On November 13, 2018, Mansfield Chair Professor BAI Chong-En, Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) participated in a dialogue themed "Digital Economy and Talent Development" with Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. Professor CHEN Yubo, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM, hosted the event.
Professor CHEN Yubo introduced Jeff at the beginning of the dialogue. Since 2017, the Center for Internet Development and Governance of Tsinghua SEM has cooperated with LinkedIn China on "China's Digital Economy Talent", "Labor Market and Talent Cultivation in the Era of AI", "Regional Economic Integration in the Yangtze River Delta" and "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area". Developing insights from talent perspective, supporting the formulation of regional economic and talent policies. So far, the cooperation has achieved excellent results in serving China's economic digital transformation and the strategy of "Talented Persons Powering the Nation".
After the opening, Dean BAI Chong-En and Jeff started the dialogue, covered issues ranging from digital transformation, employment and reskilling.
Digital Transformation
The topic begins with digital transformation. When asked how LinkedIn can contribute to the global digital transformation, Jeff said, "When it comes to digital transformation, many people will talk about the uncertainties brought by new technologies. For example, statistics show that in the next 10 to 15 years, there will be 400 million to 800 million jobs displaced on the global basis due to the development of new technologies, which will have a significant impact on the global workforce. The position of LinkedIn is to help people answer many challenging questions, such as where new jobs will be, what jobs are most in-demand, and what skills are required in terms of the in-demand jobs. LinkedIn can provide data with higher education institutions and training institutions, so as to help the global labor force to reskill and adapt to the changes brought by the digital transformation.
Later, Professor CHEN Yubo asked Dean BAI Chong-en about the uniqueness of China's digital transformation. Dean BAI said that the digital transformation provided China a very unique opportunity. He took the retail industry as an example to further explain, "In the past, many regions of China, especially in suburbs, shopping for many consumers is very inconvenient, they often take a long time to find shopping malls, supermarkets, but the emergence of online shopping, helped people solve these problems. In terms of digital economy, China may have not developed the most cutting-edge technologies, but in helping consumers, China has done a very great job.
Employment and Reskilling
Speaking about employment and reskilling in the context of digital economy, Jeff said, "According to the data of the LinkedIn, people with coding skills are generally needed globally, such as AI, software development, mobile development, etc., but the skills with the greatest gap are not those mentioned above, it is interpersonal skills like communications and leadership. When it comes to future of employment, Jeff believes that some basic skills are very important for the professionals, such as Excel, PPT, presentation skills, etc., because these skills are essential for the reskilling.
Dean BAI Chong-En also expressed his agreement of Jeff's viewpoint. He took a scarf company as an example to elaborate: the scarves made by this company for each customer are customized, they communicate with customers in advance, understand customer needs, and provide customized services for them. This kind of communication makes them less likely to be replaced in the era of rapid evolvement of science and technology.
Education and Talent Cultivation from the Global Perspective
When discussing the topic of education and talent cultivation, both participants shared their views from the global perspective. Dean BAI said that both general education and vocational education are very important, but at present many countries still pay more attention to general education and neglect vocational education, the organic combination of the two can better benefit talents and enterprises. Jeff also expressed his agreement with Dean BAI. He elaborated with an example of German vocational education reform. "In Germany, vocational education schools, local governments and some large enterprises have started the cooperation, 16-year-old high school students can choose to opt out of high school courses and accept vocational education. After 2-3 years of vocational skills training, they can choose to return to general education at the age of 18, with this, they can not only acquire the practical skills needed by enterprises, but also have the opportunity to continue to receive general education, thereby continuously improving their comprehensive ability. This organic combination of general education and vocational education can make talents be better competitive in the evolving labor market.
In the Q&A session after the dialogue, Jeff interacted with the students on the topics of "employment of blue-collar workers", "skills development" and "career path advices". After the activity, Jeff also had in-depth exchanges and discussions with the guests and audiences.
A Dialogue between Dean BAI Chong-En and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner
Jeff Weiner is the CEO of LinkedIn, the world's largest and most powerful network of professionals. he joined the company in December 2008, and under his leadership, LinkedIn has grown from 338 to over 12,000 employees in 30 offices around the world, grown its membership base from 33 million to more than 590 million members, and increased its revenue from $78 million to more than $5 billion. Before LinkedIn, Jeff was an executive in residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Previously, Jeff served as executive vice president of Yahoo!'s Network Division, a business that generated $3 billion in annual revenue with more than 3,000 employees, and was responsible for many of the company's consumer-facing products.
