I’m keynoting the annual user conference for Handysoft today in Las Vegas. The focus is on “business process management” — that is, developing more efficient business processes in order to ensure survival in the real-time economy. Most organizations have a long way to go. HealthCare Financial Management Magazine estimates that it costs about $150 to process each health care supply order order, and that only 10-15% are electronic. Best’s Review, the bible of the insurance industry, estimates that some $59 billion is wasted each year on inefficient paper processes. The list goes on — there’s lot of opportunity, and lots of change yet to come to the economy.
New article – Gen-Y and the workforce
“One of the more challenging issues that organizations will have to deal with in the next few years is how to successfully integrate “Gen-Y” into the workforce…….. there hasn’t been a lot of thought given as to how to successfully integrate this new and diverse age demographic into the workforce, an issue that is becoming more important with every passing day. The fact is, these kids are unique in more ways than one, and hence, forward thinking executives should take the time to learn how to take advantage of their uniqueness, and how to best manage and motivate them.”
Nine issues for not-for-profits
Why is our world more complex?
I’m doing a talk on change this morning for an environmental government ministry — specifically, how to lead and manage change. One of the key points I will be getting across to them is that to successfully manage change, you must help people understand how relentless change will continue to be.
Some change results from rapid scientific advance — and in that context, consider the statistics I obtained from a chemical journal on the rapid evolution of knowledge/data in that field:
- “To be up-to-date in all areas of chemistry you would currently have to read about 2,000 new publications every day”
- “If you prefer to screen only the short abstracts, you must read 200 pages per day or about 70,000 pages per year.
- “Furthermore, since the number of chemistry publications increases also exponentially, you need to double your reading capacity within the next 15 years. “
- “You must read 20 publications every day in order to grasp only 1% of the overall chemical publications!”
The result of this rate of advance is an spiralling increase in the number of chemical substances:
- “…The number of known substances has been growing exponentially since 1800, from some hundreds then to about 19 million today….”
- “…. the number constantly doubles every 13 years….”
- 2025: 80 million substances
- 2050: 300 million
2100: 5 billion……
“The End of Retirement”
“Are you ready for a world in which the concept of “retirement’ has come to an end? If not, you’d better be, as this is likely to rapidly emerge as the most significant issue for every organization through the next ten years. That’s because right now, we have a “perfect storm” brewing that involves three succinct but inter-related trends that will see the ongoing involvement in the workforce of people well past the age of 65.” Read my latest article and think about what it might mean to your organization “ (PDF)
Not Your Father’s Telephone
“Ten years ago, I spoke to 300 telecom engineers …and made the observation that within 10 to 20 years, most of the world’s telephone systems will have moved to Internet technology. You might imagine that my remarks were met with derision, if not outright anger, perhaps because the idea of an accountant explaining the future of something like the telephone system just seemed too bizarre at the time. Fast forward to 2004 — telecom industry prospects are looking up and there is much talk of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. It seems I have been proven right.” Read my latest article, Not Your Father’s Telephone. (PDF)
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