Interviewer: Mariham Magdy
“Artificial Intelligence will provide us with unbelievable capabilities. But we need to be mindful that these need to be augmented by Human Intelligence. Imagine a world where every hiring/firing decision is made by AI. Not only this will lead to lawsuits and employee unrest, but it will also result in lower productivity.”
Mario Bojilov
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Mario Bojilov, MEngSc, CISA is the Founder and Chief Data Strategist of Meta Business Systems based in Brisbane, Australia. He has certifications in Big Data and Social Physics, introduction to Big Data with Apache, Spark, Scalable Machine Learning and also a Certified
Information Systems Auditor (CISA).
He has delivered monitoring solutions and performed risk assessment reviews for a variety of diverse organizations. In a project, he has done data mapping for 12 key business processes, such as Payroll, Finance, Procurement, Revenue Management, Treasury and etc. The project has successfully completed 95+ reports made available to the end users.
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East: Welcome Dr. Mario; it is our honour & pleasure to make this interview with your good-self.
We believe that Big Data is changing the future of Organizations as well as the future of many internal processes. You have recently led an amazing number of Big Data Analytics Master-classes world-wide, so from your rich experience to what extent non-technical professionals have obtained the required awareness about the necessity of extending their expertise to Big Data uses? Which countries do you consider developing confidently in this field?
Mario Bojilov: It’s a real pleasure to be here, Mariham! I think that all professionals, both technical and non-technical, are still at the very early stages of learning about Big Data and incorporating it into their daily workflow. Which presents an enormous opportunity for the organisations that will train large proportion of their staff, get a significant advantage over the competition and tilt the playing field in their favour. Having said that, in many organisations there is a core of data analysts/scientists/engineers who understand Big Data and can help with the early adoption. But it’s important to note that this adoption will NOT be successful without a serious involvement from the business side. Big Data is not a technical initiative.
The country that is most advanced I think is Dubai. They have a Minister of State for AI. And, this just shows how seriously they take AI, which is one of the main applications for Big Data. Two other countries with significant progress are Singapore and China.
2- HR Revolution Middle East: Can you kindly share with our readers; how to start with Big Data & who should be responsible for the initiative on organizational level?
Mario Bojilov: There are several stages in a Big Data project and each one requires different skillset and type of participant. At initiation time, the selection of a suitable sponsor is critical. And, he or she needs to be at the top or not lower than the next level in the organisational unit where the initiative is starting. The next stage is identifying the business needs/questions. And, here we need what I call the “technophobes”. These are people who don’t know much about technology but know a lot about the business. And, they will be able to focus on the business needs and benefits. Only then we need to involve people who are more technical. Firstly we need the “scary data guys/girls”. They know where different data sources reside, how to access them and how to bring them together into a data lake. Afterwards, it’s time to involve the data analysts/scientists to build and implement a solution. And, in the final stage – testing, we need to bring back our friends, “the technophobes”, who will validate the solution from a business perspective.
And, I want to emphasize again, the initiative needs a high-level sponsor and the involvement of Subject Matter Experts at the start and at the end.
3- HR Revolution Middle East: One of the most interesting articles you have shared with your readers past year and I really liked it so much is “The Fraud Triangle Explained Simply”. I would like to highlight especially here your amazing ability in simplifying complicated subjects, and making it easily understandable to non-technical people. Mr. Mario you efficiently assist organisations to monitor and improve their key business processes to prevent fraud. Would you share with us more information about that and how Digitalization can help limiting fraud?
Mario Bojilov: Thank you for the kind words, Mariham!
I will give your readers a specific example: A few years ago, there was a very high profile case of fraud in my city, Brisbane, where a senior finance manager embezzled $20.7 million. The interesting thing in this case was the fact that this occurred between 2000 and 2012, i.e. over the period of 12 years. Using Digital Technology, specifically various types of data analysis, including Artificial Intelligence, it would’ve been possible to discover the fraud much earlier and limit the losses. Using Digital Technology, for example continuous monitoring it’s possible to significantly strengthen internal controls. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), weaknesses in internal controls are responsible for nearly half of all fraud cases.
Again, according to ACFE’s “Report to the Nations, 2018”, Data Monitoring/Analysis as a control resulted in 52% lower losses and 58% faster detection in organisations where it was implemented. And, Big Data and AI-based controls will further increase these figures.
4- HR Revolution Middle East: You have previously indicated in one of your sayings that “the only way to show respect to someone is to empathise with them and recognise and acknowledge their needs and concerns. This is my way of putting the “customers” first…” What valuable tips would you give to HR professionals whose customers are every employee inside the Company?
Mario Bojilov: I had recently had a meeting with a senior HR manager in a large organization who told me an interesting story. In their organization they have “embedded” HR professionals in every major unit. And, on that day I was meeting with him and the person working with(in) the IT department. The reason for this arrangement was the intention of reducing the distance and mistrust towards HR. My contact said that earlier, when someone from HR would ring IT to get their laptop fixed the person on the other end of the line would be very reluctant to do anything, simply because they were concerned about their job and thought a call from HR means they are “in danger”.
And, this was what made them realize they need to change something.
My personal view is that in an ideal world HR will be seen as a mechanism to develop the workforce, not just “trim” it when times are tough. To achieve this HR professionals need to focus first on Learning and Development. This would be the best way to show that they “care about their customers”.
5- HR Revolution Middle East: From your point of view & amazing experience; how do you see AI changing the future of work in general & HR in specific?
Mario Bojilov: Artificial Intelligence will provide us with unbelievable capabilities. But we need to be mindful that these need to be augmented by Human Intelligence. Imagine a world where every hiring/firing decision is made by AI. Not only this will lead to lawsuits and employee unrest, but it will also result in lower productivity.
On the other hand, if we use AI to help us identify the traits of best performing employees and replicate them across the whole organization, that would be awesome.
Also, AI can be tasked to perform mundane activities, while humans will be freed to perform tasks that need higher order thinking. An example, is an HR professional who can focus on coaching the employees with the greatest potential, as opposed to identifying those.
6- HR Revolution Middle East: Would you Tell us more about your participation in HRTAC 19; and what values do you believe professionals really gain when they gather in such reputable conventions?
Mario Bojilov: At HRTAC 19 I will be delivering a session in one of the streams, participating in a panel and also running a half-day workshop on using Big Data and AI.
I was part of the inaugural HRTAC 18 and am really excited to be at HRTAC this year. And, I’m really looking forward to meet again the amazing team behind the conference, some of the speakers from last year and, hopefully, some of the delegates.
THANK YOU
