ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Uber chaos brings humanity to depersonalised tech
Technology firms and innovators are waking up to the realisation that technology advances should not be made at the expense of people and values
Technology firms and innovators are waking up to the realisation that technology advances should not be made at the expense of people and values. The resignation this week of Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick under shareholder and public pressure drew a line in the sand for Silicon Valley: on this side of the line, human values still matter, so cross over to the dark side of staff abuse and law-breaking at your peril. Clearly, it is not only about how much friction you reduce in the lives of customers - the heart of disruptive technology - but also of your own employees. It was fitting, then, that one of the key messages from last week's SuccessConnect 2017 conference in London, hosted by SAP SuccessFactors, spoke directly to the chaos at Uber. "Any CEO that doesn't put people first is leading a failed cause," said SAP CEO Bill McDermott in a closing keynote address. "In the next five years, you'll see more chief human resources officers become CEOs than in the prior 50 years,...
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