The Future of Jobs

Many people have coined a lot of phrases with regards to doing business, which I call business "idioms". Here is a list of my favourites:

1. Moonshot
2. Leapfrog
3. Unicorn

What businesses can learn from Willy Wonka

The gift economy

Chase Buckley writes in his extremely insightful article, "The Future Draws Closer: 9 Design Prophecies for 2019":

The Kula Ring is clearly a prophetic view of our own future in the West — one in which consumers care far more about the relationships and experiences gained through transactions than of the actual items and services themselves.



Users flock to AirBnB and CouchSurfing not merely to fulfill the basic need of shelter, but to establish meaningful and enduring relationships along the way. The same can be said for RelayRides and Liquid and the host of borrowing apps that allow neighbors to share their goods with one another — not for profit but for interpersonal gain. And its especially evident in Peer to Peer marketplaces like Zaarly and Quirky and Etsy, where the items being purchased are obviously worthless, yet still maintain value by virtue of the relationships they help to create and maintain.

Designers of the future will be wise to acknowledge the implicit values of connection over utility, of interpersonal relationships over profit, and of enriching interactions over pragmatic exchanges. We’re on a trajectory towards the Kula Ring — where the ultimate goal of our transactions is not to come out on top, but to come out together, instead.

Principles of the gift economy

There will be a shift from a commodity-exchange based economy to a gift-exchange based economy.  In his book "Gifts and Commodities", Chris Gregory contrasts the two:




People will value meaning more than money. Interactions will become more than mere business transactions, but exchanges of goodwill.

Business Lessons from Nature

Symbiosis

Plants grow flowers to attract pollinating insects. Your business should do likewise to attract customers. Large, vibrant flowers that emit a sweet fragrance attracts bees and butterflies. Appealing aesthetics that engages the senses attracts customers. The relationship should be symbiotic: both sides interact with and mutually benefit from one another. The insects help pollinate the plants, and the plants offer nectar to them in return. Your business should not only take from your customers, but also offer incentives to reward them.

Adaptation

Make structural and/or behavioral adaptations to adjust to your environment. A rabbit that lives in a forest habitat is brown to camouflage with the ground, while a rabbit that lives in a snowy habitat is white. Similarly, different businesses should adapt accordingly in order to survive and thrive.

Evolution

Change for the better. Organisms evolve, businesses pivot. This is the process of natural selection, and the survival of the fittest.