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SECURING YOUR FUTURE IN THE
NEW KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN LEARNING ECONOMY
 What’s so
new about the new knowledge-based economy?
The new economy is the innumerable inexpensive opportunities
available to create and exchange new ideas, products, and services.
With this creation and exchange come additional opportunities for
others to see new ways of doing things and participate in creating
yet other opportunities.
The new economy is entrepreneurial and highly networked. Managing
networks, convening them, expanding, perpetuating, and ending them
will become a growing part of commerce, politics, and cultural life.
Leading-edge organizations are already spending an increasing amount
of energy creating customer communities.
With designed communities may come a greater emphasis on life
design. Vocational values such as just following one’s heart may be
replaced by life-design values such as creating a compelling
personal style, seeking risk, and lifestyle change.
We will need to be thoughtful, strategic, and not just go where the
next attractive opportunity appears, but also think about where we
are needed and how the steps we take begin to form a path connecting
us with what is going on in the world. We will need to exercise a
personal compass, a passion about seeking ways to contribute and
make a difference in the world. How will your work have meaning and
integrity in the new economy?
The economy in the past several years has changed the way
organisations conduct business. The shift in demand, expectations of
employees, customer and other stakeholders as well as issues such as
unemployment, downsizing, globalisation, mergers, and acquisitions
have caused organisations to rethink how to do business and reinvent
themselves. Managers at all levels have a critical role to play in
ensuring that their organisation remain competitive in today’s
interconnected and globalised world.
Are these concepts mostly of interest to those pursuing careers
in business? In the globalised new knowledge-driven economy
the workplace is different and requires new approaches by the
workforce, and new approaches to careers. Employment opportunities
that simply advance a discipline, grow knowledge and skill in a
single discipline are diminishing and becoming less valued.
Globalization of markets and the networking of people, customers,
and producers are creating a world where almost all highly valued
employees have to look beyond their disciplines, seek the boundaries
where disciplines intersect, find new opportunities on the horizon,
take the risk to explore them, rigorously develop them, and do so
without being told, do it well, quickly and in good spirits.
With all these forces at play, you are entering a world where you
are more likely to be able to make a difference to your organisation,
if you can embrace the broad new inter-disciplinary opportunities to
be found in the new economy and global markets. Employers of all
kinds look to today’s knowledge workers to make a difference.
Knowledge workers are to the information age what factory workers
were to the industrial revolution. The factory worker spent the day
producing goods for the company to sell. The knowledge worker spends
the day manipulating or producing the knowledge and information the
company sells. Unlike the factory worker, we don't spend our days
sweating and straining on an assembly line. As knowledge workers, we
spend our days tied to a computer and telephone, though we may also
have scheduled face-to-face meetings with clients, customers, and
co-workers. While we have timelines to meet, how we meet them and
how we organize our work is up to us. Our productivity is measured
in results, not seat time.
The Next Steps….
The International
Professional Managers Association (IPMA) Courses and the
Paris
Graduate School of Management (PGSM) International Executive MBA
(IEMBA) Program and its various Modules are designed with
this in mind. First, you will gain advanced knowledge and skills in
the quantitative and non-quantitative aspects of business and this
is crucial towards being a knowledge worker. Additionally, you will
develop a theoretical context for solving many business problems.
Second, you can add in-depth knowledge to your broad business
background. Third, if you are seeking to change careers, a
professional qualification from IPMA will add a different repertoire
of skills to your existing ones. Fourth, an MBA degree from
recognised institutions such as PGSM is often the "ticket" to career
advancement, for it shows an employer that you have not only an
advanced degree but also the personal qualities needed to complete a
challenging MBA program.
Prof Sattar Bawany PhD
EMBA; FPMA, FCIM, MMIS, MSIM, MMDIS, MSHRI, MAMA
Honorary Academic Advisor, IPMA UK
Adjunct Professor of Strategy, PGSM
259 Tampines Central. Singapore 915209.
Tel: (65) 6789-0977 Fax: (65) 6789-0911
Email:
ipma@bawany.com.sg |
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