Why robots won't replace us and what does it mean to ‘care’ about business? Interview with Emma Arakelyan

Emma Arakelian's book "The Business Caring Formula" was published six years ago. Much has changed since then – in the world in general and in the business world in particular, but the main ideas and messages collected in this work are still relevant today: people should always be a priority, and it is they who should be the focus of the concept of ethical leadership.

In an interview with economist and author of the EconoMIX program Suren Parsyan, Emma Arakelyan, founder of Orion Worldvide Innovations, spoke about the ideas contained in the above-mentioned book, about why people should not be afraid that technology will replace them and deprive them of their jobs, and much more.

"Caring" for business as a family

The core concept of The Business Caring Formula revolves around the so-called “caring leadership” approach: a successful business should be built not only on profitability, but also on a deep sense of responsibility to employees, customers, and society as a whole. Arakelyan emphasizes in his book that sustainable success can be achieved through ethical leadership, creating a positive corporate culture, and promoting innovation through empathy and care.

She also writes that companies must prioritize people – from employees to customers – by creating an environment where they feel valued and motivated. The importance of balancing business goals with human-centered values ​​is also emphasized, ensuring that business growth goes hand in hand with social and ethical responsibility.

"In the book, I tried to show that caring for your own business should be the same as caring for your family members. If you want to be a good leader who leads an entire generation forward, not just your employees, every decision you make should be based on these values," said Emma Arakelyan.

Why can't robots replace us?

Emma Arakelyan believes that her concept of people-oriented leadership is also still relevant, even against the backdrop of growing demand for automation of various work processes and the ever-widening use of artificial intelligence.

Technologies, as she noted during the interview, are indeed becoming a part of our lives, but it is worth understanding that the task of these technologies is to take on various boring, repetitive actions and tasks that do not require much intellectual effort.

"Can technology replace people? I have good news for you: we are smart and social homo sapiens, we have created technology to avoid doing repetitive, boring work that requires using only a very small percentage of our brain resources. In life, we use only a little more than 15% of our brain resources. But imagine that if we delegate boring work to technology, we ourselves will be able to do more creative work that will allow us to use our brain more and more effectively," the specialist said.

As for the fear of some people losing their jobs due to developing technologies, Arakelyan said that the current situation opens up opportunities for such people to learn new skills, gain new knowledge that will allow them to do more complex work, and all this will raise our society to a higher level of development.

"We should not strive to do some work instead of robots. We must ensure the work of robots, manage them," Emma Arakelyan noted.

According to her, we live in an interesting time, when we have access to opportunities and technologies that did not exist until recently. And the next generations will be able to build on them something even more interesting and valuable, which will help create more prosperous living conditions and a more prosperous creative environment.

You can watch the full interview with Emma Arakelyan below (in Armenian):