moved in the new beginning zone, is zero guarantee
that change will happen as anticipated, or sustain after a
fi
rst quick win. Change
needs to stick and therefore we so often hear the quote “changing is a
marathon, not a sprint” – so true. Humans want to see results, they follow the
leaders, and if they do not follow the steps or behave di
ff
erently, there will be a
negative impact. Change needs time, and change is only e
ff
ective when the
communication is transparent, the vision and actions have been explained, and
the working culture allows
fl
exibility and agility.

ANOTHERPOINTOFVIEW
Recently I had the privilege to join an INSEAD executive training program,
where I met Prof. Spencer Harrison. He shared extremely valuable insights on
change, culture and corporate behaviors. Spencer outlined also very clearly
what has changed in the last decade related to change theories, methods and
approaches. His theories even partly clash with my beliefs and my
understandings in
fl
uenced by the work of Prof. John Kotter (in emeritus).
Kotter’s approach of change is rather top down, in
fl
uenced by hierarchy and
change agents, alongside his famous 8 step approach - yet its more accurate
than ever and it helps many
fi
rms on their disruptive transformations. Of course,
Kotter is adopting his change methodology also and his latest approaches and
books “That’s not how we do it here” and “Change or Accelerate” are must-
reads. Spencer, on the other hand, emphasizes the elements of agility, timing
and culture as the important ingredients for change success.
I’m not going into the detail of each professor’s work - they have studied
thousands of companies and therefore know it much better than I do. However,
we can conclude that change is also very versatile, and companies work even
in the year 2022 in very di
ff
erent ways, and therefore di
ff
erent change
approaches are very much needed.
CULTUREWINS
We all know the famous quote from a unknow source (many claim to be the
owner) saying “culture eats strategy for breakfast” – it’s so powerful, and yet
often the company’s culture is not set for change. Another wonderful quote I
learned from Spencer and want to share “Culture is like the wind. It is invisible;
yet its e
ff
ect can be seen and felt.” – Bryan Walker, Partner and Managing
Director, Ideo. Culture is another element, where change can in
fl
uence the
impact very quickly. Let’s assume that a company starts near- and o
ff
shoring
parts of its operations, this requires a solid change program, managing that
culture opportunities across the organization, including its partners.
Measurements like the well-known GPTW (Great Place To Work) organization
can give you hints about how well your culture and teamwork is being e
ff
ective
and how well teams are connected – yet a culture is nothing written down, it’s
what you feel, see and experience, every day.

WEBETTERCHANGE,BEFOREWEGETCHANGED–CANWE?
On a practical note, this means that businesses need to put in place structures
to guide transition. Think of it as the lines on a road when you change lanes -
you know where you are going to because of these markings. This information
exchange is only part of the principal. The next phase is speed of transition.
There are good and bad parts to this element which includes rapid retraining,
bringing in new people and sometimes letting go of people who do not
fi
t the
job in order to bring about the changes that need to happen. This is not
something I relish but it is a responsibility I accept. As author and academic,
Kotter stated, “Leadership is a set of processes that creates organizations in the
fi
rst place or adapts them to signi
fi
cantly changing circumstances. Leadership
de
fi
nes what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and
inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles”.
In other words, change is a given, we all know that, but often we are blocked
towards change, due the fear of losing something, rather than striving for the
opportunity.
ACCELERATECUSTOMERS
Accelerate customers is the vision we established in Switzerland; along with
very powerful values outlined in a previous article. This is a signi
fi
cant change
but exempli
fi
es this idea that the world is shifting, and we must constantly adapt
to its
fl
ow. It actually works! This year we will grow in double digits in terms of
revenue, despite Covid, a chip-shortage, and a shift in some of the industries
we do business in. As we adapt, we are better able to accelerate customers
along their own journey of change. This last point is key: we as leaders must
articulate our vision, accelerate digital journeys, and put sustainability, value
and experience creation at the heart of what we do.
Let me share another William Bridges quote I value: “We resist transition not
because we can't accept the change, but because we can't accept letting go of
that piece of ourselves that we have to give up when and because the situation
has changed.”
Moving forward, we know that we can weather any storm and ultimately adapt
– so now we must embrace transition and change and look for the
opportunities, rather than live in fear of the compromises.

