The only constant is change...

I had the great privilege this morning of participating in the Business Leadership Roundtable run by the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne. In essence, the event involves a number of experienced alumni hosting tables and sharing their thoughts and observations with a group of younger alumni starting out on their career journeys. Great event, and a fantastic initiative to help younger alumni establish and build their networks – the energy in the room was amazing. It’s the sort of event and network that I wish was around when I graduated!

The table hosts were each asked to provide one piece of career advice for the younger alumni. My advice: "The only constant is change - being able to adapt while retaining your core values is the key in today's world".

I asked each of the alumni on my table to imagine living and going to work every day without a mobile telephone and without any internet access. Whilst that is inconceivable to an entire generation of young adults, it was the simple reality when I started working 25 years ago. Businesses still thrived, people still communicated, society still functioned – we just had to work a little differently than we do today.

I shared with the group my observation that I can track my career against the fax machine! When I began working, faxes were not widely used in business. It was only during the late 1980’s and into the 1990’s that they could be found in virtually every office and home. Since that time, of course, faxes have become largely obsolete, succeeded by digital and online communication media.

So – I started working in an environment without fax machines, and suspect I will ultimately finish working in an environment without fax machines. Desktop fax machines (as we think of think if them) have effectively been commercialised, become ubiquitous, been superseded and largely disappeared, all within one generation. To me, this is a great example of both how much technology has changed the way business is done, but also how quickly particular technologies can be become outdated.

The point of this discussion was really to frame the question: Given the extent and pace of change in technology and communications over the past 20 years – what does the world look like in 20 years from now?

In both our personal and business lives, it is worth pondering this question. My guess is that no-one really knows the answer, but if history is any guide, the only constant in the next 20 years will be change, and a whole lot of it….