THE FUTURE IS NOW: INTERVIEW WITH
EDIE WEINER
Corporate Board Member recently
interviewed Edie Weiner to get her outlook on the economy, jobs, and emerging
issues for directors.
WHEN DO YOU FORESEE THE
RECESSION ENDING?
"I
don’t, because I don’t consider it a recession. I think that this is a
fundamental transformation, and it [has been] coming for a long time. It
started before the financial crisis, and the financial crisis exacerbated the
speed with which everybody felt the transformation.
There has
been an evolution of economies. We’ve been through the agricultural era, the
industrial era, the post-industrial era, the emotile era, and what we’re moving
into is what we call the metaspace era. And none of these go away. Each
succeeding [era] is built on the one that came before. But what you used to
make money on becomes commoditized because technology allows it to become so
inexpensive that you just can’t get the same margins you used to on it, so you
have to move up to the next value proposition.
The thing
to understand is that we were in the agricultural era for tens of thousands of
years, the industrial for 200, the post-industrial for 45, and the emotile for
about 20 to 25, and we’re still there, but we’re moving into what we call the
metaspace. So the real story is the collapsing of the time that it takes for
technologies to come together and create enormous efficiencies in the way we do
things.
The problem is that we can’t grow new businesses fast enough to satisfy
the labor that’s been displaced by the efficiencies, and that’s why we feel so
much pain, and that’s why we’re not going to see those jobs come back. "
WHAT DO YOU THINK BOARDS SHOULD BE
CONCERNED ABOUT, LOOKING A FEW YEARS INTO THE FUTURE?
"I
think they need to be concerned about a couple of things. Number one, are the
products and/or services that they’re offering or that they count on going to
be around in the next three to five years, or will they be disinter-mediated by
new players with completely new business practices, technologies, and delivery
[methods]? There’s such a rapid replacement effect taking place now. So you
have to wonder whether what you’re doing now will still command the dollars
that you’re projecting for the next couple of years.
That’s an
extremely important concern. That’s the core of your business. And that’s a
real worry that I would have if I were a director. I would really want to know
what game changers are out there that could completely disrupt the services and
products that we’re currently offering, and I wouldn’t necessarily trust that I
could get all that information inside the company. I would want to know from
experts who are looking outside what is going on that could change the world of
this company the way it exists.
And I would
also be concerned about whether I’m doing the right things in order to get the
best talent because in the end, whatever it is that [you] do, it’s about your
people delivering to the marketplace. "
SPEAKING OF TALENT, DO YOU FORESEE A TIME
IN THE FUTURE WHEN AMERICAN PUBLIC BOARDS WILL BE MORE DIVERSE?
"There’s
no question about it. That’s already happening, and will continue to happen.
However, it’s interesting when we think about what diversity means. If you
declare diversity as being people who look different, speak different
languages, or come from different parts of the world, if that’s your idea of
diversity, then that is not stepping up to the business case for diversity.
That’s the public relations case for diversity.
The
business case for diversity is to have different ways of thinking on the board,
different viewpoints. And that’s not an easy thing because much of what the
board is about is having a comfort level with each other. I’m not concerned
about diversity that you can see from the outside. Where I’m concerned is will
the board step up to the need for diversity from the inside, and how
comfortable will [directors] be with those voices that don’t track with what
the CEO wants to hear or what the majority of the board wants to hear?
It really
depends on the kind of company you are, but if you’re saying that you want to
be a global company and you’re saying that one of the concerns is that you’re
really not sure where your competition is going to come from in three years,
why would you want people on your board who know the last 20 years and not the
next 10?"
(¯`*• Global Source and/or more resources at http://goo.gl/zvSV7 │ www.Future-Observatory.blogspot.com and on LinkeIn Group's "Becoming Aware of the Futures" at http://goo.gl/8qKBbK │ @SciCzar │ Point of Contact: www.linkedin.com/in/AndresAgostini
Washington
