THE next way of doing business beckons, as evidenced by corporations such as WhatsApp ("The intangible corporation"; last Friday).
According to public policy don and author Robert Reich, the old model of mass production by the many for mass consumption by the many will be replaced by a future of almost unlimited production by a handful, for consumption by whoever can afford it.
He mentioned Kodak, which had 145,000 employees at its prime, but filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
That same year, Instagram had 13 employees serving 30 million customers.
Robotics and 3D printing, as they progress, will no doubt disrupt the manufacturing industry in a similar manner.
This shift of "many serving many", to "few serving many" is a sign of things to come.
This is why, as Singapore seeks to transform our economy, the skills-focused productivity push is absolutely critical.
What are the factors that generate massive value in this new economy?
They can be distilled down to three: embracing new technology quickly, human ingenuity, and multi-skilling.
Employees, entrepreneurs and civil servants would all need to be able to learn quickly and adapt to the latest tools and technology.
This habit of continuous improvement by leveraging new technology will give a huge boost to productivity.
Creativity and the ability to innovate will also be important.
This is where cross-disciplinary knowledge, for example operation managers with IT knowledge, will be able to put two and two together and come up with new ways of doing things.
The deeper the repertoire of knowledge and skills one has, the greater the ability to innovate.
Finally, education, be it mid-career or tertiary, is needed so we can cultivate skills to future-proof Singapore and ensure our place in the world for the next 50 years.
Joseph Wang Yingjie
According to public policy don and author Robert Reich, the old model of mass production by the many for mass consumption by the many will be replaced by a future of almost unlimited production by a handful, for consumption by whoever can afford it.
He mentioned Kodak, which had 145,000 employees at its prime, but filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
That same year, Instagram had 13 employees serving 30 million customers.
Robotics and 3D printing, as they progress, will no doubt disrupt the manufacturing industry in a similar manner.
This shift of "many serving many", to "few serving many" is a sign of things to come.
This is why, as Singapore seeks to transform our economy, the skills-focused productivity push is absolutely critical.
What are the factors that generate massive value in this new economy?
They can be distilled down to three: embracing new technology quickly, human ingenuity, and multi-skilling.
Employees, entrepreneurs and civil servants would all need to be able to learn quickly and adapt to the latest tools and technology.
This habit of continuous improvement by leveraging new technology will give a huge boost to productivity.
Creativity and the ability to innovate will also be important.
This is where cross-disciplinary knowledge, for example operation managers with IT knowledge, will be able to put two and two together and come up with new ways of doing things.
The deeper the repertoire of knowledge and skills one has, the greater the ability to innovate.
Finally, education, be it mid-career or tertiary, is needed so we can cultivate skills to future-proof Singapore and ensure our place in the world for the next 50 years.
Joseph Wang Yingjie
