Work will never be the same. We’ve talked more about this here.
Lavinia expands her idea by applying the second option, embracing the future of work to the entrepreneurial world.
Build your business to take advantage of it
If you run a business, below are some things you can do.
- Automate/outsource all or most of the left side of the brain/algorithmic work. If a task implies following a set of established instructions down a single pathway to one conclusion, it’ll be amongst the first to be automated.
- Focus on the
right side of the brain/heuristic kind of work — interesting, challenging, creative—the kind of tasks that require someone to find a solution/path themselves. McKinsey estimates that about 70% of job growth in the US comes from heuristic work — these are the jobs of the future.
- Put meaning and purpose at the core of your business and the jobs you offer. Millennials care more about purpose than they do about paychecks. Communicate clearly the ‘why’, and the ‘how’ and ‘what’ will come naturally.
- Master technology. Find, test and integrate
in to your business the best and most suitable tools from the myriad now available—e.g. you won’t win by making your employees type faster on a typewriter, you’ll win by using intuitive technology that turns voice into ready proofread docs. Andrea, the CEO of Mailbird is a great example of how you can both use — AND produce in her case—state-of-the-art tools designed to run your (remote) team.
- Put people first. Money is not an entrepreneur’s scarcest resource. In the era of venture capital, grants, accelerators, angel investors, financial capital is relatively abundant* and cheap. Talent is the scarcest resource. To highlight this point—financial capital is abundant but carefully managed, human capital is scarce but not carefully managed. People bring you all the other sources of added value that really matter nowadays—knowledge, inspiration, energy, innovation, technologies.
- Lead
like you’ve earned it. Stay humble, stay hungry and always hustle. Hire people who embody sisu.
- Sisu is a Finnish term that describes the psychological strength that allows a person to overcome extraordinary challenges. It’s a willingness to act even when the reward seems out of reach, it’s the determination and bravery that, as an entrepreneur, you no doubt need — and probably already exercise.
*global financial capital has more than tripled over the past three decades and now stands at roughly 10 times global GDP.
