Brave new world of business

Predicting the future is not an exact science. However, in these days of rapidly changing technology, it has become more imperative than ever for companies to look ahead and try and predict how technological advances, globalisation, environmental concerns and people's desire for more flexible working will affect the way business is carried out. And this future of work matters not only in the way we work but where we work.

In fact, commentators predict that for firms, the next decade will be as revolutionary as the original Industrial Revolution nearly three centuries ago -- and this time it's global. In McKinsey Quarterly, an online business journal, W Brian Arthur, in his essay 'The second economy', argues that the internet and digitisation is the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution: "In fact, I think it may well be the biggest change ever in the economy ... There's no upper limit to this, no place where it has to end." Professor Lynda Gratton in her book The Shift believes that due to technology, "the world is at the apex of an enormously creative and innovative shift that will result in profound changes to the everyday lives of people across the world".

Matt Barrie, chief executive of online outsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com, agrees that technology is changing rapidly and transforming the way we do business. "The internet is the next shift," he told Recruiter. "There's still 70% of the world's 7bn population about to join the internet." He gave the example of the Philippines where in 2009, 8m Filipinos were on the internet. "In 2010 that figure is around 30m," he says. "Technology will massively change the way we do our jobs, and that's an inevitable fact."

The trend is expanding exponentially. Kjetil Olsen, vice- president, Europe, at online employment site Elance, says: "More and more individuals are choosing the freelance lifestyle that gives them freedom to work when they want, where they want and with whom they want. The freelancing model also provides the opportunity to specialise and work on projects they love. Using the UK as an example, the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) estimates there are 1.4m freelancers now working in the UK, with that number set to grow substantially over the next decade."

According to a new book by senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School, Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson, Future Work: How Businesses Can Adapt and Thrive In The New World Of Work, employees are more productive if they have greater autonomy over where, when and how they work. The growth of 'future work' will also see more work being done remotely and more "work hubs" -- specially designed workspaces equipped with the technology to support mobile workers, says Maitland. "Instead of being the location where employees gather at fixed times to do concentrated work, the office could become primarily a place for developing and maintaining connections between people," she adds.

This rise in a more 'entrepreneurial' way of working is happening globally, particularly with the cost of computers and more importantly mobile devices becoming ever more affordable, including for those in growing economies. Gratton told Recruiter at the launch of Phase 3 of the Future of Work Consortium in London last month that today in the UK, the US and Europe, it is the SMEs and not the big corporations that are creating the jobs. A recent report by Bibby Financial Services, '2020 Vision: The Future of Business', also predicts a 20% increase in the number of small businesses in the UK.