The World Today Is Not a Good Place for People with Average-Level Skills

According to the Public Relations and Website Office of Khatam University, the university’s Center for Specialized Education and Skills Development, in cooperation with Fanap Plus, has launched the first Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program in Industry 4.0. This strategic, application-oriented program has been designed as the first and only DBA program in Iran focused exclusively on Industry 4.0. Its aim is to equip managers, organizational leaders, and decision-makers with the capabilities they need to effectively address the demands of digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The opening sessions of the program have already been held with strong participation from enrolled professionals.

Industry 4.0 is not simply about introducing new technologies into organizations. Rather, it represents a comprehensive approach to redefining business models, operational processes, decision-making practices, and organizational leadership. By addressing the full range of issues related to Industry 4.0 in depth, the program seeks to provide a clear and practical picture of how organizations can navigate transformation in the technology-driven era by bringing together academic knowledge, industrial experience, and a forward-looking perspective.

One of the program’s distinguishing features is its balanced combination of knowledge and experience, with instructors drawn from industry, academia, and the international professional community. This structure gives participants the opportunity to engage in direct dialogue, analyze real-world business challenges, and develop practical transformation projects.

The curriculum consists of 12 specialized modules and 32 subtopics. Participants benefit from a three-dimensional learning structure combining theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and real-world projects. With its project-based approach, the program examines and analyzes real-world cases of digital transformation within organizations, allowing participants to gain first-hand exposure to implementation challenges. In addition to exploring the foundations of the Industrial Revolutions and transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big-data analytics, participants learn about the strategic and managerial dimensions of transformation, including developing digital roadmaps, designing new revenue models, managing finances and measuring return on investment, assessing risk, and strengthening cyber resilience.

The Industry 4.0 executive program runs for 144 instructional hours over 24 weeks. Beyond its specialized subject matter, it offers a unique networking opportunity for senior managers, industry professionals, and members of the country’s broader professional community. The program is primarily aimed at CEOs, senior executives, and board members with at least five years of managerial experience who are interested in business development and digital transformation.

This programis launch results from cooperation and synergy between Khatam University and Fanap, aimed at expanding specialized education and addressing the country’s emerging managerial and technological needs. The collaboration has helped create a shared language between academia and industry and represents an important step in advancing executive management education. The program seeks to take managers beyond simply understanding technological trends and prepare them to make decisions, design strategies, and implement genuine transformation within their organizations.

Against this backdrop, the second day of Fanap Campus’s DBA Industry 4.0 program was held on Thursday, September 3, at Khatam University, with the participation of the program’s students, in the Imam Reza Conference Hall. This part of the program focused on the technologies, trends, and risks shaping the future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as Industry 4.0 excellence and excellence models. The instructor for this section was Engineer Ali Zuashkian, a graduate of the Physical Asset Management program at the University of Toronto, Canada, and a Young Global Leader selected by the World Economic Forum in 2013.

At the beginning of the session, Zuashkian explained the different forms of power and their impact on today’s world. He said:

“In simple terms, hard power is the kind of power that we are compelled to respond to rather than drawn toward by choice, while soft power is the kind of power that attracts us voluntarily. Hollywood films are a prominent example of soft power. The optimal combination of these two forms of power—hard and soft—is known as smart power, and this is generally the approach preferred by governments.”

He went on to say:

“Every time a revolution takes place, the gap between the weak and the wealthy, and between those who have power and those who do not, becomes wider. Predictions suggest that with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this gap could grow to as much as 10,000 times its previous level, with its effects becoming visible across every sector.”

Zuashkian then discussed how Iranians have viewed the First, Second, and Third Industrial Revolutions.

“Regarding the First Industrial Revolution,” he said, “the reality is that we essentially did not recognize what was happening; we were, so to speak, not part of the process. During the Second Industrial Revolution, we initially turned to technology and only later tried to draw on the expertise of sociologists, psychologists, and specialists in the humanities. Nevertheless, neither during the Second nor during the Third Industrial Revolution did we understand what we needed to do to sustain this approach. Although events such as war and sanctions unintentionally led us to import and make use of technology.”

