Schiffman - Blog #5 In Response to “Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work”

Blog #5

In Response to “Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work”

By Isaac Schiffman

10/9/2018

This article emphasizes 12 shifts in business and technology that will cause changes in how organizations work. It starts off by dividing these 12 shifts into 2 sets of 6, one set for the ‘changes in the demand of talent’, the other for the ‘changes in the supply of talent’. ‘Automation’ is categorized under the ‘changes on the demand for talent’ section, while ‘a new demographic mix’, ‘diversity and inclusion’, and ‘skill imbalances’ are included in the ‘changes in the supply of talent’ section.

After reading each of these sections, I have an issue with how this article addresses automation, and its effect on the labor force: the article only considers that automation will change the demand for talent. In truth, automation’s greatest strength is its ability to change the SUPPLY of talent, ergo automation supplies cheaper, more efficient, and easier trained talent.

Additionally, when the article addresses the changes in supply aspects, they fail to address how automation and AI has the capacity to (and most likely will) fill the gap that those changes in supply cause. New demographics and skill imbalances can all be partially or fully addressed with advanced enough AI and automation.

But if this were to be the case, there would be another layer of diversity and inclusion: making sure to include enough humans in your company (vs machines) (another point this article does not address upon). The article instead focuses on how race/gender based diversity and inclusion can increase innovation and productivity. In fact, this article says,

“diversity and inclusion, often seen as ‘nice to have,’ are increasingly becoming a necessity”

Perhaps it is because I am young, going to a leading edge college, or have a bachelor’s degree in business, but I never saw diversity and inclusion as ‘nice to have’, it was always a necessity to preventing your company from becoming a paper-tiger-like echo chamber. Now, I know this is the case for diversity and inclusion based on race, business practices, cultures, gender, and background. 

I’ve seen that data. But I do not know how many humans it takes to effectively run a mostly automated/AI business without the business suffering from a lack of human input. That is an article I would like to read.

P.S. For reference, this article was written in 2017, and mentions predictions going out to 2035. I bring this up for context when understanding my overall sentiments that this article was reporting on certain dated business changes.

Bhalla, Vikram, et al. “Twelve Forces That Will Radically Change How Organizations Work: The New New Way of Working.” Https://Www.bcg.com, 27 Mar. 2017, www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2017/people-organization-strategy-twelve-forces-radically-change-organizations-work.aspx.