Recent news that we have, simultaneously, both high numbers of workforce vacancies and low workforce participation reminded me of what is going on in my little corner of the world. Clearly there are many reasons for this combination outside the world of enterprise cloud computing. The sharp snap back for hospitality after the pandemic, the reduction in the available European workforce, and a high number of older workers who never returned post Covid have all contributed to this.
But there are other factors at play. We live in a world of uncomfortably rising prices and new analysis of the Seventies (which is so in vogue now) suggests that a powerful driver of those (stag)inflationary pressures was the world economy re-tooling for a new era - too little of what the world needed, too much of what it didn't. And you can see this in today's world of goods: want a diesel Land Rover sir? We have hundreds for you to choose from, all at a keen price. Want a hybrid model? That'll be nine months. Want an electric version? 2024.
So, where does the Cloud come into this? As for goods, so for skills. Want people to manage their inboxes efficiently, capable of building a simple spreadsheet for managing a marketing campaign, and writing a powerpoint to show at the latest management meeting? There are quite a few of those. Even in the supposedly avantgarde world of web design, there are enough candidates if you are looking for page design, search engine optimisation, even management of google analytics to tell you how your pages are doing. Surely the IT dept is at the cutting edge of what's required? Actually, rarely. Building expensive and bespoke technology stacks "on the network", glorifying in programming code and running endless projects is yesterday's game, and loads of people are conversant with that one. The problem is that organisations have enough spreadsheets, emails, bespoke software and powerpoints, and there's only so many times you need to rebrand your brochure website. It's no surprise that average earnings stagnate in this environment - company margins are doing the same thing.
What does the next generation organisation look like if it isn't office docs and brochure sites? For a start, it needs to have its truth stored in something better than a series of spreadsheets. Do you have a single view of clients? Can you cross reference that with all your sales to drive margin optimisation and greater repeat business? What did we say to them six months ago? Can we conceive of a better collaborative environment than shutting everyone away in their own little email inbox, and expect them to be on the same page? How about having a web estate that actually does something, connecting directly to your suppliers and clients, instead of fretting about whether you're on the network or not, and thinking that setting up an FTP connection qualifies as integration?
What are the skills necessary for such a transformation? An understanding of how a firm's information fits together, recognising that some bits benefit from super careful stratification, whilst others prosper when users are given some flexibility in how they're configured. It's understanding how to protect and share at the same time, eschewing the nonsense of a "network" perimeter. It's about using both the right and left brain - logic with emotional IQ. The company equivalent of an electric Land Rover is the Information Manager: conversant with technology and its capabilities, able to sustain meaningful relationships both with those users of information and with a panoply of partners that supply the supporting software. Quite rare, I think you'll agree.