Automating Your Business Planning And Systems For The Future

Dan Pink (of a Whole New Mind fame) was noted as saying this a while ago:
“Anything that can be ‘routinised’ will be put on a microchip or in a software programme. Whether you are a lawyer or an accountant, you will be automated and you need to deploy the creative half of your brain fast to become first among equals.
“In the US an uncontested divorce will cost you $3,000 through an attorney. Or it will cost you $249 through a piece of software that runs the forms for you to fill in online.
“It’s the same with medical diagnostics or in fact anything that involves decision trees. Middle class white-collar jobs are up for grabs. Last year one million Americans had their income tax returns worked out by accountants in India. There was a big fuss about that. But no-one said anything about the 21 million Americans who filed their tax return with a $39 piece of software called QuickTax instead of going to an accountant. ”
So, if the professions have had it, how do you change your customer offer to avoid being commoditised, too? When planning for the future what will you need to do to keep up with looming changes in the business world?

Pink suggests you contemplate and develop six new senses, he predicts that these are the new aptitudes that will decide which organisations customers still want to do business with, and which become low-cost commodities.
Pink’s “six new senses” are, he says, specific high-concept and high-touch aptitudes that are essential in this new era:
1. Design
It’s no longer sufficient to create a product, service, experience or lifestyle that’s merely functional. Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that’s beautiful, whimsical or emotionally engaging.
2. Story
When our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s not enough to marshal an effective argument. Someone somewhere will inevitably track down a counterpoint to rebut your point. The essence of persuasion, communication and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative.
3. Symphony 
Much of the Industrial and Information Ages required focus and specialization. But as white-collar work gets routed to Asia and reduced to software, there’s a new premium on the opposite aptitude: putting the pieces together, or symphony. What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis – seeing the big picture and crossing boundaries, being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole.
4. Empathy
The capacity for logical thought is one of the things that make us human. But in a world of ubiquitous information and analytic tools, logic alone won’t do it. What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow woman or man tick, to forge relationships and to care for others.
5. Play
Ample evidence points to the enormous health and professional benefits of laughter, light-heartedness, games and humour. There’s a time to be serious, of course. But too much sobriety can be bad for your career and worse for your general well-being, and for your customer relations. In the Conceptual Age, in work and in life, we all need to play.
6. Meaning
We live in a world of breathtaking material plenty. That has freed hundreds of millions of people from day-to-day struggles and liberated us to pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence and spiritual fulfilment.”
Dan Pink, author of a Whole New Mind, whose last real job was at the White House, writing Al Gore’s speeches, can be found here; www.danpink.com