Global Compact International Yearbook 2016

The whole world can’t be Bill Gates
Rolling out the alternative to a job with the government or with
a corporation requires focusing on start-ups, self-employment,
self-made work, entrepreneurship. Yet, for most people, many
of these notions conjure up images of larger-than-life figures,
of a Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or, perhaps, some teenagers
who – fueled by takeaway pizza – burn the midnight oil
coding new apps. When we hear terms like these, we think
of a path that is risky, requiring top-level education, out-sized
intelligence, and ambition to succeed.
I will not offer a ready-made solution that will make our current
crisis cubed simply go away. But I will offer that – in
my 30 years of living and working in the Americas, Europe,
and Asia – I have seen how income can be created by many
outside the formal structures of government and corporations,
and how people who have taken this route can thrive and
shape their own futures.
Company minus hierarchy equals collaboration
work within the traditional definition of jobs. Additionally,
millennials, who are fast becoming the core of the global
workforce, have little appetite for jobs and careers, since they
offer too much structure and too little personal fulfillment.
What did people do before there were jobs?
Neither governments nor companies can become sustainable
engines of job creation. But then this crisis is not actually about
“jobs.” In the early 19th century, what did people do before
there were jobs? Well, certainly they worked – usually for
themselves – in agriculture, as craftspeople, as tradespeople,
or as part of their local economy in other ways.
This “cottage industry” work lacked scale; it was local by necessity.
When corporations came along in the 19th century,
they simply took these workers, organized them, and – with
the aid of steam-powered factories and early industrializing
technology – created focus, efficiency, and scale. They brought
us the big corporations we now have today, and that model
worked for a long time. Yet, it is fast becoming obsolete.
Today’s most valuable companies, such as Apple, employ a
proportionally small number of people. At the same time, the
job market is shrinking almost everywhere because of the
forces mentioned above. We simply must change our model of
work and look beyond traditional jobs, beyond governments,
beyond corporations. We must develop concepts that provide
the flexibility and resilience needed for people to thrive amidst
this massive disruption.
Take away the hierarchies of today’s corporations and what
are we left with? At their core, companies are a collection of
people engaged in collaborative efforts. It is this collaboration
that is at the heart of our new model of work.
Let us look at it from the perspective of individuals. What they
need for success are business templates that leverage their skills,
match their interests, and – most importantly – nurture
the right mindset that will allow them to be collaborators in
this emerging new economy. They should not just be trained
with cognitive skills or STEM smarts but also non-cognitive
skills such as creativity, self-discipline, resourcefulness, and
endurance – none of which are measured by tests, and few
of which are taught in school.
People with those non-cognitive skills may not feel comfortable
calling themselves entrepreneurs … but from a mindset perspective
they are! And with the right tested templates, models,
and tools, they will be able to generate an income that allows
them to be independent and stand on their own two feet.
Just last week I used my Uber app and was picked up by an
older middle-aged woman who told me she previously had
been cleaning houses a few days a week. Now, she proudly
reported, she was making much more money and with the
flexibility the work offered, was able to drop off and pick up her
granddaughter from school each day. I asked what new skills
she had to learn. “None,” she said. She already knew how to
drive, she knew the area, and always loved meeting new people.
WeWork, another disruptive business model, is a chain of
shared office spaces that rents workspaces on a pay-as-you-
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Global Compact International Yearbook 2016