The Hindu Business Line : People matter the most

The shift into the Knowledge Era requires deep involvement in the art and science of people management. People matter most for achieving success in the contemporary corporate context.

Changes during the last two centuries have completely transformed the lifestyle of man. According to Alvin Toffler, 90 per cent of the material goods that people use today were invented only during the last 200 years, whereas man came into existence nearly 50,000 years ago. Things that people take for granted today were not even dreamt of 200 years ago.

Domestic appliances consisted of a broom, a wash-tub, and a dolly. Toilets were outside the house. It was during the Victorian era that water and sewerage systems were designed. The postal system and the postage stamp, as people know them today, also came into use during that time. Cars were not even thought of.

Change is the clarion cry of modern managers. Business organisations are at the crossroads. Changes in the business sector are not something set in the future. They are happening here and now. Companies are ever busy preparing to meet the onslaught of the new era in management — the knowledge era. Globalisation of markets is the order of the day.

Companies that remain silent and passive, without participating in this process of change, will be swept away. There is no opt-out option for any organisation that wants to stay in business. In order to compete in the global arena, companies often resort to mergers and acquisitions, which give them the advantage of size and scale.

Again, as companies turn into larger and more powerful economic empires, governments seek to impose critical control and regulations over them ostensibly for the sake of consumer protection.

Towards the last quarter of the last century, managements began to talk about the Information Age. The computer formalised the discipline of information management in business. As computers were applied to control machines, the nature of work underwent a radical change. The 1980s witnessed the advent of de-layering, downsizing, and outsourcing. Information and technology eliminated much of the conventional work of the middle-level staff in companies.

The Information Age was an intermediate step in the journey from the Industrial to the Knowledge Era. In the Knowledge Era, the primary source of wealth creation is the intellectual acumen of the employees.

There are no barriers to new entrants in this business, except knowledge and courage. Consequently, the trend and tendency among the fresh employees in this industry to turn into self-employed entrepreneurs, after a few years of gaining experience, is on the rise.

The transition to the Knowledge Era differs from the earlier shifts in one significant manner. When the economy moved from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age, machines became the locus of activity. When the economy subsequently shifted from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, the computer became the key.

Now, the shift into the Knowledge Era requires deep involvement in the art and science of people management.

People matter most for achieving success in the contemporary corporate context. Not that they were any less important in the previous stages of progress; but they have come to occupy the centre-stage only in the current milieu.

The most important technology in the Knowledge Era is "organisation design" — the creation of organisations in which people are given their due respect and prominence.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)