At the opening reception on Thursday night, Hans Vestberg delivered a moving speech on the power of telecommunications and technology, and every human's right to basic communications. Below is a transcription of his 11 minute speech that was transcribed from an audio recording. Thank you Mr. Vestberg for sharing your innovative ideas with our case competitors!
Hello everyone, it is a great honor for Ericsson to head up this Case competition.
Ericsson has several reasons for doing this:
1. We believe telecommunications is a very important part of society.
2. When we think about Ericsson and the future we think about great things.
3. You will help develop part of our strategy, and be part of our research and development for this strategy by participating in this competition.
First, a couple of words about Ericsson. We serve in more than 175 countries, with approximately 90,000 employees, $35 billion dollars, and it is an extraordinary company. We do everything from equipment to services. It’s a broad company. But most importantly, we were founded 135 years ago.
The founder, Lars Magnus Ericsson, once said, “Communication is a basic human need.” I wish he could be here today to see just how relevant that statement really is.
We believe that our industry is part of the 5th technology revolution. 5.3 billion people have a mobile phone, and it took 25 years to build this infrastructure. In 5 years from now we expect there to be 8 billion mobile subscriptions, more than people on earth. That is of great importance because that technology will be so broadly distributed throughout the world.
The first phase of a technology revolution is to build technology and distribute it. The second phase is to use that technology to apply solutions. Leaders in the first phase are not necessarily leaders in the 2nd phase. Google is an example of this.
Ericsson sees a networked society emerging in the next 10-15 years. Everything that can be connected will be connected. The biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity is a transformation by using mobility. It’s going to have a huge impact on society. The major challenges on earth will be addressed through this. For example, in health care you can bring solutions out by using mobility broadband.
This will also help reduce CO2 emissions, using less power. We believe that we can impact 20-50% of CO2 emissions. An example of this is connecting cars, telling them which route they should take so they don’t have to give off more emissions than necessary. We can impact the industry. We will have a huge responsibility in the telecommunications industry to work with other industries, and show them that we can have an impact.
Ericsson’s vision is, by 2020, there will be 50 billion connected network devices. What you’re about to be part of is the 2nd phase of this technology revolution. To use the mobility broadband because that’s going to bring down the barriers in the world and bring a lot of good.
In 2050 the population will have tripled. That means that the infrastructure will need to increase by three times as well, three times as many roads and schools, etc. Technology will enable this process, because it is no longer physically impossible to triple the infrastructure of this earth.
Today, 85% of the population has mobile coverage. In five years this will be over 90%. That means that anyone on this earth can access internet, and we never thought about that when we invented our technology.
Moving into a networked society, it will be moved by technology and telecommunication because that is what’s going to move the industries. Again, we will impact businesses for sure.
I hope you will plan for the next 24 hours well, given the experience I would not plan for too much sleep (laughter). I think this experience will bring out the best in your work. And working in a team, will bring out the best of the group not the individual. And that’s the task we have at Ericsson too, to bring out the best of 90,000 employees every day.
Thank you very much.
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