Doing biz in an information-driven era
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When Bill Gates was about crossing the Canadian border few years ago, the immigration officials at the border came over to his car to search his belongings. They asked him to present his luggage and assets for thorough checking. He gave a pack of floppy disks containing Windows 85 to them.
They looked at the pack and since they didn’t understand what it was, they disdained it, gave it back to him and were more concerned with the luggage he was carrying which they thought could have better and more valuable assets than “mere floppy disks.” Unknown to them, the success of Windows 85 brought Microsoft from being a challenger in the global software industry to becoming the richest and the leader. We live in the information age. And in this knowledge economy, information is the single greatest asset. In previous ages, you owned factories, cattle ranches, gold mines, oil wells or skyscrapers to be rich. In the Information Age, information alone can make you rich many times over. The young entrepreneurs, who created Yahoo!, Google, MySpace, YouTube, etc, have proved that. With just a few dollars, some information and the leverage of technology, these twenty- and thirty-year-olds have become billionaires.
We are therefore living in a period different from any kind in the history of mankind. Man has passed through the following economies in our existence:
1. Hunting and gathering economy
2. Agrarian economy
3. Industrial economy
We are now in the Information and Knowledge economy. Five characteristics of the Knowledge Economy are as follows:
1. It is an economy that values and trades ideas.
2. It is built on information.
3. It values brain workers more than brawn (muscle) workers.
4. It values skills and pays skilful people more than others.
5. It is an economy where only those with brilliant initiatives or projects succeed.
I must quickly add that as information has made and is making people stinking rich, poor or mistaken information is a liability. Poor information creates poor people. One of the reasons so many people are struggling financially is because they have obsolete, biased, misleading, or erroneous information powering their most powerful asset, their brain. Many people are suffering and struggling because they are using Industrial or Agrarian Age information in the Information Age. Examples of Industrial Age Information are ideas such as, “I need a good education to get a high-paying job and become rich.” An example of Agrarian Age information is, “Land is the basis of all wealth” or “A country without natural resources cannot be a wealthy and prosperous nation.”
The information age officially started with the invention of digital computers. In the Information Age, information leveraged by technology is wealth, and very inexpensive and abundant resources such as silicon, produce the wealth. In other words, the price of getting rich has gone down. For the first time in history, wealth is available, affordable, and abundant for everyone, regardless of where he or she lives. Socioeconomically, there are now four groups of people: the poor, middle class, the rich and the super rich. Bill Gates is the most obvious example of the Information Age super rich. Today there are young people who became super rich with the inexpensive and abundant resources of technology, information, and their ideas. The common bond among all these is that information enabled the coordination of resources at a much quicker and higher level than ever before. It is this coordination that creates the super rich.
I recently learnt of a guy in the US who couldn’t pay his school fees. So he came up with the idea of having a website where company logos could be featured. For a very tiny space, companies would pay one dollar for a logo, while annual subscription cost fifteen dollars. He created the website and started marketing it. Today, blue-chip and Fortune 500 companies struggle with one another to be on “million-dollar website.” Some of the companies have even booked for 7 years ahead. This is a good example of the kind of ideas that the Information Age accommodates and rewards. Today, information and a very inexpensive computer can transport you from poor to super rich while you’re sitting at home. All it takes is the right information. The following are ways you can become relevant in the knowledge economy:
1. Buy and read professional, business, and motivational books
The African continent is where it is today because of our high-level illiteracy. The more uneducated a people are, the more unenlightened they become and the more shackled they are to poor conditions. To improve your learning curve therefore, you need to pay to acquire information. In this era, your earning ability is tied to your learning capacity. Alvin Toffler put it better, the illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read or write, they are those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
2. Attend seminars, conferences and workshops
Because of the information overload we are faced with in this era, and because of the rapid change that occurs in every sector and every area of human endeavour, seminars, conferences and workshops can provide us the opportunity to be abreast of the latest and relevant information we need to get ahead.
3. Acquire a little more education
Even as much as I believe that wealth is not a function of academic qualifications only, because there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I very much still believe that requisite education can give its possessor a terrific edge to be more competitive and up-to-date in this era. The world yearns for more multi-skilled people.
4. Be a problem solver
Let’s take a cue from the super rich; they are consummate problem solvers. Forget it – to be rich in this era, you must find problems and provide solutions for them.
5. Meet the needs of people
There are needs everywhere. Riches only go to that man/woman who strives through the creation of a product or service to meet such needs.
6. Be resourceful or create ideas
Look at the example of the million-dollar website fellow. Only idea people rule in this economy.
7. Use and master relevant technology
This age is a technology-based and driven era. I once joked with a colleague that very soon, the world is moving from computer and internet literacy to ICT and network literacy. If you can read and write in this century, you must learn how to also use the phone, the computer, internet, and very soon have some knowledge about computer security and networking.
The world is truly changing. You cannot afford to stand still lest you grow roots. To matter in this era, and with regard to financial stability and success, as a nation and people, we must begin to move away from our Agrarian and Industrial Age mentality and begin to embrace the opportunities and possibilities that the Information Age affords. Only then can we grapple with and overcome the financial and other challenges of this era.
