Matilda George: 5G Innovation
In this week’s MTF Podcast, Reuters journalist Jamillah Knowles sits down with #MTF Stockholm’s Woman In The Lead of Industry Innovation, Matilda George of Ericsson One - to talk about 5G technologies, the MusiConnect hyper-low latency music project, and the ways in which the music and creativity that she enjoys in her personal life impacts upon her role as Manager of Innovation Ecosystems in the innovation unit of one of the biggest telecommunications and technology companies on earth.
AI Transcription
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
technology, ericsson, startups, music, business, work, mtf, developing, innovation, company, matilda, kinds, incubator, person, big, talking, problem, people, diversity, idea
SPEAKERS
Andrew Dubber, Jamillah Knowles, Matilda George
Andrew Dubber
Hey, I’m Andrew Dubber. I’m the director of Music Tech Fest. Thanks so much for downloading and listening to the MTF podcast. Now, one of the things that was a really big deal for us at MTF Stockholm was that not only did we want to make sure that we had 50% women right across the board at the festival, but we also wanted to have inspirational women in the lead of all technology areas. And the calibre of people we ended up with was just phenomenal. We were really lucky to be joined by Matilda George innovation ecosystem manager for Ericsson one, she took the role as woman in the lead of industry innovation at MTF. And one of the key ideas at the festival, and in fact, at all MTF events was that things that are created there are supported to go on to have a life beyond it. Matilda believes that putting creativity at the centre of innovation is the key to finding promising new projects that can evolve into sustainable businesses. And that was such a great fit for the MTF, community. Matilda and her colleagues from Ericsson were at MTF Stockholm testing 5g technologies for hyper low latency music applications. And she also took a bit of time to join Reuters journalist Jamillah Knowles on stage at the festival to talk about her professional role and the impact of the music and creativity that fills her personal life on her work in high end industry innovation from MTF labs.com This is Matilda George.
Jamillah Knowles
So Matilda, I mean, I asked this question to everybody if they’re not already in your workshops, which they may well be at the moment. What do you do there?
Matilda George
So I am one of the innovation managers at Ericsson one which is excellence innovation unit on a global scale. So what we do is that we collaborate with industry, startups, academia, and are trying to find new applications for future 5g or IoT.
Jamillah Knowles
Okay, so I mean, we know Ericsson in that field, of course, communications networks, things like this. So I mean, it tech fest like this, we may come across incubators, and in fact, probably run things like very much like incubators here, as well. How did you get involved in that? Why focus your talents in the area of trying to herd cats as they work? Sometimes it can be pretty crazy.
Matilda George
Yeah. So we, we started the incubator programme for two years ago. And I have always been very passionate about ideas and always wanted to start my own business, but I haven’t really come come up with what I want to do. So when I started at Ericsson, people were so focused on the technology aspects, and for me, not coming from a technology background, I thought we need better applications to understand the use of the technology, and listen to many others speaks here today about the diversity and designing around the, the human I think that is why we started the incubator programme for for entrepreneurs and people who would like to develop technology around a need or a person. Because I think that that is what Ericsson and also needed to to grow as a company and to learn about our, our technology. Okay,
Jamillah Knowles
so alongside this, and I’m guessing part of the reason why you’re here at this event, is that you have a passion for music. Tell me Tell us all about this.
Matilda George
We are I have some passion for music. So it will it was quite easy when Michela asked me to be here. But I’m always be very passionate about music, went to music school for 10 years when I was little, played a lot of different kinds of instrument. I think that I really like the way that music makes people feel and makes me feel you can listen to it when you are out running or at work. And I think that it relies a lot on to your emotions when listening to music. And so, so yeah, that’s the fashion.
Jamillah Knowles
And so how do you bring this then to an incubator, as he said, some of the conversations we’ve had here have been certainly about technology, but also about the human. And technology can be seen as quite cold networks, technology can seem quite abstract. How do you encourage talented people in these fields to get all touchy feely,
Matilda George
touchy feely? I think that I think that those are a good question. I think that from from the start not only developing technology because awesome new technology, but thinking about the need and the problem, and something that actually solve something for a person, or a company or country. And so I think that for coming from that perspective, and working a lot with design thinking, and and not being afraid of failing, we are a big company. But at my unit where I work, we work almost as a small startup, developing the technologies and prototyping and testing it. So going around asking people, what is he? And being here is one example. We have my two colleagues upstairs testing their technology today with all the people here, asking them what they think. So I think it’s, it’s coming from that perspective.
Jamillah Knowles
So what is the technology that they’re testing here at the moment?
Matilda George
They’re testing 5g, so you know that you have 4g, probably on your phone? Yeah. So 5g will be a whole new thing. And Ericsson is now developing 5g, and it’s a competition running there who will be the fast developing 5g. And we are on a very good way. But I think that we really don’t know what we actually can use it for. So for us to understand the the future needs and the future industries, because people have been talking about it today as well that with AI and with IoT, that will create a bunch of new industries and a bunch of new jobs in needs and problems. So how can we develop the technology in the best way to solve those kinds of problem. So my colleagues stare, haven’t visited them, they are doing music Connect applications. So with 5g, for example, you will have much lower latency. So they have developed a technology where, where two musicians can play in real time, from two different locations. So you can be in your home, I can be in my home, and we can still communicate and play music together. And that will be enabled by 5g. So that’s a very good use case for what we can use it for.
