Both of them, with different goals but with a common artistic gift for gastronomy, have made a revolution. One has contributed to create a brand: Peru. The other has spread a healthier food style transforming cooking into a lever with a social effect. In both cases, technology, innovation and education are the columns in which their movements are built on.
A new citizen, sophisticated and demanding
In one of the last posts, technology was spotted as a driver for social, economic, political, legal and environmental change.
Technology, as a tool to improve efficiency and competitiveness, can be regarded as an economic lever, responsible for 25% of GDP growth.
Avoiding to adapt to this new reality is not, therefore, an option. Due to its huge impact, the outcome is that citizen, client or consumer, becomes the center of everything instead of the product.
Current citizen’s profile has evolved in different areas in how she/he communicates, socializes or builds up an identity. This new citizen gets information through multichannel platforms, assuming a key role in debates and having an opinion about matters in which he/she might be interested. Her/his voice, amplified and critical, demands quick and quality answers, in a more sophisticated way.
This new situation rises a challenge as a new paradigm: the business management of the citizen in his/her role as client in the technological environment.
Población mundial y mercados
En los dos últimos siglos, el crecimiento de la población mundial ha sido exponencial hasta alcanzar los más de 7.300 millones de habitantes que hay en la actualidad. Para el año 2030 se espera una población de 8.500 millones de habitantes.
En esta evolución, el PIB per cápita ha ido aumentando también, lo cual indica un aumento continuo de la riqueza mundial. Viendo el incremento gradual de la clase media, que en la actualidad alcanza el 50%, podemos decir que también viene reflejado en una mejora de las condiciones de vida de las personas.
Se estima que el porcentaje de población dentro de la clase media alcanzará el 57% en el año 2030. Eso significa que más de 1.300 millones de personas se incorporarán a esta categoría durante los próximos 15 años.
Si analizamos ese crecimiento, observamos que tendrá lugar en la zona Asia-Pacífico, moviendo el centro de gravedad mundial hacia el Este. Pero, ¿cómo será el futuro?
It is not new. Leadership has been analyzed throughout centuries from different approaches and its practical use taken into consideration and questioned as well.
Fathers of western philosophy, like Plato in “The Republic” and Plutarch in “Lives”, asked themselves about the qualities that determined leadership capability.
Within social science, Max Weber as the pioneer of modern sociology established the three pure categories of leadership. He outlined the differences among the charismatic leader (able to gather followers through emotions), the traditional (given to her/him for just being a member of the elites) and the legitimate one (born from legality and established rules).
After other different visions and intellectual efforts to understand and to come up with the characteristics that shape the leader and distinguish her/him among the others, also with the influence of Confucius who believed that a leader was someone wise and good, a disruptive moment emerges in the middle of the 20th century.
Thus, situational leadership became stronger. Leaders good in a situation might not perform as well as in a complete different situation. Situation became the key and leadership had to count on context from that moment. This assumes that in different circumstances some qualities are more granted than others.
¿Píldora roja o azul?
No es un concepto nuevo. En 1999, la película Matrix puso de nuevo en boga una teoría de la cultura popular. En base a ella, al elegir y tomar una píldora roja se abrazaba la verdad de la realidad con todas sus consecuencias, mientras que eligiendo la píldora azul se abrazaba la ignorancia de la ilusión. Poderosa elección individual para afrontar la vida de modos diametralmente opuestos.
Ahora mismo, los países – aunque es más pertinente pensar en clave de áreas y territorios, como veremos más adelante – tienen el ineludible deber de elegir su camino para ser competitivos, eficaces e innovadores en un mundo global.
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”. Winston Churchill -already a beloved character in this blog- always believed that falling down, standing up and learning was the path towards any goal. He also understood the need of an extremely well designed plan to reach it. His words still have got the power of a meaningful sentence.
Technological advances and digital development are unstoppable within the knowledge era. High speed changes and continuous growth will set its evolution, with commonwealth and prosperity as its main goals through high value added services and products.
The new industrial revolution will have great impact on enterprises as well as Administration and citizenship over social, economic and industrial issues.
How products are made, searching for new business models and new key factors for the productive system will become ineluctable.
Continuous transformation will shape our times.
Chances and challenges
Citizenship will play a major role in the upcoming years. As online users, citizens will set production and consuming trends with their digital power. Work relations will also change, talent embracing enterprises instead will become the turning point. This will be even deeper within the education field.
Enterprises must search new business models based upon talent and personalized products, services and technologies. Any enterprise willing to be part of new markets shall adapt itself in a continuous flow of innovation, besides investing constantly in R&D.
On the other hand, Administrations must push innovation throughout a good educational system to generate talent, research oriented and willing to enable financial help.
In this new industrial revolution, will unemployment rates rise?
Technology (mobile devices, Big Data, the iCloud, IoT, 3D and 4D printers, drones and robotics) and digital development (Social Media and Internet defining new ways to socialize) will produce several impacts originating the new industrial revolution. Let’s see some examples:
Impact over the education system: this implies coming up with new learning methods fostering creativity. Changing roles played by schools and teachers is already a reality, although they will not disappear.
Impact over business: using robotics and 3D and 4D printers will overtake traditional manpower based upon traditional production and crafting methods. Future jobs are going to be influenced entirely by IT and CPS.
Impact over health systems: diagnosis will be faster due to computer implementation able to analyze bigger amounts of data in less time. Of course, doctors will still play a major role, but with better tools to perform their task.
Impact over Mass Media: will machines be able to write news like reporters do? The answer is yes, writing a report and a tribune might be something different, though. Professional tasks must adapt to technological improvements.
Impact over transportation: cars, trains and planes will become driverless. In this case, again, role re-invention will also be
Industrial revolutions’ impact over the years has overtaken manpower adapting its tasks, like evolving from the primary sector of the economy to the secondary one. So, this fourth industrial revolution goes beyond. It is based upon new role requirements and capabilities within the technological and creativity fields obtained through new continuous education processes.
As a society, we are heading towards a new vital theatre where jobs will become less intensive embracing knowledge economy. Thus, adaptation capability to changes is required.
The most balanced situation, being realistic, among the different issues brought up, would become a hybrid between technology and the human factor, always having as a common factor continuous education.
