How Careers Will Include Much Less Front-Line Work

This interesting Financial Review ‘Why this ship marks the end of your job‘ reminds us that modern equipment tend to remove the need for large crew on the front-line. In this example of an actual warship, the actual crew has been shrunk by 80% compared to traditional warships of the same size. 80%! From 200 down to 40 sailors! This trend will be observable in all occupations requiring dangerous, remote or costly human deployment. But also for a lot of front-line work that can be automatized.

We can of course observe that trend in the military with the apparition of drones of various sized and capabilities that avoid putting lives in jeopardy. But we will also observe the trend in more and more commercial ventures.

An interesting side effect of this approach is that the equipment itself is considered to be more disposable and replaceable than the previous equivalent equipment. This is apparently even true for this warship type – the limited crew will not allow to respond to all emergency situations and it is accepted that it may have to be lost with a higher frequency than previous warship generations.

The new approach comes with the benefit of exposing much less people to hazardous occupations. At the same time there is a substantial risk of loss of know-how: the current solutions are put in place with the help of those that currently do the work, but in the future no-one may remember how to do it.

As a result, there will be a deep need to review the usual career paths that have been inherited from the Industrial Age to ensure that the competencies required will still be available, as they evolve. And people that are still in the front-line will need to be better educated, more flexible and will have much greater responsibility than today. The landscape of work is already changing dramatically!

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How Data Really is the New Oil, and Better

We hear more and more often this expression, and it has been made popular by a few papers and books. We have quoted a quite noted Economist article on the topic in a previous post ‘How User-Generated Data Should be Better Valued‘. In this interesting post ‘Fueling Alpha: Data Is Powering The New World‘, this view is explained in a quite straightforward manner.

“Data can be seen as the fuel to the information economy and oil to the industrial economy. The amount of power someone has can be correlated to their control of and access to these resources … and, leaking of these resources can lead to extreme consequences.”

It is important to realize that the amount of data we are generating is staggering and ever increasing: “A staggering 90% of all the world’s data (2.5 quintillion bytes per day) has been created in the past two years alone … and its value is rapidly rising. With IoT growing from 2 billion devices in 2006 to a projected 200 billion by 2020 you can expect to see that growth continue to explode.“

Thus of course, data is better than oil because it is renewable and is currently created at a much higher rate every month. It is also quite accessible without any issue of geographical border and limited legal issues. Therefore it won’t deplete soon and we can expect to have limited access risks (with some exceptions).

Data is what will soon drive fully our economies. Our institutions have not yet realized it, and while we can expect like for oil a temporary domination by some large companies, we can also expect that in the long term there will be a more regulated usage framework.

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How Beneficial Checklists Can Be

In this excellent Quartz summary ‘Checklists‘, the history and benefits of this tool are explained in detail. The most amazing is the level of benefits that can be extracted from such a simple tool, that we should certainly use more often.

As to benefits: “In the WHO’s initial pilot study of eight hospitals in eight international cities the checklist was associated with a one-third reduction in deaths and complications from surgery.” And checklists have only become mainstream in medical care in the 2000’s with a WHO initiative!

The history is interesting too: “it was systemic complexity that gave rise to the first formal checklist in the 1930s.” – when crew realized they needed to have checklist before taking off on a new, ultra-complicated bomber airplane. Therefore, checklists are a tool to tackle complicated or even complex situations.

We often underestimate the power of such tools when dealing with repetitive, but complicated situations. Let’s systematize checklists!

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How Access to Data Is a Key Issue for Start-Ups

Following on our previous post ‘How Data Really is the New Oil, and Better‘, there are two issues for data like for oil: access to the data, and then the ability to process it to produce value.

It is easier for startups to find new ways of processing the data to extract value, because the way it can be processed is heavily dependent on the utilization and hence niches can be produced to provide the user with specific benefits. The way to massage the data to provide value requires a lot of user interaction.

I observe that access to data is an issue for startups and the usual internet suspects have of course a substantial advance on that aspect.

In my limited experience as Business Angel with start-ups I observe that access to the data is often the most frustrating part. Governments’ public cata availability initiatives (open data) have not yet delivered in all countries and areas of public life. Private data can be difficult to get to help develop a product without entering legal issues, and they are often difficult to use technical as well because of their inconsistency or historical aspects. In that context data cleansing and preparation is becoming a real trade.

Hence for start-ups, access to relevant data is often the bottleneck and this aspect must be carefully vetted before launching a venture, because it is where you may fail or have to surrender to some data hoarding giant.

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How Electric Vehicles Seem to Become Mainstream Quicker Than Expected

In this interesting post ‘Electric Vehicles Are Outperforming The Traditional S-Curve Dynamics‘, the growth of the Electric Vehicle (EV) market is analyzed. The result is that all indicators tend to show that the product is now becoming mainstream instead of being a niche product.