The 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader then referred to two recently published interviews, one with Elon Musk and the other with Yuval Noah Harari. He said that Harari’s comments about the future of the world were more analytically rigorous than Musk’s, and emphasized that simply occupying a position of technological or intellectual prominence—as Musk does—does not necessarily mean that everything a person says should be taken as a benchmark.

“We also have to consider whether that person has a vested interest in the subject.”

He then cited statistics illustrating the impact of digital transformation on major economies.

“The share of the economy associated with high tech has risen from 8 percent in 1970 to around 40 percent today,” he said. “Meanwhile, the cost of cyberattacks was approximately $3 trillion in 2015, and that figure reached $10.5 trillion in 2025. These figures show the scale of the change—and, in reality, the major revolution—we are facing.”

“Although the boundaries between the Third and Fourth Industrial Revolutions are not particularly clear, what has become more prominent and widespread in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is machine-to-machine and machine-to-human connectivity. This is a defining characteristic of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Zuashkian then gave several examples of how artificial intelligence is being used to make different industries more cost-effective and generate new sources of revenue, including agriculture, particularly in a country such as China.

“I am not among those who believe that Iran has fallen far behind global developments,” he said. “Rather, I believe that with the help of technology, we can even make a leap forward—provided that the government and the country’s elites, both inside and outside Iran, can reach an integrated strategy for technological development.”

“For such a technological leap to take place, the government can—and in fact should—provide subsidies during the initial stages. Interestingly, contrary to what we may assume, this is exactly what is happening in developed countries.”

The University of Toronto graduate also pointed to four major areas currently undergoing transformation and disruption: the transition toward new forms of energy, robotics, data, and artificial intelligence.

Turning to the issue of job displacement, he added:

“The world today is not a good place for people with average-level skills. Skills need to be highly sophisticated and intelligent.”

“According to some statistics, at certain large companies, 70 percent of employees who already had a strong level of knowledge went on to further upgrade their knowledge and skills, while 26 percent of employees with lower levels of education upgraded themselves to a lesser extent.”

“This means that as we move forward, those who are already well educated become even more educated, while those with lower levels of education fall further behind. It is also predicted that 40 percent of the skills we have today will become obsolete by 2030.”

Regarding global developments in education, he said:

“The world we are heading toward will be very different from the world we live in today when it comes to education. Most of the skills we are currently learning will no longer be relevant by then, and long-term, intensive educational programs—like those we see in our own education system—will increasingly be replaced by short-term, repeatable courses.”

“For our children, it would also be better for them to enter the workforce at an earlier age rather than spend many years studying and, for example, wait until they have earned a bachelor’s or master’s degree before entering the labor market.”

“At the same time, the monopoly over up-to-date knowledge is increasingly moving away from top-tier universities. Another important function of educational programs is to build networks among the people who participate in them. It is the combination of group learning, networking, and signaling that creates a high-quality educational experience.”

Zuashkian continued by discussing global economic shifts over the past two centuries.

“The trajectory of global economic change over the past two centuries has been such that Britain, which at the time accounted for 23 percent of the world economy, now accounts for just 1.9 percent.”

“Japan, by contrast, provides a different example. At that time, it accounted for 3.5 percent of the global economy, and today it still accounts for approximately the same 3.5 percent.”

The 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader also stated:

“The First and Second Industrial Revolutions did not have much impact on culture, but the Third Industrial Revolution had a very significant cultural impact.”

“In this regard, I believe Iranian culture is the only culture that has experienced the greatest number of rebirths. This has given us a high level of self-confidence and led us to continually seek better conditions for our country.”

He added:

“Two things become particularly significant in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. First, for the first time, humans are encountering something more intelligent than themselves. Second, the pace of change has become extraordinarily fast. By the time you have understood one change and what it means, another, newer change has already emerged.”

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution does not belong to those who are good at predicting the future; it belongs to those who have the courage to change that future.”