Have you noticed that the brightest, most engaged people these days no longer carry a business card? Instead, they wave a QR code on their phone at you. This is a signal of radical change in the way human talent is being allocated in the economy. While most are grieving the “Great Resignation”, few see that this is the start of a “Great Reformation”. Yesterday’s skilled workers wanted a career that could be displayed on Linked In. It was static, sequential, and linear. It was one job with one job title for one company at one address. Today’s skilled workers are dynamic, lateral, and portfolio. They cannot display their careers on Linked In anymore because they are doing many things for many institutions in many locations all at once. The Death of the Business Card and the rise of Digital QR Codes is a sign of our times. It signals a radically different and better future.
People are walking out the door and into a new universe of possibility. This is not about resignations as much as reconfigurations of human capital for the better. We are talking about new ways of allocating of time and talent that are vastly more efficient and diversified than anything we’ve seen before. Why have one employer when you can create a diversified customer base of paying counterparties? Workers are not just moving away from the office with a fixed street address to an IP address. The Zoom Boom accelerated the trend. They are also moving from being employees to being entrepreneurial equity holders. This shift is causing an explosion of interest in start-ups and private equity, hence the cover of The Economist this week: Adventure Capitalism, Startup Finance Goes Global.
The cash is flowing the diversification of risk-taking. People are taking on consulting contracts to pay today’s bills while devoting time to one or even a few startups, taking equity stakes in the future. They are hiving off from corporations only to create a startup that solves a problem the company cannot solve for itself. Is it really so risky when you already know who the buyer will be? Is it really so risky when you diversify your income streams in a world that keep slipping back into COVID uncertainty?
This is not about gig workers who are scrambling to work for Uber while maintaining a side hustle as a waiter in a restaurant. That model wasn’t working for anybody even before COVID. This is why the entertainment, hospitality, and food industries have been particularly hit by The Great Resignation. Where are those workers going? For now, many continue to be cushioned by the government’s COVID largesse. But, they know it won’t last. So, many are choosing to move to less expensive locations where work pays less but life costs less too. In the US, for example, we see a mass migration from the expensive coastal Blue states to the less expensive interior Red ones. In Europe, clever founders are migrating from London to Lisbon which offers a better life where money earned stretches further.
This transformation is deeper than jobs. It is about changing the way we measure human success. What are the signs of success? Money? The prestige of the institution you work for? The pace of your progress from one corporate title to another? Companies know that money alone won’t retain the best talent. Employees want work to be fun and interesting too. The young and old alike see corporations as temporary resting spots where they can expand their knowledge and network. But, allegiance to corporations died when companies started treating employees as interchangeable. Notice that nobody needs a CFO or a CTO or a CEO anymore. They need a particular type of person for each role depending on the company’s goals and current configuration. Recruitment agencies are not just looking for anybody with CEO, CFO, CTO skills. There are lots of them around. They are looking for the perfect personality and vision fit for a particular organization in addition to the requisite skills. The cult of the personality is not just for Instagram. It’s a driver of institutional management and careers now. This is what recruitment agencies really specialize in now. The right fit skill fit is expected. The right personality fit is hard and worth every penny. Note that as more and more private equity and venture capital enter the world, the more we’ll see people with these kinds of titles doing several things at once. Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO of Twitter only to continue as the CEO of Square. The best business leaders today look and feel like a lot more this:
This transformation reverses a long-standing trend. The business card world rewards specialization one job title at a time. The QR Code world rewards polymaths with portfolios of interests. It makes sense. The meta-problems of our time are so complex that it requires polymaths to even comprehend where to start. Supplying clean water to every person on the planet. Saving the planet from disease. Serving the interests of the many without trampling the rights of the few. Most people today are not happy to just do a job. Every survey shows this. They want to have a meaningful impact. They want to do good. Most people just haven’t figured out how to get paid for that. So, they are starting to work part-time for those that will pay the bills and part-time for those that can save the planet and humanity. Workers are becoming more altruistic if they possibly can. For those that cannot, they are becoming activists, demanding higher wages and more corporate accountability.
Software is facilitating all this creativity. Individuals no longer need a big corporation to provide infrastructure. It’s not just that accounting and billing can be easily automated now. Companies are outsourcing more and more to external parties. Software and network businesses are matching up talent and corporate needs. Head-hunters are still needed for the senior staff. But, operational staff are more and more those whose skills are needed on a project-by-project basis and they like it that way.
This suits a world where the over-50s are the fastest-growing component of the labor force and where young people don’t want to be in the labor force. They want to be independents who work in this new flexible way. That used to mean that those in the middle adhered to a traditional career model because they had kids and mortgages. But that was in a world where working for a big organization de-risked your position. These days, given the relentless pressure of maintaining a rising share price, the riskiest decision is often to work for one single corporation. Notice too that as labor walks out the door, the share price rises and productivity often increases.
Derek Thompson explains in Three Myths of the Great Resignation that 20% of the workers might walk and the firm can grow by 20% all at the same time! He rightly asks, what if somebody counted how many new jobs were created every time someone walks away from an old job? The way we are keeping score of jobs is no longer capturing the new realities.
The best and the brightest are creatively creating. They are moving from linear to lateral work, from being employees to being builders of equity, from holding a job to creating a portfolio. The question is, are you still carrying a business card?
Many thanks to APSCo for the invitation to speak at the 2021 APSCo Awards for Excellence - sponsored by 6CATS International, The Access Group, giant group, NatWest, Parasol, and WeDo Trade Finance Limited! The winners are announced here.
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Great read Pippa. I an totally agree with this sentiment below as that is exactly why I left a very good leadership career path at Microsoft and joined a small technology startup nearly 5 years ago....... "Companies know that money alone won’t retain the best talent. Employees want work to be fun and interesting too. The young and old alike see corporations as temporary resting spots where they can expand their knowledge and network. But, allegiance to corporations died when companies started treating employees as interchangeable."