We live in a very exciting time of the World’s history. Great opportunities abound as innovation is so prolific. Thirty years ago innovation took place once a decade now it takes place daily.
The world is full of ambiguity and is changing at an incredible rate. Even the best stockbrokers have difficulty predicting tomorrow’s business winners and losers.
In the early Nineties IBM took the biggest belly flop in business history, loosing the equivalent of six billion r and. A university dropout named Bill Gates had created Microsoft and made IBM, Unisys and other mammoth computer organisations look foolish. In the process, he became one of the richest men in the world and changed the face of business as we know it forever.
An ‘ageing hippie’ (as the media like to label Richard Branson), thinks having fun is the reason for the success of Virgin. He is laughing all the way to the bank as one of the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom.
Change is an avalanche sweeping the entire l andscape and blanking out huge sections of old, familiar terrain. It took two million years for a man to invent the wheel, another five thous and to build the steam engine and only one hundred years to create a room-sized computer. Then the pace picked up. It took thirty years to create the desktop, ten years to get to the laptop. Now man is taking himself into space – Buckle your seat belt for blast-off to infinity and beyond.
The key driver in all of this mayhem is of course, Information Technology.
We are in the whirlwind of the Information Revolution. Today there are ATM cards for young children and these “technowise” kids are entering your competitive environment – Be warned.
The Information Era is creating companies as a nebulous mass of ‘common activities in the midst of a vast fabric of relationships. Executive careers spent building power and influence, are turning out to be superfluous. Workers content to put in their hours and go home are suddenly finding themselves saddled with responsibility and control they never desired’. Whether you like it or not, the age of information is putting a drastically different slant on the way you work. Working nine to five will never be the same.
WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR YOU?
Leadership development is training leaders to put people in charge of their lives and not just their jobs. Nelson M andela in his book, “The Long Walk to Freedom” teaches that with freedom come responsibilities.
No longer will people be paid salaries, but rather they will be paid according to the value they bring to the market place. Companies, amidst this changing force, are seeking for people who are valuable and who are able to deliver, contribute and make a difference.
Your responsibility?
Simple: Become valuable.
HOW TO BECOME VALUABLE
Set goals. Make plans to reach those goals. Get up and do the plans.
No amount of television, video games or sleeping is going to make you valuable. Instead you have to better yourself through studying and learning new skills.
David E. Poulson, CEO of American Express Centurion Bank, said “Do more than what is expected of you”.
Don’t just sit around and wait for someone to tell you what to do, but rather show initiative by seeking new opportunities and new projects. Apply your newly learned skills and knowledge to help better your team and your company.
In an ever changing world you CAN be valuable as you apply yourself to growth.
Continue to pursue excellence, continue to be extraordinary.
Your Friend
Dave