The last-half of the 20th century saw a pivotal advancement in the technology that catapulted most industries into the height of mechanical efficiency. The speed of growth of technology unfortunately far outpaced the growth and development of the most important component of the total corporate picturecommunication and obsolescence of things.

Advances in communication have brought knowledge about every nook and corner of the world within our easy and ready reach. Through INTERNET we can instantly hook-on to millions of main-frame and PCs throughout the world. Given a problem or proposition, you can attract throusands of responses in matter of seconds. Suddently, we no longer have the luxury of playing the hermit game. Since our competitors have the same access to knowledge, we must have it too if we are to stay competitive. We can no longer operate as an isolated economic segment. Today we are operating in a global economy that begets global competition. The geographic boundaries have crumbled fast under the assault of fiber optics and laser beams. The human element of successful corporations must therefore be highly enlightened and attuned to these new realities.

The shelf-life of things, ideas and attitudes has shortened considerably; machines, designs, ideas become obsolete quickly because of the fast pace of technologic revolution. What used to take decades to wear-off utility now often takes only months. And that's where we find the greatest difficulty in modifying the human component, who is more used to the slow pace of Darwinian evolution. Most of us stick to our biases, routines, preferences of doing things without realising that we are beating at the door of obsolescence. To many, adopting new technology means giving up old styles and that does not come easy.

The next century of corporations would succeed not on the basis of their technology but on the basis of the quality of individuals. And the quality of individuals shall be determined by the investment these corporations make in this century in their human resources. How do we prepare our manpower for the next century? First of all, the Human Resource Departments must realign and restructure themselves. Additional roles should include continuous training of all employees, not just some and particularly not just the top employees. The training and retraining should be akin to continuous educational requirement of professional licensing. The training should emphasise methods of adopting new techniques of communication and brainwashing to drop old attitudes. The successful companies of the future will care for their employees, for in this altruistic interest in the employees shall lie their own survival.

The battle of the next century among corporations will not be fought in the manufacturing corridors but in the training halls.

[12April 1995 The Daily Dawn]