Striving to help societies operationalize emerging technologies
How does your personal and professional background relate to your work on these initiatives?
Keith: Considering my background in defense and national security, there's a natural segue from thinking about the profound problems that the international order faces to thinking about digital democracy. When I was involved with the Integrated Review, we talked about the key metrics of international competitiveness for the 21st Century being a nation’s ability to commercialize, operationalize, and manage emerging technologies. At Fujitsu, we’re helping the UK and Japan, two of the world's most important democracies, succeed in that goal.
On a personal level, I have a PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford in experimental psychology, so I approach technology from an unusual angle. My thesis was on the psychology of surveillance: what does it mean to live in a world where we're watched more closely than ever before? In what kind of world can we thrive as human beings? That world needs an awful lot of protections. That’s how my academic background fits into what we’re doing.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about?
Keith: I'm earning an executive MBA at Cambridge now, and I'm really excited about how we translate that and the rest of my academic background into a business benefit. I feel like I'm learning something new every day. For me, it’s all about learning with smart people from around the world. If I'm honest, my excitement isn’t just about technology. I’m excited about working with really smart people who help me build new skills related to developing technology faster and more effectively.
How does it feel to work on projects that have the potential to significantly impact society?
No matter how exciting it might be, in a way, my work feels like every job. It has all those human frustrations. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed. You have meetings. There’s just a human reality to it.
At the same time, there's that little bit of extra motivation to get up and engage with everything. It’s all about trying to keep a balance between being excited and evangelistic about what this could achieve and the prosaic day-to-day activities. You need to get people to speak to each other and match the right technologies to the right solutions. So, my work is profoundly exciting but also has all the normal human elements of getting big organizations to work on profound problems.
