Management Challenges for the 21st Century

• Birth rates in developed countries will continue to fall.
• The labour pool will shrink, its median age will increase, and there’ll be pressures for more migrant workers.
• Organizations must find ways to attract & tap on a new pool of older knowledge workers who work part-time instead of retiring fully.
• Don’t just focus on revenues or market share. Focus on your share of customers’ disposable income (and if it’s increasing/decreasing). This shows if you’re in growth, mature or declining industry to direct your strategy.

• In developed countries, large portions of public-listed corporations are now owned by pension/mutual funds investing people’s retirement funds. This calls for a new definition of performance and long-term shareholder interests.
• It’s no longer enough to rely on low costs or government subsidies/protection. For long-term survival, organizations must be competitive globally.
• The gap between economic globalization and local/regional protection will widen. Organizations should make decisions based on global economic competitiveness, not local/ political considerations.

• Institute policies to shape the future, including the use of “organized abandonment” and “organized improvement” to keep directing your resources to the top opportunities.
• Use systematic innovation by regularly scanning the environment, and proactively converting changes to opportunities to innovate.
• Use piloting to introduce changes, since breakthrough ideas and solutions can’t be validated through conventional market research or modelling.
• Balance between the need for change vs continuity (or stability).

For 50 years, the information revolution focused on gathering, storing and presenting data. Computers have already transformed how we operate or perform our tasks.

The new Information Revolution in the 21st century will shift from the “T” to the “I” in “IT”. It will no longer be about technology or systems, but how we interpret, organize and use information make better decisions, manage risks and create value.

In the 20th century, management’s critical focus was on improving manual workers’ productivity using production equipment. In the 21st century, the focus is on maximizing the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers.

It’s more complex to improve knowledge-worker productivity. You need 6 key factors, most of which are the opposite of what’s required for manual work: Defining the task clearly, taking responsibility for results, continuous innovation, learning/teaching on the job, defining/measuring quality and treating knowledge workers as capital assets (not costs).

You must answer 5 key sets of questions:

• What are my unique strengths? Use Feedback Analysis to learn your strengths, how you perform, and what your values are.
• Where do I belong? Identify the right opportunities that fit your unique strengths, personality and values.
• What should my contribution be? How you can make the biggest contribution and the results that’d make a difference?
• How can I take relationship responsibility? Take responsibility for building relationships and alliances that add value to the organization.
• What will I do with the second half of my life?