Articles
Doing biz in an information-driven era
Category: SME toolkit Written by ** Hits: 3457
When Bill Gates was about crossing the Canadian border few years ago, the immigration officials at the border came over to his car to search his belongings. They asked him to present his luggage and assets for thorough checking. He gave a pack of floppy disks containing Windows 85 to them.
They looked at the pack and since they didn’t understand what it was, they disdained it, gave it back to him and were more concerned with the luggage he was carrying which they thought could have better and more valuable assets than “mere floppy disks.” Unknown to them, the success of Windows 85 brought Microsoft from being a challenger in the global software industry to becoming the richest and the leader. We live in the information age. And in this knowledge economy, information is the single greatest asset. In previous ages, you owned factories, cattle ranches, gold mines, oil wells or skyscrapers to be rich. In the Information Age, information alone can make you rich many times over. The young entrepreneurs, who created Yahoo!, Google, MySpace, YouTube, etc, have proved that. With just a few dollars, some information and the leverage of technology, these twenty- and thirty-year-olds have become billionaires.
We are therefore living in a period different from any kind in the history of mankind. Man has passed through the following economies in our existence:
1. Hunting and gathering economy
2. Agrarian economy
3. Industrial economy
We are now in the Information and Knowledge economy. Five characteristics of the Knowledge Economy are as follows:
1. It is an economy that values and trades ideas.
2. It is built on information.
3. It values brain workers more than brawn (muscle) workers.
4. It values skills and pays skilful people more than others.
5. It is an economy where only those with brilliant initiatives or projects succeed.
I must quickly add that as information has made and is making people stinking rich, poor or mistaken information is a liability. Poor information creates poor people. One of the reasons so many people are struggling financially is because they have obsolete, biased, misleading, or erroneous information powering their most powerful asset, their brain. Many people are suffering and struggling because they are using Industrial or Agrarian Age information in the Information Age. Examples of Industrial Age Information are ideas such as, “I need a good education to get a high-paying job and become rich.” An example of Agrarian Age information is, “Land is the basis of all wealth” or “A country without natural resources cannot be a wealthy and prosperous nation.”
The information age officially started with the invention of digital computers. In the Information Age, information leveraged by technology is wealth, and very inexpensive and abundant resources such as silicon, produce the wealth. In other words, the price of getting rich has gone down. For the first time in history, wealth is available, affordable, and abundant for everyone, regardless of where he or she lives. Socioeconomically, there are now four groups of people: the poor, middle class, the rich and the super rich. Bill Gates is the most obvious example of the Information Age super rich. Today there are young people who became super rich with the inexpensive and abundant resources of technology, information, and their ideas. The common bond among all these is that information enabled the coordination of resources at a much quicker and higher level than ever before. It is this coordination that creates the super rich.
I recently learnt of a guy in the US who couldn’t pay his school fees. So he came up with the idea of having a website where company logos could be featured. For a very tiny space, companies would pay one dollar for a logo, while annual subscription cost fifteen dollars. He created the website and started marketing it. Today, blue-chip and Fortune 500 companies struggle with one another to be on “million-dollar website.” Some of the companies have even booked for 7 years ahead. This is a good example of the kind of ideas that the Information Age accommodates and rewards. Today, information and a very inexpensive computer can transport you from poor to super rich while you’re sitting at home. All it takes is the right information. The following are ways you can become relevant in the knowledge economy:
1. Buy and read professional, business, and motivational books
The African continent is where it is today because of our high-level illiteracy. The more uneducated a people are, the more unenlightened they become and the more shackled they are to poor conditions. To improve your learning curve therefore, you need to pay to acquire information. In this era, your earning ability is tied to your learning capacity. Alvin Toffler put it better, the illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read or write, they are those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
2. Attend seminars, conferences and workshops
Because of the information overload we are faced with in this era, and because of the rapid change that occurs in every sector and every area of human endeavour, seminars, conferences and workshops can provide us the opportunity to be abreast of the latest and relevant information we need to get ahead.
3. Acquire a little more education
Even as much as I believe that wealth is not a function of academic qualifications only, because there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I very much still believe that requisite education can give its possessor a terrific edge to be more competitive and up-to-date in this era. The world yearns for more multi-skilled people.
4. Be a problem solver
Let’s take a cue from the super rich; they are consummate problem solvers. Forget it – to be rich in this era, you must find problems and provide solutions for them.
5. Meet the needs of people
There are needs everywhere. Riches only go to that man/woman who strives through the creation of a product or service to meet such needs.
6. Be resourceful or create ideas
Look at the example of the million-dollar website fellow. Only idea people rule in this economy.
7. Use and master relevant technology
This age is a technology-based and driven era. I once joked with a colleague that very soon, the world is moving from computer and internet literacy to ICT and network literacy. If you can read and write in this century, you must learn how to also use the phone, the computer, internet, and very soon have some knowledge about computer security and networking.
The world is truly changing. You cannot afford to stand still lest you grow roots. To matter in this era, and with regard to financial stability and success, as a nation and people, we must begin to move away from our Agrarian and Industrial Age mentality and begin to embrace the opportunities and possibilities that the Information Age affords. Only then can we grapple with and overcome the financial and other challenges of this era.