The argument of the article is based on the fact that EV introduction is accelerating (in terms of year-on-year growth, thus from an exponential perspective) instead of slowing down as could be expected, “suggesting that EVs are expanding the addressable market“. This just means that the addressable market had been considered in a too restrictive manner initially, which can also be viewed as the fact that the EV product is now mainstream with a much larger market.

In fact, the initial introduction of EV was heavily subsidized and this limited de facto the possible market; such subsidies are progressively diminishing, because for certain usage patterns, EV do become economically competitive with mass production.

This analysis would seem to show that the rate of adoption would be so high in the next few years that it may be offering-constrained due to the delays in setting up sufficient production capacity, with a focus on batteries.

Electric Vehicles are some kind of hybrid between a conventional mechanical appliance and an electronic equipment, we can thus expect to see a much quicker adoption in the next few years that could be expected from a purely mechanical commodity. Next few years will be quite exciting in that respect!

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How People Are Increasingly Shunning Traditional Information Media

In this important post ‘News Rejection is Mostly Media’s Fault‘, Frederic Filloux investigates the possible reasons why the public’s confidence in traditional media has dramatically eroded in the past years. This effect is observed in all democratic countries, in a more or less dramatic manner.

It is a reality that more people are avoiding traditional media outlet and prefer to refer to social networks, which is a root cause for misinformation. It even facilitates active campaigns of dis-information or even manipulation with the objective to destabilize democracies.

Frederic Filloux’s view is that it is mainly the own fault of the media outlets that are presenting news, according to him, in a much too dramatic and negative manner, and in an over-simplistic manner. He also identifies a growing disconnect between people’s preoccupations and the topics covered in media.

There has always been a lack of trust between part of the population and institutions (mass media being viewed as an institution, traditionally possibly manipulated by tycoons and/or the political power). It is the extent of that lack of trust which is problematic, how it evolves, and how the trend is being exploited by destabilization efforts.

Mass media is still looking for its Collaborative Age business model, and how to check and disseminate information on new channels. There is a risk of a split between professional journalism and reliable news that would only be affordable to part of the population, hence creating a split in the worldview that would be difficult to bridge.

Yes, mass media needs to change its way of working, and soon, to adapt to the new world. A new model needs to be found that combines economic sustainability with proper recognition by an ever-more expecting population. Many experiments are ongoing, let’s hope the right model will be found soon!

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How People Have Changed Their Discretionary Entertainment Expenditure Towards Streaming Platforms

In this interesting post by Frederic Filloux ‘The Consumer Trends That Destroyed Media’s Business Model‘, some interesting trends are exposed about our consumption habits in the area of entertainment (thus, discretionary expenditure). Of course those expenditures only represent a small share of our total budgets, but they have great influence on our understanding of the world.

The curves and statistics show that most expenditures are taken by subscriptions to internet and mobile services, followed closely by a fast growing video-on-demand trend, led by Netflix. This leaves only limited space in the budgets for other expenditures such as events and tickets, literature, or press subscriptions. This translates to more and more time spent on those services to the detriment of written books or media, or even live shows or visiting museums.

At the same time that there is an increasing development of somewhat addictive series instead of feature films, this trend is at the same time not too surprising but also concerning.

It definitely shows a substantial shift as many of those expenditures did not exist 20 years ago, therefore, they have necessarily replaced other activities and expenditures and those (including cable TV, the press, cinemas or generally live shows) are thus suffering. The trends give all of us much more choices in what we are watching while giving us potentially less opportunity to discover new things.

Anyway, it is quite illuminating to observe how our expenditure habits have dramatically changed in the last years, giving us more opportunity to choose our entertainment, with a large domination of online and video entertainment. This is certainly a trend that will continue.

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How to Choose the Right Prioritization Method

Prioritization is essential if we want to reach our goals, even more in current society where the number of daily sollicitations increased constantly. In this useful post ‘How to Prioritize When Everything Feels Important‘, a general synthesis of available prioritization methods is provided.

The methods described there are basic and effective, quite rational and can be used by anyone.

I just believe they do not address the major emotional hurdle to prioritization: accept that some things won’t get done. Limit what really needs to be performed. And that’s where most people fail even after the most rational approach to prioritization.

I repeat, prioritizing effectively means accepting not to do certain things. That hurts, and that hurt must be overcome. Are you read for real prioritization?

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How Being Bored Becomes Good

In this interesting post ‘Why Being Bored Is Good‘ this controversial statement is explained in detail. Being bored goes against the natural evolution of our ever-increasing busy, connected, stimulated days. Still it seems that it would be essential to remain bored from time to time.

From a historical perspective, as the post explains, boredom was rather seen as an evil: the source of crime, addiction to games of chance and more generally, anti-social behavior. Therefore the solution was to find some occupation so that people wouldn’t have stray thoughts and too much idle time on their hand.

