L&D 2020: Shaping change in learning

Society

Globalisation

For more than 30 years, the world has been experiencing the new realities of more open global trade. Even at the turn of the millennium, India was already well set to move centre of the trade stage, with China waiting in the wings. Now both countries are global trade giants.

Across Europe, the brain-drain of 2000-2010 is reversing as Eastern European workers start to return home to set up and lead corporates, building on expertise gained in several sectors³.

Thriving entrepreneurship, fuelled largely by immigrants, is a key feature of the global scene and immigrants have turned to entrepreneurship to overcome traditional workplace entry barriers. Although immigrants often bring education and professional experience to an adopted country, their knowledge assets have not always translated into value across cultures. As a result, they often find it easier to start their own company¹.

The world is already ahead of the 2007 prediction of a billion millionaires by 2025² brought about by globalisation and technological innovation many still only budding entrepreneurs back in 2007.

Organisationally, cultures still have their clashes, but people are working harder to overcome these differences often driven by commercial pressures to do so. Many people in 2020 are now working across global borders far more than their parents ever imagined possible. Knowledge workers, in particular, are well-connected to networks around the world.

The web has fostered grassroots globalisation from children in Thailand viewing online lectures to doctors in Africa seeking medical advice from a surgeon in Sweden. As cybercultures have developed in the emerging economies at the turn of the century, they have not developed to become replicas of western websites. Virtual Indiaï quickly followed Virtual China (http://www.virtual-china.org) and spawned a host of copycat sites creating new zones of experimentation and innovation.

Some companies, such as those in the oil sector, have been moving their executives around the globe regularly for many years to develop truly global managers. But others are still playing catch-up. Banks followed the oil companies in the wake of several global mergers, de-mergers and re-mergers. While corporate man is alive and well and willing to sacrifice family life for a lucrative move, others are questioning the need for such a huge upheaval in today's wired world.

1. Intuit Future of Small Business Report, 01/07

2. The Extreme Future, James Canton, 2006

3. http://www.pwc.co.uk/pdf/managing_tomorrows.pdf 2008

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