Category: Business Trends

Continued from Part 1 of the article Future Work by Abe WalkingBear Sanchez
Even more companies will move from the old “department” way of thinking and will seek out commonalities within their different business functions. In the future, like today, redundancy elimination will rule.
In the future, like today, smart business managers won’t waste their time and energy worrying about change or sitting in a bar crying into their scotch. The best way to deal with change is to get ahead of it; it’s kind of like politicians trying to figure out where people are going so they can race ahead of them and claim to be their leader.
In the future, like today, the best way to avoid being run over by change is to accept and embrace it. Business managers not enrolled in a technology class, or constantly improving their skills will have targets painted on their backs. And just like today it’ll only be a matter of time before they get hit.
Smart business managers are and will be those that take the functions they manage and look for ways to add value. A business manager not focused on improvement becomes an administrator at best and a bureaucrat at worst.
Good Jobs, Good Pay
If jobs are going to be outsourced or off shored, chances are good that they’ll be those jobs that are redundant in nature. Rut riding, doing the same old things limits growth and puts businesses and business managers at risk. “I pity the fool.” Mr. T
While we wait for automation to move us to a point where the production of basic food and products is local and unique, just like in the old days; there are things we can do to better participate in and help shape the future.
The growth areas of the future are technology, education and health care. We know that technology is good, although sometimes it’s used in a bad way; but that speaks to the nature of man and his fears. Technology is “the science of the practical.” At one point in our history technology allowed us, via a long stick, to reach higher hanging fruit and to crack nuts with a rock. It makes sense that in the future automated transportation pods (ATPs) will replace cars. Along with cars disappearing so will the deaths of 40,000 + Americans killed, and the hundreds of thousands injured every year in accidents. Just think about the gas/energy that would be saved if efficient pods, in constant communication with each other replaced today’s cars and drivers.
By the way, someone is going to automate the roads, care for the sick and educated the children of the world…why shouldn’t it be Americans?
With Americans aging out in record numbers and with millions already driving by touch, or drunk or high on something; why haven’t we already started to automate existing cars?
And what about the waste in producing millions of new cars every year so that they can sit around unused 90% + of the time? We pay good money to create scrap for the Chinese.
In Closing

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself” Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the near future business function integration and off shore competition will continue to expand. Just like the past. Things in the future will get better for more people but in the transition some friction will be generated, some jobs will cease to exist.
Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles and worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries.

This is Part 1 of the article Future Work by Abe WalkingBear Sanchez
Who’s responsible for our future society? How can business managers shape the future?
Ron Fleisher of Tampa FL is a smart man. One of his favorite “quotes” is a window on how we should view the world and our place in that world.

“It is not important that I remain consistent with what I may have said or done in the past; what is important is that I remain faithful to the truth as it reveals itself to me.” M.K. Gandhi

Gandhi, another smart man, understood that our words and actions, collectively and as individuals, are based on what we know. If our knowledge base changes, so must we.
To better understand where we are going we must first draw a line from where we have been to where we are at. Only by referencing the past and the present can we hope to understand the course of the future.
The Past
There was a time, not so very long ago, when priests and kings dictated human activity. Institutions, then and now, are driven by a need to maintain things as they are. The continuation of the status quo is often justified as the preservation of proven traditions. Try to change things and they’d come for you and for your family, and maybe your entire village.
Fear of retribution is counterproductive to the full utilization of human synergy.
In the more recent “old days”, the 1960s, business organizations had many more levels of managers and supervisors, than they do today. It sometimes seemed as if there were more chiefs than Indians. Office spaces were larger in the 60s because room was needed for filing cabinets, but people were smaller. The goal of smart businesses in the 60s was the same as smart businesses today; to meet or exceed the customers’ expectations. Customer expectations were different/lower in the 60s; but then we were just starting to have our lunch eaten by the Japanese quality movement.
Life time employment and powerful unions walked upon the land in the 60s. High tech consisted of large fax machines that looked and sounded like small clothes dryers; a noisy drum that went around and around. In the 60s, person to person interaction limited the amount of work that got done. Meetings on memos and memos on meetings.
The Present
Today technology has reduced the number of filing cabinets and managers/supervisors to a point that if they were small furry animals they’d be on an endangered list. The levels of people involved in business have shrunk sometimes to the point where it’s hard to find a real person with which to interact. Today quality in products and services is a given if you wish to attract customers. Quality in the way that a company does business, its processes, is critical to customer retention. Low communications and data transmission costs coupled with the use of English worldwide has led to jobs being off shored and outsourced. Better and cheaper technology allows fewer people to do more work than ever before. More work being done cheaper by fewer people, sound great, …unless it’s your job that a machine has eliminated, or that is being done by someone else, somewhere else and for less pay and bennies. Today new
technology is old by the time we learn to use it. Not to worry, it’s all part of a greater scheme.
The Future
Gone is the day of the hunter/gatherer, of the family farm, and of the American factory worker. Fading away is the day of the information middleman, of information workers. In his 1999 book, The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination will Transform Your Business, Rolf Jensen starts the introduction by stating “The sun is setting on the Information Society – even before we have fully adjusted to it’s demands.”
Well it’s here, the future, and like an intrusive relative it always seems to show up at dinnertime and unexpected. Change is the constant and it comes faster and faster. To remain cost competitive while providing for the ever increasing demand for customer customization; ever more technology and off shore workers will be employed by business.
Continued tomorrow in Part 2 of the article Future Work by Abe WalkingBear Sanchez
Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles and worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries.

Entrepreneur Daily: They may not be the most affluent demographic, but marketers are flocking to them. They’re college students, and they’re being touted as the next generation of leaders and consumers. Despite being outnumbered by baby boomers, college students carry more influence than their older counterparts. “They have huge impact on what their parents buy, and then they have their own money, more than any other generation before them, and of course they are the consumers of tomorrow,” said Tom Anderson, managing partner of Anderson Analytics, the researchers who conducted the survey.
The brand survey found that Facebook is the social network of choice amongst college co-eds, and social networking is twice as popular with young women as young men. They love all things Apple, including the iPod and iPhone, and Target ranks as one of their favorite places to shop. Other top picks include Taco Bell as their hot fast food spot and Linkin Park as their top band.

College Crowd Ranks Top Brands [Entrepreneur Daily]

Biz Report: Over 800 consumers in the U.K. were queried about their shopping experiences directly after the transaction had occurred. With the experience fresh in their minds the consumers were asked to give feedback, via email and text, on aspects such as availability of staff assistance, levels of satisfaction and customer service.
“Men are much more likely to go into a shop, get what they need and come away feeling as though they’ve done a good job,” said Rob Keve, CEO of Fizzback. “Women expect more from the retail experience, and will notice things like poor customer service, unhelpful staff or below-standard products, and give a more negative rating accordingly.”
Other key findings of the survey are:
– Men are 22 percent more likely to give positive feedback than women
– Men are 3 percent more satisfied overall after shopping.
– Women on the whole enjoy the shopping experience less than men
– Customer service drew the highest levels of response from both men and women
Men enjoy shopping experience more than women [Biz Report]