Why do you go to work?
Is it to just pay the bills and to be able to provide for yourself and your family or is it something more than that? Like providing a meaning and sense of purpose to your entire existence.
And why is that something that you should think about if you’re a business owner?
It’s all too easy to get lost in our daily lives to stop and think, but stop and think we should. Because things are changing fast. In 2020 more than perhaps any other year in my lifetime we have all seen big change in terms of how we live, shop, work, and enjoy leisure time. During lockdown our homes became our Office, Gym, Shopping Mall, Restaurant, Cinema and for some, a place of worship.
Maybe after a vaccine is introduced and its successful there will be a return to some form of “normal” but I am also convinced there will be hangovers from 2020, both good and bad that will be with us for some time to come.
Think about how quickly video meetings and remote working had to happen in areas where previously it may have taken some 10-15 years to get there. A global crises accelerated how we use technology. And I only see this continuing.
For IT companies, this can be seen as a great business opportunity. You can be at the forefront of a technological revolution. However it can also be scary. Why?
In his book, “World without Work” David Susskind talks about the ongoing automation of roles which would have previously been labour intensive. This gives the modern CEO a few things to think about, knowing that Covid has accelerated some of these future trends so they are happening now or within a matter of a few years. I see AI as being something that will be come more and more common meaning not only will some of the traditional manual roles be gone and replaced with automation but so will some of the technical, clerical and admin roles we are all too used to seeing in the business world.
We may find a society where there’s not enough work to go around everyone in it. For those in work, we will still be likely to have multiple generations in the workplace with different values, culture and expectations as to what the workplace needs to give them. We need to work out how we can keep multi generations happy at work and coexisting alongside each other.
For me, businesses need to be planning way into the future, not just 3, 6, 9 or 12 months ahead. Whilst we cannot always predict the future we can take educated guesses and I can help business leaders look at what their long term future might look like and how we can get them there, whilst still being able to adapt to the curve balls and road blocks that may come their way.
The world is changing. And businesses need to change with it. I can help by
· Helping businesses put together a long term plan
· …and an operation plan for how they might get there
· Safeguarding you against some of the issues you may come across.
· Help you to form global collaborations with other businesses – we are stronger together
· Come up with strategies to get your people to be on board with the direction you want to take
· Look at data to measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing