Francisco de Lacerda: “People will remain the most important capital of every company”
In an interview with ECO, Francisco de Lacerda shares an optimistic view of the future of work in an age of robots. According to the head of COTEC and CTT, there will be jobs for more than just engineers.
Francisco de Lacerda prefers to think about the present rather than guess at what comes next. Without venturing into “futurology”, the president of COTEC Portugal says, in an interview with ECO, that people will remain the main asset of any company. This at a time when questions are being raised about the future of the labour market and the sustainability of the social security system, as robots arrive in companies. For the executive, many jobs will be destroyed in the coming years, but more new jobs will be created. All things considered, the process will add value to the economy and to society. Not least because no company escapes this transformation: “CTT has also been making its way towards automation”, noted the man who is also chief executive of Correios de Portugal.
This interview comes days before another edition of COTEC Europa, an annual initiative focused this time on the theme of Work 4.0. The international summit will bring the heads of state of Portugal, Spain and Italy to Lisbon this Wednesday.
AI translation from the Portuguese. First published in ECO on 5 February 2018.