I presented my vision for the future of IT services and our company to the employees of Everon today. I think it went well, but there were obvious signs of anxiety, including the following question:
“Based on what you just told us, I’m concerned that we may not have job security in the future. Will we have jobs?”
It was a fair question, and one I knew would come up. The reality is that with any significant change in a marketplace, there is concern about job losses. In the case of our industry, that concern is legitimate.
If you believe Nicholas Carr’s predictions about the IT industry, you expect the entire IT “middle class” to be turned into dinosaurs over the next handful of years. I happen to think he’s right.
But that doesn’t mean that jobs at an individual company will be wiped out. In fact, I think employees at our company will much more job security if we make the transition to our next strategy successfully. And most of those jobs will be more highly paid.
But they will be different.
And that’s the rub. Our company and our employees must develop new skills and knowledge if they are to make this transition successfully. As I candidly told them in our meeting, not everyone will make it.
The question for the readers of this blog is “Will you have jobs?”.
Will you be able to make the transitions necessary to survive?
Are you committed to learning new skills?
Are you committed to acquiring new knowledge?
MRC
