The world faces some extremely challenging times, says Andrew McAfee, because we really do not know what the path to prosperity looks like in the 21st century.

In a broad keynote address at the recent ACS Reimagination 2016 Thought Leaders' Summit, McAfee, the co-director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and principal research scientist at MIT's Sloan School of Management, spoke about how the world is changing and who are the current winners and losers.

While he was bullish about the opportunities presented to the global economy during the digital age, he sounded a note of caution regarding the turbulence coming towards us.

"Technological advancement presents challenges to some category of workers," he said, "and it's the workers in the middle who are seeing the most change."

McAfee drew on the experience of the US economy, which has seen a great hollowing out of the middle class since the turn of the century.

"The average family is now probably a little worse off since the year 2000. The age of prosperity we've experienced since the end of World War II was built on the middle class but what we're now experiencing is the decoupling of GDP and productivity from family income and employment.

A concerning trend

"The big job losses have been in the middle and we're seeing a real expression of dissatisfaction by people feeling marginalised and left out. This presents a real challenge for a healthy and democratic society and it's a trend we need to be worried about," he said.

On a more positive note, McAfee spoke of the new business titans rising in the digital age such as platform builders like Apple and Uber. He also was positive about the role of the "alpha geek" and how these types of leaders have a real vision and they bring people along for the ride. They create less hierarchical and more egalitarian organisations and they take bold chances based on evidence and data.

The upshot is these business leaders are getting more done with less and we are "walking more lightly" on the world.

Commenting on the success of Reimagination 2016, the CEO of ACS Andrew Johnson agreed rapid digitisation and automation are compounding the effects of globalisation and creating a level of dissatisfaction in communities.

"In the recent US election, the counties that Clinton won accounted for 64 per cent of the nation's economic output, while Trump's counties produced 36 per cent. Job certainty is an important factor for a country's citizens. We've seen Brexit, and in Australia some commentators are saying that agility and innovation don't resonate with the broader population." 

Johnson said much of the discussion at Reimagination 2016 revolved around the need to showcase how there can be broad-based participation in the digital future.

"Pip Marlow, managing director of Microsoft Australia, said it best when she challenged attendees to create a digital dividend rather than digital divide. This is a shared responsibility between all levels of government, business and education. Intel Australia managing director Kate Burleigh strongly advocated for ensuring our children develop skills early that will maximise their ability to add value to machines."

Focus on talent

Another highlight for Johnson was the CEO of Snapcard, Michael Dunworth, sharing his experiences of bunking down in accommodation similar to the dorm room in the movie Annie in order to break into the Silicon Valley market. 

"Michael championed being a 'cockroach', and never going away, as a key ingredient for success."

According to Johnson, we have 22,000 Australians working in tech centres in Silicon Valley and across the west coast of the US. 

"The traditional theory is that it is beneficial to send your citizens overseas to gain new experiences and skills, which they then bring back to their homeland at a later date. Given the ease of registering businesses in Delaware, the ability to attract investment in the US and short flight times between countries, this traditional view is now open for challenge. 

"We understand supply chains are global, so how do we create business models that ensure a return for Australia while opening up access to the large overseas markets? Start-ups and accelerating the growth of small businesses must be a focus."

For Johnson, one of the key themes to emerge from Reimagination 2016 was the need to focus on attracting and retaining the right talent to accelerate growth and he says there is a substantial role for government to play in this space. 

"General government spending, representing over 36 per cent of GDP, is a big influencer on the broader Australian economy. If we want to produce industries higher up the value-add chain, there is a bigger role for government to play in technology adoption and skills transfer across the citizenry.  

"As Australia moves away from a reliance on mining, we must now see our human capital as a strategic asset, critical to enabling the knowledge and digital economies of the future."