Many people try to guess how enterprises will look like in the future. I’m afraid no one can answer thins question. In the other hand there are trends we can’t ignore : in the same way baby boomers dramatically transformed the companies they joined, digital natives will dot the same with our companies.
But prudence is required : everything we can read is sometimes “overplayed”, and I have no doubt our digital natives will have to climb down when they’ll realize some of their expectations are not viable on a long term track within an enterprise. And they won’t all be the mutants that are often described. But one thing is sure, an heavy trend is emerging.
I’ll also consider this evolution in relation to a phenomen I wrote about some times ago : the risk (or opportunity) to see , for economic reasons (information acquisition cost) or sociological (better personal standing), people positioning themselves outside the enterprise, as partners, service providers, instead of being salaried. French speaking people can also read this note about the end of defined work time, as new generations think of goals to achieve and no more about time you owe your employer. So we can draw some conclusions.
We’re facing a clear trend : individual bring their ability to solve problems and doesn’t sell his time. If we try to dig further, it the nature of the engaement contract which is impacted. Wer’e moving from “I do what I’m asked to during the time when I belong to the company” to “I’m to achieve objectives but let me choose the means and remember my time only belongs to me”. Questions like “where are you” and “what are you doing” will soon be nonsenses. Without any consequence as I thing they only give the one who asks the impression he controls things…but only the impression. In the other hand, the generation we’re talking about is used to say what they’re doing and, more, what they need when they find it relevant to reach the assigned goals. Twitter is not far away.
And even, we don’t talk about tasks determination. Difficulty doesn’t matter, they just must be fulfilling. Good news : they don’t try to get away from difficulty. Bad news : who will do the “dirty job”, not hard tasks but long, repetitive and not gratifying ones. And this will be a real issue.
I strongly believe that knowledge marketplaces will experience a skyrocketting development. So there will be no difficulties to deal with this kind of needs. But the hidden side of the enterprise still remains, all the unrecognized gears that makes an enterprise work. In other words : what are the functions that way stay or leave the corporate perimeter. What are those that need a timed attendance and those that need to be negociated of a task basis, on a basis that look much more like partnership than employement ? Because it’s the model that is suggested to us.
Let’s be honnest : it has already begun. Wages department ? Externalize. Recruitment ? Externarlized. Innovaion ? Being externalized. Knowledge management ? Ditto. Externalized to more and more consultants or employees who are incitated to take their independance by spreading. Sales ? Some chose to have their products distributed by a partners network and sell their products to final customers directly anymore.
What remains ? Finance, partners coordination, and few others. Don’t ask me if it’s a bad or a good thing. I don’t know. It will depend on organizations, because no recipe works everywhere. But with an intagible fuel (knowledge, expertise), newcomers with new characteristics and expectations, tools and practices that make all of that possible, the change in the relationship between a company and its ressources may become the next big challenge. For better at the beginning, perharps for worse later because every reaction to an excessive situation causes its own excesses.
It reminds me of a talk I recently had with one of Lille Business School managers. He told me that after the time when people had only one employer in their lives, and the time when people had several employers in their lives, the time is coming when people must be prepared to have many employers at the same time.
All this reminds me of a television report I watched a few weeks ago. It was about Megalodon. It’s a kind of sharks that used to populate seas millions years ago. One theory about its extinction is that it was very hard for them to satisfy his needs in terms of food and that the only species who survived (like killer whales) were less individually strong but were able to organize themselves in groups to hunt in a more agile and flexible way. What if the “big company” was this century’s Megalodon ?
Related articles:
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Enterprise 2.0 : the time when Mr McKinsey, The Geek and Mrs Smith seat together
Transforming usages in enterprise 2.0
New White Paper on Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise 2.0 and social business : what to expect in 2012 ?
What new capabilities did organizations acquire in the last 7 years ?
