Reflections from Neil Crofts

it’s not a recession it's a transition.

It’s a transition from the industrial economy to the networked economy. This transition started 10 years ago with the dotcom boom. Over the last 10 years we have seen many industries collapse under scrutiny of the digital spotlight.

Now it is the turn of the banks, car makers and other monolithic industrial structures to transcend to the new level or succumb. It is the older, less culturally advanced businesses that are suffering the most. It is not so much the technology that makes businesses vulnerable or brilliant, but their culture.

The culture of the network paradigm is - flexible, transparent, insanely creative, cellular, distributed, diverse, inspiring, permeable and authentic.

The culture of the industrial paradigm is - structured, opaque, incremental, hierarchical, monolithic, homogenous, predictable, obedient, and bounded.

In today’s connected world customers want to buy from businesses that inspire them. People want to work for organisations that inspire them and politicians want to support businesses that contribute more than just money to society.

The next generation of hyper successful business will be networked. The boundaries between employee and customer will blur as with Threadless and Digg. Where people outside the company help create the product.

Businesses like Plenty of Fish where one man who works around one hour per day brings in $10 million per year, o-desk, e-lance and guru will change the dynamics of employment. It will become more and more difficult for uninspiring companies to attract great people.

The whole notion of employment will shift, more and more, from 9 to 5 to flexible, multi role, portfolio careers with individuals working for multiple employers.

Instead of commuting to corporate HQ more and more people will use flexible office spaces like The Hub or online spaces like Linkedin or Facebook to find their community and collaborators.

Cost effective online collaboration tools like ning, powownow and Skype enable those with a mission to access greater global collaboration.

Success will come from doing something valuable and inspirational with a culture of creativity, innovation and challenge.

Businesses and organisations who are unable to make the shift will succumb.

What can we do?

Invest in personal development. If you don’t already know what you are great at and what you are most passionate about - find out.

Invest in the next generation. We need to take the next generation beyond education. My contribution to this is to be part of www.amentorforeverychild.com, please join the web based community and contribute what you can.

Transform the culture of your organisation. If you recognise that the organisation that you work for is following the industrial model and you want to keep your job, start working to change it.

Recession is a blip in time, integrity is for life and once lost can be very hard to regain.

We are all experiencing similar challenges from credit crunch, to regulation of our profession, debates about CPD and professional standards, increasing overheads, reducing margins, the old chestnut of using time effectively and with all of this my plea today is to hold fast to our values and our integrity. We can all benefit from a value chain management approach,adding value to our clients by referring them to the best possible solutions even if that means we may lose a sale in the sort term. In the longer term our brand image and integrity is retained, our client will return and those to whom we referred our clients will refer others to us. This is not about commission systems and control, this is about trusting in the wider system, in abundance and elevating to a strategic process that will ensure longevity of our brands even if in the short term it impinges on cash flow and profitability. It's all about being 'fit for purpose'.

Today (Friday 13th) we found we had a new competitor for some of our work. That's fine, it's a free market and more competition spreads the word about the value of personal development in business. What wasn't acceptable is that the competitor had repointed one of our websites to their own. Luckily we picked this up before it had any effect on our business. Are those really the suppliers we want in a leaner world?

So today, let's question the values that our behaviour is exposing. Are those the values that we want to be remembered for, are they the values that make us congruent human beings and will our children be proud of the behaviours we are exhibiting in these interesting times? I can guarantee that coaches and consultants from The Performance Solution are chosen for their integrity, alignment and professionalism and that we will stick to this standard come what may.