In the current Collaborative Age, the age of the attention-economy, many devices try to make sure that we don’t get bored, calling our attention any minute with notifications that ensure that we interact with our devices (and provide information for free about ourselves that can be monetized by advertisement). Being bored now rather becomes a luxury, an exceptional state that some will seek to attain. There are books about how getting bored more or better, and how it is essential for our brin development and our creativity.

I’m not quite sure what to make from all those contradictory views. It seems to be quite useful to be from time to time idle, disconnected and well… bored. Therefore in our current world where this becomes rather the exception, it might be useful to try to attain that state from time to time. We’ll certainly see soon being bored as being a respectable holiday goal or activity!

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How Important It Is to Remember Krulak’s Law: Today, Front-Line Agents and Supervisors Win the Battles

Krulak’s Law states that the future of an organization is in the hands of the privates in the field, not the generals back home (Krulak was a famous Marines general, son of another nicknamed the ‘Brute’). Seth Godin in his post ‘The $50,000 an hour gate agent‘ gives a perfect example in daily life.

What I find interesting here is the statement that it is the increased complexity of war that requires more initiative and decision-making to be done at a lower level (‘the strategic corporal’). And hence the deployment of a vastly different approach in military organization and training.

This observation about the changes in military organization created by increased complexity are probably transferable to any kind of human organization in today’s world. It shows that the old-fashioned top-down management is doomed; and that front-line employees need to be given initiative and sufficient competency to take the right decisions at the right moment, because they are the ones that are faced with the actual issues.

It is not certain that this idea has permeated many of the larger corporate organizations, and changing the manner those organizations work and consider their personnel will take time. However, increased complexity coupled with easier communication will necessarily force the transformation.

Be proactive in applying Krulak’s law. Today it is the front-line agents and supervisors that win the battles. Not any more the generals and corporate executives.

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How Important It Is to Understand the Root Causes Before Treating the Symptoms

This post is written in the context of business for professional services, but of course the title applies more widely. Nevertheless, it is an essential aspect to be considered because as consultant we are often contacted because of some symptoms that have been noticed. And we should seek to understand the root causes before jumping into solely treating the symptoms.

Understanding the root causes often requires to take a more systemic view of the organization or the situation, looking in some details at all relevant aspects to identify if the symptom is isolated or only revealing a deeper issue. This should be the first step of the intervention, what I call the ‘discovery phase’. And it is essential that it is addressed in the most comprehensive manner so as to identify and treat the relevant root cause.

The ‘systematic’ approach here is essential as in any complex system: it needs to be considered in its entirety including the interfaces and relationships with external stakeholder to allow to identify the root causes.

In the past months I have been continuously amazed, as we have made this approach more systematic, at how we uncover root causes that are unexpected but relevant – requiring a lot of discussion with our clients.

This approach is not always understood even from clients who want a ‘quick fix’ solution, but that should be part of our ethics as professionals not to allow to just put a band-aid on a situation, but have a wider view of its causes. It is in any case absolutely essential for the sustainability of any change we intend to bring in the client organization’s or way of working.

It also applies in coaching situation and any situation of dysfunction: take the time at first to carefully assess the situation of its root causes so that you can treat the issue at its root.

This post is a follow-up from the post ‘Useful Lessons Learnt for the Professional Services Business‘ based on Pamela Slim’s post ‘23 Lessons from 23 years in business‘.

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How We Should Prioritize Impact over Income in Professional Services Businesses

While the title of this post is a bit provocative, I am convinced that it is essential in professional services businesses to ensure to have sufficient professional impact. Beyond the fact that it should be the essential objective, it is an essential condition for sustainable success – and hence income. And this should be a priority, which means that a number of activities must be undertaken that generate impact even with low or limited income.

Of course income is important but it should be viewed as a means to generate impact. And success means more income, that allows to generate even more impact.

Impact is an essential pre-condition to be noticed and respected as a competent contributor. It must hence be publicized for a large part (which may sometimes be difficult in services of a confidential nature – in that case some general publications are needed). It is also essential to provide clients with sufficient confidence to hire our services and have some idea of the benefits they can expect.

And finally, what are we here for if it is not to generate impact, if possible much, much larger than the cost of our services? And develop ourselves and our business to generate even more impact? The impact we should seek should also of course be ethically positive impact, i.e. provide our clients with tangible, positive and ethical benefits.

I encounter too many professional services professionals that don’t prioritize sufficiently impact and prefer to seek income. This is not a sustainable proposition, and they miss the point of providing this type of services. Let’s prioritize impact more consciously in our daily activities!

This post is a follow-up from the post ‘Useful Lessons Learnt for the Professional Services Business‘ based on Pamela Slim’s post ‘23 Lessons from 23 years in business‘.

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