August 19th, 2003

 

Nine trends that are going to rock your world

 

Gene Mage

 

Sit down, buckle up, and hold on tight.  No, we are not going for a spin in the Corvette, but for a tour of the future, your future.  Your observer of business trends has been out and about exploring, scanning, and sensing where the business environment is going.  What did he find?  Here are nine trends that are going to rock your world.

 

  1. The redefinition of productivity.  When industries automate, machines first replicate, then accelerate, and ultimately revolutionize the work of the craftsman.  Along the way, the role of the worker changes from manual labor source to machine operator to knowledge worker.  Looking ahead, the role of human beings in the world of work will change in ways you never imagined as leaders rethink the true value of people in an enterprise.

  2. The reformation of capital.  Over the past two hundred years capital markets became smooth-running and well-regulated clearing houses for the movement of capital among investors and businesses.  During the past two decades the role of the individual investor has evolved from that of a spectator at the mercy of financial services high-priests into that of a self-educated and self-directed portfolio manager.  The next wave of change will see the birth of entirely new capital structures that will engage employees, investors, and communities in the success of a business through novel financial vehicles.

  3. The rethinking of governance.  As the stories of corporate malfeasance flew from the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the anchors on the Nightly News to the monolog on Jay Leno, the litany of fallen boardroom angels permeated our popular culture.  Investors and employees are demanding accountability, and politicians are more than willing to force it on corporations.  Industry organizations are self-regulating to stay ahead of the legislative curve.  While the changes thus far may seem progressive, the future will introduce us to entirely new ways of governing our businesses.

  4. The renewal of the social compact.  Companies survive on the goodwill of customers, investors, employees and communities.  That goodwill comes from a web of interdependent relationships that must be nurtured over time.  Similarly, those organizations that abuse the social compact with the communities they serve will reap a harvest of enmity.

  5. The reinterpretation of technology.  As leaders become more familiar with new technologies, they create completely new ways to get work done that leverage the unique capabilities of those technologies.  While we marvel at “gee-whiz” trinkets such as mobile computing, wireless communication, and electronic commerce, they are museum pieces compared to what is coming.

  6. The reinvention of the consumer.  “An educated consumer is our best customer,” posited clothing mogul and retailing pioneer, Sy Syms.  Today many businesses curse Syms’ name as they do battle with well-informed consumers armed with readily accessible internet knowledge.  As the boundaries between well-informed, misinformed, and over-informed become more blurry, the once pliable consumer will become a complex force to be reckoned with.

  7. The rebirth of the individual.  During the twentieth century, organizations dipped a toe into the democratization of work.  High performance work teams, total quality, and employee ownership were the wading pool.  Experiments with cooperative ownership went a little deeper.  In the future, you will see widespread acceptance of new ownership models.

  8. The revolution of scale.  Does size matter?  Scale matters if you have massive fixed costs.  Agility, flexibility, virtual scale, and perceived scale will be the new profitability levers.

  9. The reexamination of diversity.  Over the past century corporations have served as living laboratories for social engineering experiments in race and gender relations.  With a gun to their heads, employees served as unwitting guinea pigs in these research projects.  Investors served as benefactors for these trials as companies poured resources into well-intentioned but largely ineffective “programs” to promote an illusive goal called diversity.  Going forward, companies will begin to abandon these “legislative approaches” in favor of efforts to create genuine dialog, relationship building, and real reconciliation among employees from all backgrounds based on human respect.

 

Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is author of the book Managing for High Performance.  Visit www.makingitwork.com for the complete column archive.