Learning Ecosystems

Is the next Uber coming your way? — from ibm.com IBM’s Global C-suite Study

Excerpt:

This report is IBM’s second study of the entire C-suite and the eighteenth in the ongoing series of CxO studies developed by the IBM Institute for Business Value. We now have data from more than 28,000 interviews stretching back to 2003. Our latest study draws on input from:

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs): 818
Chief Finance Officers (CFOs): 643
Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs): 601
Chief Information Officers (CIOs): 1,805
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs): 723
Chief Operating Officers (COOs): 657

…

Innovations that harness new technologies or business models, or exploit old technologies in new ways, are emerging on an almost daily basis. And the most disruptive enterprises don’t gradually displace the incumbents; they reshape entire industries, swiftly obliterating whatever stands in their way. So how are C-suite executives (CxOs) tackling the threat of competition from companies in other sectors or with very different business models? Our latest study explores what they think the future holds, how they’re identifying new trends and how they’re positioning their organizations to prosper in the “age of disruption.”

From DSC:
Is looking out for the next Uber just something that corporations/businesses should be doing? Isn’t this true for us as individuals as well? That is, aren’t our jobs/positions vulnerable to disruption as well? As our organizations go, so we often go.  As such, should we leave the pulse checking to others or should we be developing these types of skills ourselves? That is, shouldn’t our own gazes be set on the horizons so that we aren’t broadsided as individuals? 

Given the pace of change and given that more of us are freelancing, this is why I think that we need more such training within K-12 and higher education — programs that focus on pulse checking a variety of landscapes. Futurism is not gazing into some magic ball; such skills can be useful today.