Work is an activity, not a place!

While as I remarked in a previous blog entry education has remained much the same over a very long period of time, the way business is conducted today is quite different from how it was in the past.  Businesses have evolved in the way they operate.  But still the future of business will be considerably different again. 

Structurally I expect a polarisation from the global corporate to virtual community-based enterprises.  While using the word virtual, businesses will build upon their fledgling use so far of virtual worlds for some activities and operations.  And employees will assume more power individually than they do today.  In response, businesses will have to be more individual about how they facilitate flexible working patterns and how they measure and reward performance through benefits.  The talent market for businesses to select from will be more diverse and more demanding.  Instead of assuming talent will come to them, companies will have to make flexible arrangements for employing the best people wherever they want to locate.  And the preoccupation with work-life balance will be superseded by work-life integration.   The latter will be supported by personal consumer-driven devices that integrate personal and business information filtering it as appropriate.  

More businesses will employ robots as well as humans.  Human employees will be valued much more for their abilities to be creatively innovative and to manage others from an emotional perspective, rather than simply valued because of their knowledge and skills.  Those who can manage relationships and networks of people will also be in demand, especially when they can effectively lead and manage people over distance.