Moore’s law states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years. This law stood strong for nearly four decades since 1970. But in 2013, the law was broken. World, until recent past, thrived on something called collective consciousness.
Japan has grown with manufacturing and innovation as consciousness. America with a consumerism consciousness, most south Asian countries with agrarian. It is with this consciousness nations survived, international laws functioned, generations lived. This consciousness has an age. It’s like a cycle. Earlier the cycle would last for two and half decades. But since the advent of technology and globalisation, the cycle of consciousness started to converge. At the beginning of 21st century it was a decade. At the end of first decade of 21st century it was 3 years. Present, it has fallen to —any guesses?
Thomas Friedman, a prominent thinker of our time coined the phrase “World is flat” in 2004. In 2018, we can starkly view the World as being disappeared. The cycle has converged to 1 day. With every sunrise, there is a new world we face. With every sunset, we leave behind a consciousness. In such dynamics, let us see how nations, Organizations and People are faring.
Nations:
The focus has become internal. There is protectionism on rise. Be it UK’s Brexit, Trump’s trade wars or the rise of far-right political parties in Germany and France. The case of protectionism is just under scrutiny and experimental. Protectionism is proving to be true for few aggressive developed nations. But the catch is that the developed nations growth has become stagnant and have no option but to rely on the growth of emerging and other developing nations. Thanks to technology and its free flow, the world resources are distributed more proportionately than ever before.
The age of dominance has ended. The age of camaraderie has started. Defence budgets have been slashed aggressively and international peace treaties among countries are on rise. (Special mention: North Korea). Though there is some unrest in few parts of the world, Steven Pinker in his famous book ‘Better angels of our nature’ argues that the World has become less violent and a better place to live in compared to yester years. All is well. Economic prosperity is no more a major attribute to measure a country’s well-being. Rather countries are ranked on several parameters as follows:
Economic well-being is just <2% (under quality of life).
Organizations:
Organizations are the new nations. Nestlé’s market capitalization is equal to that of India’s net revenue. Proctor and Gamble’s Russia’s net revenue, IBM’s Market cap that of Mexico’s, Google’s half of Africa and so on. Corporations are expanding. Nations are contracting. In his recent book ‘Hit Refresh’, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO has clear vision for long term future of the company, but sceptical about the same. Instead he wants to focus on short term goals which are in one-month periods. The consciousness gap has reduced. He weighs in on the unpredictability of the long-term strategies. Companies are failing to predict. There are many black swan events. Near future is restricted to one month/ for big corporations- a quarter.
This is the age of entrepreneurs. 53% of the world work force desire to be entrepreneurs (India’s desirable level is at staggering 83%). But ideation has become chaotic. 75% of entrepreneur ventures are failing. Start-ups that think with heart has high chances of success than those that think with the brain. Karma is the winner. It’s the balance of building an organization and winning the market. Successful ventures see to balance both. Amazon, Google, Alibaba balanced both. Tesla, Facebook faltered on organization building side.
People:
Men fought for land, for relations, for world dominance with other men on physical planes. Presently, Men fear other men less than they think they fear other men. The fight has become internal. Man is fighting with his own mind. ‘There is nothing good or bad’, said Shakespeare, ‘but thinking makes it so’. Though, for good he has become independent. Every day he wakes up with new hope, living in the present, accepting blemishes of his own mistakes. The past is a dead creature.
At this ever-changing dynamic of consciousness, it is essential to adapt at faster rate than before for survival. People working for themselves don’t fit into the new age of consciousness. It is always who work for the need of others flourishes, be it for other people or for the organizations. “He who can arouse an eager want in others has the whole world with him”, according to Dale Carnegie. Adapt by doing, not thinking. As my boss’s WhatsApp status says, “the trouble is you think you have time”. No time to waste time thinking you have time. The cycle of consciousness is just one day. Tomorrow is a different/new day.
