Vincent Roche, President and CEO of Analog Devices: Rethink, Reconstruct and Re-Elevate

In 2020, as we enter a new decade, we are faced with an unprecedented event.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on people's lives. The impact on the local economy and our industry is still unknown, but the changes brought about by the pandemic are already apparent.

Vincent Roche, President and CEO, Analog Devices

Under the epidemic, the demand for application innovation in many industries is unprecedentedly strong. In order to achieve a healthier, more environmentally friendly and more connected future, technology plays a vital role. For example, the epidemic has exposed the fragility of the medical and health system. How to make ordinary people affordable and easily accessible to medical resources and maintain a healthy life will become the new focus and demand of the global medical and health industry. Information technology can help the medical system shift its focus from treatment to prevention, making it possible to monitor and transmit clinical-level data at any time, so that doctors can master this data no matter where they are, without the need for patients to be hospitalized.

In the field of industrial automation, the epidemic has promoted the popularization of robotics technology, such as automated robots joining the ranks of front-line personnel to fight the epidemic together. As companies and governments look for new contactless solutions, robots and automation are becoming increasingly important.

Driven by home office, online education, retail and telemedicine, the demand for high-quality communication technology has surged, accelerating the deployment of more advanced communication systems such as 5G and high-speed optical communications. In the future, high-bandwidth service quality will become increasingly important.

During the pandemic, blue skies and clean air have returned to us. When the pandemic was at its worst, offices were empty, air travel slowed down, and commuting was reduced, all of which reduced pollution emissions and made the sky cleaner. I can't help but wonder, as an industry leader, how can we maintain economic prosperity while better protecting the earth? Perhaps innovative technologies such as smart buildings, personnel sensing, and energy efficiency improvements will help us achieve our goal of better managing the earth's environment.

Three driving forces, electrification, digitalization and automation, are driving the transformation of the market. We are experiencing the third wave of transformation in the field of information and communication technology, characterized by ubiquitous sensing and connectivity.

As we all know, data plays an increasingly important role in all industries, and what will be more valuable in the future is the insights generated by data. The value of data has shifted from data delivery to creating data insights, and data mining and analysis have become the new focus.

Looking ahead, it is crucial to meet the rapidly changing needs of customers through anticipation and agile response. For example, the popularization of simulation technology and the application of digital twins make it possible to shorten product development and product lifecycles; an open source-based ecosystem approach is increasingly necessary to fully utilize the advantages of combined innovation.

Standing in today, the future is already here! The epidemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation and has had a profound impact on the industry, economy and human society. In order to cope with the new challenges brought about by these changes, all industry insiders will need to redefine and reshape themselves.

There is a very appropriate word that can answer how to face the era we are in now, and that is "anti-fragility".

One of my favorite writers, Nicholas Taleb, wrote a book, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, which introduces the lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis. In his book, Taleb wrote: When randomness takes root, chaos becomes a new order.

He calls certain systems in nature, business, and society that thrive under stress “antifragile,” another word for durability. Antifragile systems are able to continually create, learn, and adapt faster than their environment.

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic pushes us forward, and a new era of ecosystem collaboration requires us to adapt and remain resilient. We have the opportunity to learn and collaborate in new ways, enabling ecosystem-wide innovation, and change is driving every company in the industry to explore and try new partnerships. These partnerships, along with innovative products and services, will redefine business and technology in the years to come .