Comments on the Strategy of the Federal Council for an Information Society in Switzerland

© Laurent Haug 2015 3
Comments on the Strategy of the  
Federal Council for an Information Society in Switzerland
29 April 2015 | Laurent Haug | hello@laurenthaug.com

© Laurent Haug 2015
Times have changed, government is moving
28

Yet challenges remain
Approximate word count on Strategy of the Federal
Council for an Information Society in Switzerland
2012.pdf
risks (x18)
crime/cybercrime (x6)
danger (x5)
potential (x4)
gains (x3)
opportunity (x3)
innovative (x3)
advantage (x1)
29

What can I tell you in 20m that would be useful?
Suggestions from my partial, subjective experience
30

4 axis
Create a religion of innovation
Foster entrepreneurship
Improve hard and soft infrastructure
Better politics
31

I. Create a religion of innovation
32

Chief Innovation Watch Officer
33

Detect and discuss upcoming shifts
before they happen
Change is an opportunity if you anticipate it, a threat if you don’t
34

Detect the emerging
industries of the future
Drones, artificial intelligence, biotech, medtech, gene
therapies, big data, wearables, blockchain, etc.
Invest in and develop those
verticals
35

Develop a culture of
anticipation instead of reaction
36

In my experience, innovation watch
is the only way to change a culture!
37

My recipe to change the culture of large organizations:
Daily inputs on trends
Weekly summaries
Quarterly presentations
38

Raise awareness about the opportunities
39

People only see the threats 
(often imaginary)
40

Phaedrus, c. 370 B.C.
”If we depend on writing, we will lose the ability
to remember anything”
Seneca (4-65 A.D.)
“distringit librorum multitudo”
(The abundance of books is a distraction.)
Barnaby Rich (1580-1613)
One of the diseases of this age is the multiplicity of
books; they doth so overcharge the world that tit is
not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that
is every day hatched and brought forth into the
world. (1613)
"Superficial, sudden, unsifted, too fast for the truth, must be all telegraphic intelligence. Does it not render the
popular mind too fast for the truth? Ten days bring us the mails from Europe. What need is there for the scraps of
news in ten minutes? How trivial and paltry is the telegraphic column?"
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/
In the early days of the telephone, people were told that the
device was creating a "race of left-eared people—that is, of
people who hear better with the left than with the right
ear,”
The radio, in 1924, was debatably a nuisance that produced
"loud and unnecessary noise."
Then came television, which was dangerous because it was
too spellbinding. Oh, and because, as the Times reported in
1937, people reported being spied on through their TV sets.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-
people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/

While change is an opportunity
42

© Laurent Haug 2015 43http://qz.com/383109/the-music-industry-has-hit-its-rock-bottom/
Small players became big in < 10y

Always possible to disrupt established players

“The business plans of the next 10,000 startups
are easy to forecast: take anything and add AI.”
Kevin Kelly
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/future-of-artificial-intelligence/

Turn citizen from consumers to actors
46

We (barely) teach our kids how to use technology.
We should teach them how to master technology.
47

What we should be teaching kids:
Coding / how machines think
Design (visual, information, UX)
Data analytics
Digital communication
Information research
Networking / collaboration
Lean startup / business model generation
48

From one shot education to
continuous education.
49

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. 
Alvin Toffler
50

II. Foster entrepreneurship

Why? Because entrepreneurs
invent the future
52

No candle-maker has become a bulb manufacturer.
No carriage-maker has become a car producer.
The post office did not invent email
Marc Giget

Why? Because entrepreneurs
create long term leadership
54

Make entrepreneurship easier
56

Still 20k (3k) to create a sarl
57

Cheaper offices, shorter leases
58

We need a better ecosystem (mentors,
investors, buyers, incubators, conferences,
media) so that startups don’t leave the country
59

We need better core services (zenefits,
zenpayroll, expensify, harvest, indinero, xero)
60

Make entrepreneurship safer
61

Swiss safety net applies to those who
take less risks (employees), not those
who take risks (entrepreneurs)
62

Closing a company still a nightmare
(and you have to keep the files for 10y!)
63

System designed for the worst
case scenarios, not the best ones
64

Concentrate support
65

Create a venture capital
fund with the state’s money
66

Concentrate more resources
on good projects
67

It’s not about quantity.
We only need one Swiss unicorn.
68

Let bad projects die.
69

III. Improve hard and soft infrastructure
70

Switzerland is paralysed
71

Switzerland rewards immobilism (cf rents)
72

Impossible to build in cities
73

No landmark projects.
We need big, crazy, exciting projects
74

Accelerate deployment of basic services
75

Wifi, fiber, 5G, etc
76

Government as a platform
77

Force organizations to open their data
78

Every organization should
have an API by 2016.
79

Create a government SDK
80

All basic govt services online (and automated),
ready to be built on
81

Just look at what Apple did with the iPhone
82

IV. Better politics
83

Work permits & naturalisation
84

Yesterday ---> Today
85

I was trained at UNIL and kicked out of the country.
I paid 560/semester for my studies.
The government way paying 120’000/y for me.
86

Give an automatic work permit to foreign students
87

Create work permit for investors
88

Create work permit for entrepreneurs
89

Create work permit for exited entrepreneurs
90

Create “magic words” that equal work permit:
Facebook, Google, Amazon, “Data analyst”,
regardless of country of origin
91

Facilitate access to CH passport
93

Give Swiss citizenship to anyone who created 5+ jobs

Count entrepreneurship years as double

Stop concentrating on multinationals
97

Linear 20th-century corporations will be
supplanted by small, nimble teams that can
impact a billion people in a dematerialised,
demonetised, information-driven world.
Peter Diamandis, Singularity University
98

Whatsapp: 55 employees, 800M users
99

Mojang (Minecraft): 47 employees, 100M+ players
100

AirBNB: 1600 employees, 800’000 listings
101

Give fiscal incentive to those lean
21st century organizations
102

Government as a startup
103

Name CDO / CIO / CTO
104

Use lean and agile methodologies
105

Adapt faster to the new realities
106

/ 4 axis
Create a religion of innovation
Foster entrepreneurship
Improve hard and soft infrastructure
Better politics
107

1 missing point in current strategy
Sovereignty (hard / soft / data)
108

Policy-makers have to choose between
protecting the past from the future, or
protecting the future from the past.
Tim O’Reilly
109

hello@laurenthaug.com
+41 78 696 64 80
@laurenthaug

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