Jamillah Knowles
And these sorts of things I should imagine will spark other creativity. I mean, looking at when we talk about 3g, 4g 5g, we’re talking about generations and spectrums of technology. And what that enables when we’re talking about telecommunications, and then splitting that spectrum, some things might die away, like FM radio, less popular in some regions, but not all around the world. So we’ve got a geographical impact. But do you see when you have hack sessions, just the beginnings of any areas that look completely alien to us? And is it in? You think by expanding the spectrums for us?
Matilda George
Yeah, I Yes, I think so I think that we see a lot of new problems and challenges with 5g and be very much so during the different hackathons. And I think that is something that we need to work around. Also, collaborating with, with not only inside the company, but also with the ecosystem. So we tend to be very isolated. But I think that we need to work much more with partners opening up and sharing. So becoming a more of a sharing economy and an open innovation platform to enable that kinds of
Jamillah Knowles
solutions. And so what makes you excited then, or new? What have you seen recently that you can tell us about, obviously, when you work with big companies is like, wow, we’ve got some really cool stuff that I cannot tell you about. But other things recently that you’ve seen, these are actually yeah, this is this is fun. This is interesting. I mean, it doesn’t always have to have a practical point. But it can inform businesses, maybe.
Matilda George
I think that, that it’s a it’s a lot of different great technologies, such as the different IoT applications, and then they are so incredibly cool. And also, I tested the VR experience here. And that is not from us, but it was so cool to test it. So if you haven’t tested it, you should really go up to the room there and test it. And but then I think that we have so many different kinds. So it’s, it’s really hard to pick one favourite, but I think that we are now working with a company called Magic case and they are doing a very easy solution to big problem. And I think usually that is the best kinds of innovations. So diversity is a big problem within tech. We need to empower more women in tech and our I’m quite new. So I really liked this topic. But we are working with the company called the magic case. And they are building a coding platform for girls. And so you can code your mobile case with different messages and also learn to code at the same time. And to me, I think that is the kind of innovations that I really like because it’s so easy to say something and why didn’t I come up with that one? But But also, it solves a huge problem, because you can use it for schools empowering not only girls, but also boys to become more interested in tech.
Jamillah Knowles
And so do you feel that big companies like Ericsson, should be spending more time listening to this, I mean, it’s great that Ericsson’s got someone like you doing things like this. And I’m sure that if you run a big, serious company that is often seen as a monolith, or a service provider, that something like a hack day can seem almost a bit silly, you know, it’s just like a bunch of people making things that are art. And I can’t make money out of this. What’s this for? But do you do you see this influencing big businesses in better ways.
Matilda George
Of course, I’m in I started at Ericsson for for one and a half years ago, and already getting so so much traction within the company. And we have more than 100,000 people. And I’m just one person but but I think that big corporates really need to focus on on these kinds of topics. And I think that it’s becoming a trend more and more now that I understand to to still be a relevant player in the future, you need to work much more agile and design and develop around the person and, and focus on diversity. I think that that is very common topics that more and more big companies are working around. So within Ericsson I think that absolutely, it will be a part of our core business to focus on this areas.
Jamillah Knowles
And just to turn that around, finally, when you’re running an incubator, and like I’ve done some work with startups and creative technologists, is it easy to steer people then towards a business proposition? I mean, when you’re really flying with a creative idea, the last thing you want to think about is how am I going to market this? And can I make some money? And you know, will this be my life? And how do I fill in a tax form? But is there a need sometimes to help younger people with brilliant creative ideas? Think of this, maybe they can be the next Ericcson?
Matilda George
Yeah, I mean, it goes back to, we have seen that it’s, it’s really, really simple, why why ideas or startups tend to fail. And one of them is that you develop something that no one wants. So for us, it’s very important tools to support them with the business aspect. Because if we have a very creative and talent person who only wants to focus on the tech aspect, then we need to support them with with other kinds of competences as well. And that is something that we are doing from Ericsson, then we were bringing a business person, for example, to help them with that, but also educating them on how you can do it in a very easy way. And it can be something like going out and asking people if they would buy or test your solution. So that’s a very easy way to actually test the business case of it. But also, one of the other things that may make ideas fit Is that you, you are mixing teams poorly. So you maybe you have to the only developers, you also need to think about to to add in the person with another backgrounds or business or design or HR or, or something else. So that you you have the diversity within your own group when developing the technology from the beginning. And then the third thing is that you lack focus. So that is actually quite hard, because we we want to run them on all the bullets, but but
Jamillah Knowles
I mean, surely, you know, if you’ve got an amazing idea, does it not become your obsession? Or is that different?
Matilda George
Yeah, I think that it becomes your obsession. But I mean, if I have one idea, maybe I found 10 different things that I wanted to do around my idea. So I think that to really focus on what I needed to do to get what I want with my idea. That’s also very important part of the journey in becoming in going from idea to finally an emerging business. So that is the the the advice that we usually give to startups.
Jamillah Knowles
Perfect. Well, that seems a good point to round things up and that’s specifically good advice that people can take away as well. Well, thank you very much Matilda, for talking to us. Thank you. Thank you.
Andrew Dubber
That’s Matilda George. And that’s the MTF podcast for another week if this was your first one, thanks for joining us. now’s a good time for a binge go hit the subscribe button. And don’t forget to like, share rate and review. It all helps. Thanks so much and catch you next time when we have a really special episode for you. It’s an interview I got to do with literally my favourite musician on the face of the earth. Have a great week.
