A New Era in Business?

Those who know me best would not consider me a sentimental person. In fact, my wife would probably laugh out loud if someone suggested that I was indeed sentimental. But with my oldest graduating from high school in a couple of days, it has caused me to think about what work life might be like for him four or five (hopefully four!!!!) years down the road.

It seems to me that we’ve experienced another sea change in the way business is being conducted. During my career I’ve seen the concept of life-long employment with gold watches and generous pensions at retirement come to an end. I’ve lived through the “greed is good” days of the ’90s. I’ve watched as younger employees approach work as a strict trading of talent and time for dollars. I’ve seen the impact the Internet has had on companies and the way they conduct business, and the changes are startling. Then we had the Enron, WorldComm, and Tyco debacles.

But all of this pales in comparison to what has occurred during the last 12-18 months when we’ve experienced the worst recession of my lifetime. The recession’s impact on business has been immeasurable. We’ve seen some of this country’s most vaunted institutions brought to their knees and, as I write this, there are still questions about the survival of some of them.

So how will all of this change the way business is transacted? What impact will it have on the relationship between employees and employers? I believe it will change both drastically. In fact, it already has.  But how?

Here are a few observations:

1. Companies will be much more conscientious about how they spend their money. Of course, during a recession everyone tightens the belt. But my guess is that there will be a lasting effect from this. Money has flowed pretty freely for a long time, and many people who make up today’s workforce have never lived through this type of downturn. I think it will take a long time before we get back to the go-go spending days we’ve seen over the last couple of decades.
2. Employees’ expectations about what they will get from their employer has changed, again. Our parents expected life-long employment in exchange for their undying loyalty and got it. More recently, younger employees have viewed management with much skepticism and some disdain as they watched senior executives chase the almighty dollar. Now I think all employees have a greater appreciation for the job they have — especially if they like what they do. With unemployment at highs we haven’t seen in decades, suddenly a paying job with benefits is something to be appreciated.
3. Consumers are going to demand more from the companies they do business with. They’ll have more questions about a company’s ethics, business practices, and long-term viability. Consumers will be less trusting than ever before. We have Enron and others partially to thank for this, but Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the AIG scandal, and Bernie Madoff’s actions have taken consumer skepticism to new heights, and I’m pretty certain it won’t be less so any time soon.

So what type of work environment will my son see just a few years from now? One that is very different from the one I have experienced in my 20+-year career.  Whether it will be better or worse, I’m not sure.  I can see ways that it will be much better and other ways that it won’t be nearly as good.  So my advice to him to succeed in the work world of tomorrow will be the same as it would have been a decade ago. Find something you love to do and then figure out how to make a living doing it. The rest will take care of itself.