Recently I sat in a seminar and the speaker said “the
kids at school today are going to be in jobs that don’t even exist yet!”
gasps from the audience at this revolutionary statement as I sat non pulsed
with his closer! Is that really a change to what has always happened? For
example…..When my parents were at school I’m sure the thought of hiring a Head
of cyber security on an hourly rate with his own limited company and a Coffee
shop on every corner was hardly the brave new world we thought it would be!
When I was at school if you would have told me that someone
would jump on the edge of the atmosphere back to earth sponsored by a drinks
company I wouldn’t have believed you. Low and behold it’s been done and by the
way, that was back in 2012!!!!
My father was 30 years plus working for a leading automotive
company and is my business guru (don’t tell him I said that for the record, I
will never hear the end of it). I run many a business musing past him and get
his thoughts. His one mantra/ethos or lesson to me was…. go with your gut! To
be honest, it has been probably the best advice I have ever been given. My gut
was telling me that the speaker was after a reaction rather than delivering
true insight into the future or the future of work.
Back to the business guru (AKA Dad) this one topic we
discussed was development and impending roll out of driverless cars. Being
stepped in Automotive knowledge I wanted to see his reaction to this. For
example how the car will sense the road and objects, stop for and basically do
all the hard yards in the driving. When you are at work you will rent your car
out to Uber and at the end of the day the car will come and pick you up! I was
spending my Uber earnings already! His reaction? The car industry have been
introducing this tech to us already and you take it for granted already! When I
asked him how, he listed the following
Assisted Braking
Dash cams for when you go over the white line
Parking assist
Actually parking your car for you
Cruise control
Lights that bend on corners
Voice activation
Built In Sat Nav (does anyone own a Tom Tom
anymore?)
Rear View cameras
When I stopped to think about the gurus words I knew he was
right. We are already in the futuristic state but always looking further afield
and for the next buzzy thing to latch onto. We don’t want driverless cars now,
we want FLYING CARS!