Work Shift ~ What can companies and brands do in response to a future that has already arrived?

This time, we feature Work Shift by Linda Gratton, a professor at London Business School and one of the "Top 15 Global Business Thinkers" selected by The Times.
The book centers on the theme: "How will we work in 2025?" 2025 is just five years after the Tokyo Olympics. Thinking about it that way, it doesn't seem so far off.

The book reveals what awaits our future through abundant data: China was building 45 airports in 2010, Kenya is driving innovation in mobile money transfer systems, and by 2025, over 5 billion people worldwide will be connected via mobile devices.
The book states that the factors changing how people work stem from the following five trends:

① Technological Advancement
② Globalization
③ Demographic shifts and longevity
④ Changes in individuals, families, and society
⑤ Energy and environmental issues

Amidst these environmental changes, it is argued that people must proactively shift their work focus toward the following three areas:

① From broad-based generalists to serial specialists who continuously acquire specialized skills
② From solitary competition to collaborative innovation
③ From money-making and consumption to choosing valuable experiences

These shifts are not "predictions" but "forecasts"—inevitable extensions of trends already unfolding today.

How should companies and brands interpret this future prediction?
If people's ways of working change, their lifestyles and values will naturally follow suit. Therefore, the proposals companies and brands make to people must also evolve.

Particularly the third shift—where people proactively choose "valuable experiences for themselves, rather than money or consumption"—directly impacts consumption behavior. Companies and brands offering products or services based solely on their own traditional values will become irrelevant. They will increasingly be judged on how much value they provide to each individual through experiences, and what meaning or story their services and products hold in engaging with each person.
Therefore, companies and brands must start adapting now. Ultimately, they must consider how to optimize their proposed services, products, and communications to align with each individual's values.

This is the "future that has already arrived." The book concludes as follows:

 

　 　A future met with indifference holds a lonely and impoverished life,

while a future proactively built holds a life of freedom and creativity.

 

While this message is directed at individuals, the same principle applies to companies and brands. To propose solutions that open up people's futures, now is the time to act.

　　　　　　　　　【Dentsu Inc. Modern Communication Lab】