Author: Ethan Theo

Communication of the sort I was talking about does not depend on comprehensiveness of what is being said but on focus – almost exactly the opposite of a lawyer’s brief. Good communication is not the small print of one-sided contracts. It is about someone owning a problem or opportunity and making it his or her job to solve or exploit it.
If communication can be focused there is a chance that this will happen. Not always, of course. Responsibility for communication lies squarely with the sender but if the receiver cannot receive, the sender doesn’t stand a chance.
If all this seems a little remote from the urgent need to provide jobs – any jobs – I do understand. But ask yourself whether understanding the big scene, planning ahead a little, knowing what you want to do and systematically setting about doing it might not have avoided many of the present situations, be they unemployment or unhappiness at work.
Just as we cannot communicate everything we would like to, so we cannot be prepared for every eventuality in life. But we can attend to the fundamentals and know what route we are intending to follow, other things being equal.
Earlier on in my discussion of The New Work Revolution I outlined the clash between Global Village and Balanced Life Style. That clash is here, now. Many of you already feel its effects; more will do so in the future.
There are two problems.
The first is that the potentially enormous economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China (popularly known as BRIC – hopefully one that will not be dropped) have awakened to the possibilities of taking over as the low-cost producers and suppliers of goods and services from the high-cost countries. Bernie Ecclestone predicted that the centre of motor racing will move from Europe to the East. It has already partly done so.
He is correct when he says that Europe has been the centre of so many events, not just motor racing, for a long time. It is now losing that position. In his words ‘Europe needs to wake up’. Why has this happened?
Europe became rich and, as rich people are inclined to do, began to think more about spending it than making it. The result? Europe is now going round and round in circles distributing everybody else’s wealth but paying almost no attention to generating it or to the people who are trying to do so. Soon there will be more money being spent on the distribution of money than money to distribute. In some spheres that has already happened. There are few more contentious matters than the distribution of wealth.
The second problem is that, even if there were not the competition of low-cost centres to contend with, automation and the development of robotic production is reducing the work available for the labour force. This applies equally in the office and the factory.
A young member of my family who runs a small specialised engineering business got rid of all his workers some time ago and installed the latest computer-controlled lathes. I asked him why?
He explained that his automated plant suffered from no fatigue, no illness, was not subject to controls by the Health and Safety Executive, did not have to conform to all sorts of impossible standards. He had no wages to account for, no pensions to provide, no tax to pay for others, no unions demanding longer tea-breaks. He was in control. He looked very relaxed.
How can you be prepared to deal with these threats? I’ll try to provide some pointers.