Finally, I want to share another award-winning methodology from Kotter, where
he outlines the 4 core change principles;
1.MANAGEMENT+LEADERSHIP
“In order to capitalize on windows of opportunity that might open and close
quickly, the name of the game is leadership, and not just from one executive.
It’s about vision, opportunity, motivating action, and celebration – in addition to
the essential managerial processes like project management, budget reviews,
and reporting. By combining the stability and predictability anchored by
management with the speed and innovation inspired by leadership,
organizations can move faster and with more reliability.”
2.HEAD+HEART
“Data and reason underpin many good ideas. But most people won’t be
inspired to help you if you appeal to logic alone. You must also consider how
people feel – speak to the genuine and fundamental human desire to
contribute to a bigger cause, to take an organization or community into a better
future. Answer the questions burning in people’s minds: “What’s in it for me?”
and “In service of what?” Give them a reason to believe."
3.HAVETO+WANTTO
“People who feel they have the opportunity to be involved in an important
activity will volunteer to do so… in addition to their normal responsibilities. You
don’t have to hire new people; your existing people provide the energy – if you
invite them and create an environment where they feel they “get to” step
forward and act. After all, it is your people who know where the pain points are
and how to
fi
x them.”
4.SELECTFEW+DIVERSEMANY
“Certain tasks can and should be accomplished by a speci
fi
c group of experts.
But change that requires many people to do things di
ff
erently can’t sit on the
shoulders of a select few. You need more eyes to see, more brains to think, and
more hands and feet to act. More people need to be able to make change
happen – not just carry out someone else’s directives. Done right, this uncovers
leaders at all levels of the organization – not just the usual suspects.”
The “we” always wins. It’s a matter of combining skill, creating that culture you
need to be successful going forward.
Change is an opportunity to some, a pain to others. Yet, based on a famous
quote “If we do not change, we will get changes, one day”.

11
POWERFULCOMPUTING,BEYONDOUR
IMAGINATION
“SOLVINGTHEUNSOLVABLE:WHYTHE
NEXTGENERATIONOFSUPERCOMPUTERS
WILLCHANGEHUMANKIND”
There is a line I love using to highlight technological advancement. It basically
says that the modern smartphone has more computing power than the
computers used by NASA to send the
fi
rst astronauts to the moon. We also, as
an industry, tend to focus on the power and scale of cloud computing as the
pinnacle of technological advancement. And although the capabilities of both
smartphones and the cloud have been transformative, the supercomputer is an
unsung (and sometimes overlooked) hero working in the background.
The last 10 years have seen a massive shift in technology under the broad
category of High-Performance Computing (HPC). Today it is used in everything,
from clinical trials, processing the massive data loads, to helping predict
weather patterns. For nearly three decades, supercomputers have been used
for high-energy physics applications that study the building blocks of the
universe. Although it rarely makes the headlines, they are critical to all kinds of

fundamental research projects, including the use of AI to
fi
nd insights from
within datasets that now run into the multi-petabytes.
The other massive shift is the rise of quantum computing: As a simplistic
description, quantum computing harnesses the properties of quantum
entanglement, where two particles link together in a certain way no matter how
far apart they are in space. These quantum mechanics can then be used to
solve problems in seconds that may take standard computers months or even
years to calculate. Almost any task with many variants – from genetic
sequencing to the encryption technologies we rely on for secure
communication – has the potential to be impacted by quantum computing.
SCALABILITYANDSUSTAINABILITY
Yet, HPC is not all about raw power. There are other factors, such as scalability
and sustainability, that are becoming increasingly important and inextricably
linked. In a world where we are building massive new data centres to house
racks and racks of virtualised servers, there is an increasing need to move
workloads onto the platforms that are most e
ffi
cient for processing. In some
instances, it will certainly be a cloud. But for other use cases, a single
supercomputer might deliver a result faster while also utilizing less physical
space and energy. Scaling and sharing computer power will be the next big
thing. Building up our own superpower that we might not use 24 hours a day
means that it’s better to share or partner up with other companies as this has
multiple bene
fi
ts: we save energy, we have better impact on the emerging
sustainability activities and most importantly: we learn how to share. If we look
at start-ups today, experimenting with a rough success ratio of 1 to 10, they
could massively bene
fi
t from supercomputer platforms. The same goes for any
established business, where new o
ff
erings require some research and
development power.
A great example of this is the new supercomputing cluster at Technische
Universität Dresden (TU) in Germany. The supercomputer will be used for data-
intensive HPC tasks and data analysis at the Center for Information Services
and High-Performance Computing (ZIH). The cluster is based on Atos’ powerful
BullSequana XH2000 architecture and will help researchers with computational
tasks in environmental research, life sciences, materials sciences and
engineering, as well as for basic research in physics, chemistry and
mathematics.
One of the goals of the project is energy e
ffi
ciency: The computer cluster uses
a world-leading solution for hot water cooling, which is used to heat the

surrounding buildings and thus makes a positive contribution to environmental
sustainability on the TU Dresden campus.
Other BullSequana systems are deployed across Europe, including at the Jülich
Supercomputing Centre (JSC), a Research Centre in Germany where the
system is used to improve the understanding of processes in the human brain.
REGIONALFOCUS
Yet, the supercomputing and quantum stories that are making headlines today
have been a major focus for Atos for many years in cooperation with both
academia and agencies within the European Union. Back in 2016, Atos
launched an ambitious program to anticipate the future of quantum computing
and to prepare for both its risks and opportunities. This commenced with the
Atos Quantum Scienti
fi
c Council, including world-renowned quantum physicists
and mathematicians such as Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, Serge Haroche.
We have also been part of the Quantum Flagship Initiative in the EU H2020
program, including several key research areas. One of the most exciting is the
AQTION project: advanced quantum computing with trapped ions to solve
scienti
fi
c and commercially interesting problems beyond the capabilities of
classical computers. Atos' contribution to the project included its powerful
programming platform, the Atos Quantum Learning Machine, within a project
led by the University of Innsbruck in a consortium to help develop a true 50-
qubit quantum accelerator. The project has made extortionary breakthroughs in
the last few years, including the development of the smallest quantum
computer based on industry standards – a step that is essential to truly
commercialising the technology for modern data centre usage.
ADDINGSPEED
Recently, I created a learning project during my ongoing INSEAD Value
program, where I decided to analyse a pharma company and outline what I see
as the big opportunity in quicker medicine development. The challenge in
creating new medicine is multi-fold and resource heavy. On top of this, the
industry is highly regulated. Nevertheless, using computer power can massively
accelerate the medicine development process, which today takes up to an
incredible 16 years to be
fi
nalized. Analysing clinical trials, pilots etc is an
expensive R&D endeavour and therefore faster, better and wider data
processing can add huge value. AI and ML will be key drivers in speeding up
the process, and utilizing technologies such as digital twin, RPA, IOT, VR/AR and
HPC and quantum computing will be essential. With these technologies,
manual work can be automized, accelerated and even eliminated, however the

use of these technologies requires a lot of training and the ability to partner
successfully with tech savvy companies.
THEDIGITALREVOLUTIONCONTINUES
The reason Atos and other industry players, along with academia and
governments, are so invested in this
fi
eld is that we all recognise we are at the
start of the digital revolution. Arti
fi
cial intelligence, breath-taking scienti
fi
c
breakthroughs in areas like energy and medical research will be powered by
our ability to analyze and make sense of vast amounts of data. How quickly we
can unlock this potential is critical.
There are also some real concerns about cybersecurity, which means
leadership in quantum computing is necessary to protect systems against new
types of cyberattacks that bypass traditional encryption by solving seemingly
unbreakable mathematical problems. The e
ff
ective use of HPC may well just
de
fi
ne the industrial and national leaders of the next decade.
Quantum computing is on a roll and is the next big thing, changing how we
approach real world problems in the future much faster, and with better
collaboration – for example
fi
nding solutions against Covid.
So, although the cloud and smartphones may get all the glory right now,
innovation is still being powered by the next generation of supercomputers.
And although we might have had more computing power in a smartphone than

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