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It's not a recession

Written by: Neil Crofts

Article Overview: It’s a transition from the industrial economy to the networked economy. This transition started 10 years ago with the dotcom boom. Over the last 10 years we have seen many industries collapse under scrutiny of the digital spotlight.

It's not a recession

It’s a transition.

It’s a transition from the industrial economy to the networked economy. This transition started 10 years ago with the dotcom boom. Over the last 10 years we have seen many industries collapse under scrutiny of the digital spotlight.

Now it is the turn of the banks, car makers and other monolithic industrial structures to transcend to the new level or succumb. It is the older, less culturally advanced businesses that are suffering the most. It is not so much the technology that makes businesses vulnerable or brilliant, but their culture.

The culture of the network paradigm is - flexible, transparent, insanely creative, cellular, distributed, diverse, inspiring, permeable and authentic.

The culture of the industrial paradigm is - structured, opaque, incremental, hierarchical, monolithic, homogenous, predictable, obedient, and bounded.

In today’s connected world customers want to buy from businesses that inspire them. People want to work for organisations that inspire them and politicians want to support businesses that contribute more than just money to society.

The next generation of hyper successful business will be networked. The boundaries between employee and customer will blur as with Threadless and Digg. Where people outside the company help create the product.

Businesses like Plenty of Fish where one man who works around one hour per day brings in $10 million per year, o-desk, e-lance and guru will change the dynamics of employment. It will become more and more difficult for uninspiring companies to attract great people.

The whole notion of employment will shift, more and more, from 9 to 5 to flexible, multi role, portfolio careers with individuals working for multiple employers.

Instead of commuting to corporate HQ more and more people will use flexible office spaces like The Hub or online spaces like Linkedin or Facebook to find their community and collaborators.

Cost effective online collaboration tools like ning, powownow and Skype enable those with a mission to access greater global collaboration.

Success will come from doing something valuable and inspirational with a culture of creativity, innovation and challenge.

Businesses and organisations who are unable to make the shift will succumb.

What can we do?

Invest in personal development. If you don’t already know what you are great at and what you are most passionate about - find out.

Invest in the next generation. We need to take the next generation beyond education. My contribution to this is to be part of www.amentorforeverychild.com, please join the web based community and contribute what you can.

Transform the culture of your organisation. If you recognise that the organisation that you work for is following the industrial model and you want to keep your job, start working to change it.

Neil Crofts

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Article Tags: car makers, collapse, corporate hq, digg, dotcom boom, dynamics of employment, facebook, flexible office, industrial economy, industrial structures, linkedin, networked economy, office spaces, online collaboration tools, plenty of fish, portfolio careers, product businesses, successful business, threadless, world customers



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The Hidden Hand Effecting Your Bottom Line - If you are based outside the U.S and run an online business, you'll probably receive a lot of your payments in U.S dollars. When the recession hit I saw a lot of non-U.S business people boasting how they [u:20bfadx5]hadn't been effected by the recession[/u:20bfadx5], brushing off the recession as something that was not important. But they [u:20bfadx5]overlooked the hidden hand[/u:20bfadx5] effecting their profits. The currency markets which for non-U.S businesses paid in U.S dollars has masked the effect of the recession somewhat, and has an incredible effect on your overall profits. Looking at my profits over the past several months I can see fluctuations up and down. I may have a hard time attributing what is causing these fluctuations if I believed the recession didn't effect me because overall my earnings and traffic are up. But then I compare to the U.S - ££ exchange rate, and notice a [u:20bfadx5]strong correlation[/u:20bfadx5] with my profits. When the dollar is strong my profits are higher, and when it is weak they are weaker. It didn't account for all fluctuations but the effect was very strong. I know most people are aware that exchange rates effect their business, but I don't think people realize how strongly it's effects can be, and how closely related to the economy this is. So to say "the recession didn't effect me" because your profits went up can be [u:20bfadx5]very wrong[/u:20bfadx5]. The hidden hand of exchange rates could have improved your profits, and the exchange rates changed due to changes in the economy, i.e the recession. The recession has caused this fluctuation in exchange rate as people fled from the stock market into cash, and with the $$ being the biggest currency in the world, more people fled into the dollar, pushing up its value against other currencies. When the stock market bounced in March and people moved back into stocks and other investments, the dollar weakened. In addition I did see a overall drop in advertiser spend which wasn't just attributed to the dollar weakening after March. I attribute this to advertisers cutting back their budget in response to the economy, but given a change in mood and outlook in recent months this is now reversing and advertiser income is up despite a weaker dollar. So the recession has played a bigger role in my business than at first glance, so just because profits are up does not mean my business is not being thrown around by external economic factors. For this reason I've studied the economy, made a prediction on what is most likely to happen based on trusted sources with the strongest track record, and made a plan for that eventuality, and then also plans for less likely scenarios, so that my business can prosper in either situation. Instead of overlooking this hidden hand it is important to recognize it is there, and not accept it as a mystical force your business is a slave to, but something you can react to and plan for in order to take your business further.
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - I think America's biggest problem right now is clearly the recession, and that should be the main focus as of now.


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