With Charles Hugh Smith & Gordon T Long

29 Minutes, 25 Slides

The Post-Capitalist Society, as outlined by the renowned Management consultant Peter Drucker, was about the transition from an era of capital constraints to that of a Knowledge Society. A society where Innovation would become the driver of economic success.

This should be the age of a new American renaissance, as few have ever come close to matching the USA for innovation in almost any field of endeavor. Something however went wrong and the US is no longer the innovator it once was.

What happened?

The short answer is a failing education model, inadequate skill levels, personal debt levels and misguided career expectations. These issues and more are discussed in the context of the globally changing Nature of Work.

With "Time" as the new competitive dimension, the business mandate is now:

• RAPID Innovation and Product Development,
• Shorter Product Life Cycles,
• Accepted heightened Product Life Cycle RISK,
• Immediate Access to New and Changing Skills to Innovate

It means that the new organization models, such as the "Microsoft" and "Neural" Models, are now in play but as in other areas, America is quickly falling behind. The irony is that the Innovation for these models was incubated in the US but changing cultural values, government dependency and pervasive personal debt levels has left America unable to capitalize.

American corporations frustratingly find themselves unable to hire the qualified people they need to rapidly innovate at home. Meanwhile, an obsolete American public education system is focused on other priorities.

The reality is that:

Innovation Means

• WILLINGNESS to Take RISK,
• The Financial ABILITY to Survive Failure
• The Willingness to Sustain a LOW STANDARD OF LIVING while taking the RISK

With 25 charts Charles Hugh Smith and Gordon T Long discuss the changing fabric of work today and show how few Americans are any longer willing, capable or sufficiently skilled to do the"heavy lifting" DEMANDED for globally competitive innovation.

As in the Roman Empire the public is more interested in public sports spectacles and leisure pursuits, preferring to leave the 'work' to others.

Video: America No Longer Innovative Driven

29 Minutes, 25 Slides

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