Business: The Shape of Things to Come
Futurist Dr. James Bellini offers a few scenarios on what’s next for the world of business
Scenario I: Rise of the Digital Native / Generational Shift
I fully recognise that the next generation IS the future so we must understand how this new generation is evolving, how they will differ from Baby Boomers and the rest, how they will regard social and workplace participation and the values and aspirations that drive their behaviour. This is more about the 'sociology' of the future. I would approach this task from a number of angles:
* The demographic revolution and its impact in radically re-shaping our social and economic future. Some surprising facts -- for the first time in our social history 50-plus people outnumber kids ... in the UK the fastest-growing age group is the over-'90s ...the first citizens to live beyond 130 are probably already born...
* This demographic shift is creating an important generational divide: an 'affluent gerontocracy ' versus emerging Digital Natives (Digital Natives are those born circa 1990 onwards and inherited the World Wide Web)
'Generation C' is a generation defined by the new values of Collaboration, Co-creation, Co-operation and Completely digital.
* Digital Natives explained: new attitudes, new kinds of literacy, new skills/multi-tasking aptitudes that cannot be assessed using current traditional metrics, new attitudes towards work/life and career ... all these have important implications for the future of commercial and social life and government priorities
* Digital Natives can also be termed 'Generation C' -- a generation defined by new values of Collaboration, Co-creation, Co-operation, Completely digital. This places them apart from their predecessor generation.
* The inter-relationship between Generation C and emerging technologies busily creating the networked economy is crucial to how our economy and society will develop over the next five to fifteen years. This creates implications for key areas of education, work, socialising and consuming in the years ahead
* Challenge of Digital Immigrants [pre-digital generation that still holds influence in business, politics and everyday life] in embracing this next generation of talent.
Next: Scenarios 2 and 3 >>