I just watched a wonderful presentation on TED from Robert Gordon on the death of innovation. He concludes this talk with a challenge to us all. He asks Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison to come onto the stage and asks if we are able to match their innovation for our generation. Great question isn’t it?
He posits that the American economy might be settling back into the growth ranges we had prior to the early 19th Century? That growth rate was 0.2% while in the years since 1891 and up until 2007 the GDP grew at an average 2.0%. That is a staggering change.
Unless we can have the same levels of innovation then that is our future.
There four main things we are fighting against.
The key statistic to improving the standard of living is hours of work. Women coming into the workforce in the numbers over the past fifty years have made the difference.
The quality of education has eroded in America along with the level of graduation. Canada has a graduation rate 15% higher than the US.
Both personal debt and government debt are out of control. Personal debt appeared to be declining for a short time but has started back up. Government debt is a pretty clear situation at all levels national, state and local.
Anticipated wage growth for the bottom 99% is 0.8% which will not be nearly enough to improve the standard of living.
Something has to give. Either we innovate or we are destined for a period of extremely slow growth which will provide inadequate improvements in the standard of living for the coming generations.
The time is now.
Education Step 12
Many are talking about the lost generation. That is the current group of people in their late teens to their early twenties. The unemployment rate for this group is almost obscene and I am not really hearing a lot of outrage.
This group of people must be wondering what happened to them. When I was coming into the work force it was also a frustrating time. There were insufficient jobs available – interview after interview being told that you had everything that they wanted in a new employee but didn’t have any openings gets pretty old.
Think about the loss of earnings capacity for the economy. Think about the loss of taxable earnings as a result of delaying the entry to the economy of these talented people. The penalty is not just for the undereducated which has long been a concern of mine but also for the educated. The dilemma with the education received is that it has not delivered marketable skills to the students that the market wants or needs.
Hope is a wonderful emotion and feeling. But take away hope from these younger people and one day this will boil up and cause serious troubles for everyone.
So we have to get serious someday soon don’t you think. Get government out of education. Get unions out of the way. Get anyone who is protecting the status quo out of the way. Get business and parents and students together to determine what is required of the coming generation of workers.
The time is now.
Management Musings 2.6
I just watched a wonderful presentation on TED from Robert Gordon on the death of innovation. He concludes this talk with a challenge to us all. He asks Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison to come onto the stage and asks if we are able to match their innovation for our generation. Great question isn’t it?
He posits that the American economy might be settling back into the growth ranges we had prior to the early 19th Century? That growth rate was 0.2% while in the years since 1891 and up until 2007 the GDP grew at an average 2.0%. That is a staggering change.
Unless we can have the same levels of innovation then that is our future.
There four main things we are fighting against.
The key statistic to improving the standard of living is hours of work. Women coming into the workforce in the numbers over the past fifty years have made the difference.
The quality of education has eroded in America along with the level of graduation. Canada has a graduation rate 15% higher than the US.
Both personal debt and government debt are out of control. Personal debt appeared to be declining for a short time but has started back up. Government debt is a pretty clear situation at all levels national, state and local.
Anticipated wage growth for the bottom 99% is 0.8% which will not be nearly enough to improve the standard of living.
Something has to give. Either we innovate or we are destined for a period of extremely slow growth which will provide inadequate improvements in the standard of living for the coming generations.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy v2013-18
The power of imagination makes us infinite.
John Muir
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
Peter Drucker
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius
The time is now…..
Words of Wisdom #13
We need to revisit some critical personal attributes – integrity, faith, industry and cooperation. Simple things but few live up to the test.
In many walks of life, if not the nation, too much is being contributed by too few. The argument should not be about how we can take from the “1%” to give to the rest it should be focused on how to increase the 1% to be 2%.
Once we start thinking that way we will lose some of the envy or jealousy in our society. Perhaps we will have people asking how each of them can contribute more. The first step is to give more thought to the individual. Slow down the drive to acquire things and speed up the drive to grow as a person.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy v2013-17
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli
Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.
Lord Byron
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot
The time is now…..
Friday Filosophy v2013-16
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.
William Henry Channing
Adversity is the first path to truth.
Lord Byron
The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose.
Michel do Montaigne.
The time is now…..
Training Tidbit #5
Those of you who have following this blog know about my concern for education, particularly the trade and vocational schools. Well yesterday in the Sunday paper here was another voice being raised. Morris Beschloss. He is a distinguished economic analyst He references a book in this article written by Edward E Gordon. It is dry reading but I consider it to be critical information. The book is titled “Future Jobs-Solving the Employment Skills Crisis.”
This book highlights how our vocational and technical training has been abandoned in this country. That is such a shame.
I hope you will get the book and read it. Then spread the word. The time is now.
WH Filosophy v1.9
Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you’re born to stand out?
Oliver James
Thank you Bill
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy v2013-15
Always write angry letters to your enemies. Never mail them.
James Fellows
We are twice armed if we fight with faith.
Plato
A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The time is now…..
Friday Filosophy v2013-14
The best way out is always through.
Robert Frost
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein
Be gentle and you be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.
Lao Tzu
The time is now…..