Mobile World Congress 2018: Is Mobile Creating a Better Future?

The theme for this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) is “Creating a Better Future”. It is an interesting choice considering last year’s theme was “The Next Element” and 2016’s was “Mobile is Everything”.

It is almost like MWC is refocusing on a positive story and anticipating a backlash against always-on, automated and an Artificial Intelligence-driven world. Users have accepted that “Mobile is Everything” and now we need to explore the positive aspect of that. If more is everywhere and networked communications are part of everything we experience, users need to understand where the benefits are.

The theme is really fitting for an industry that is on the verge of a data explosion, growing Smart Cities and AI removing the human element wherever possible. Smart City data can be seen as a form of surveillance capitalism while AI will definitely impact jobs.

I believe these technologies can have a long and lasting positive effect on how people live day-to-day. The Mobile industry just needs to ensure that they are explaining and communicating the “better living” story while also delivering a better future.

Silicon Valley technology giants have always been very good at positioning for-profit businesses as forces for good but this has come into question. For the first time since it began reporting user numbers, Facebook’s North American daily users decreased by 1 million between Q3 and Q4. It is thought that negative press around its influence in the US election and use as a propaganda tool caused the drop.

Is Facebook creating a better future? I don’t know but the cracks that it is showing today should be a warning to the Mobile industry, where its technology is often seen as inherently good. There’s an opportunity for organisations across the entire Mobile ecosystem to demonstrate their value and explain how they have a positive influence on the world.

There are a couple simple ways organisations across the Mobile industry can directly communicate how they are creating a better future:

• Telling a Positive Story in the Long-Term – Organisations should use content and communications to consistently explain the value it is creating across the industry. Customers, partners and internal audiences need to understand the role the organisation plays and why it matters to the world around it. Even the most techy businesses can differentiate themselves in this area. It is simple to lace this into blog content, case studies, CEO statements, keynote speeches and create a track record of caring about more than quarterly earnings.

• Doing More than Signing a Cheque– A lot of companies in the Mobile industry see Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an opportunity to make a donation to a charity. CSR can be a lot more than signing a cheque. It can be used to volunteer time, resource or give back in more direct ways that demonstrate real value for real people. I see CSR as an opportunity to do good but also tell a bigger story and have a sustainable social impact.

• Showing You Understand the Ecosystem – Even the smallest B2B networking equipment maker should communicate who it is and why it matters to the entire Mobile ecosystem. Corporate messaging should also explain how a solution impacts the value chain through to end users and society overall. This needs to be clear for both internal and external communications. An organisation might matter more than you think.

• Valuing People – Even in an era of automation and AI, people need to be part of how an organisation talks about itself. From customer services through to engineering, people shape the business. Too often B2B and deep tech companies talk about their products or patents rather than the people that created them. If you understand how a business innovates and the people behind it, you can invest in that business’s technology in the long term.

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