2016, November, I considered myself to be highly privileged to attend the 8th Global Peter Ducker Forum in Vienna. Peter Drucker who is also my namesake literally changed my life. He gave me the confidence to believe that I can do more than I have ever imagined. I may have misunderstood him when I started reading his works in 2014. I must confess that a part of his Managing Oneself article was scary to me. Then I was working for a solar energy company here in Lagos Nigeria. Drucker’s style of writing was so soft but fiercely personal to me. I mean I imagined a giant man standing right in front of me, pointing at me and softly screamed something like “You are a knowledge worker!” I cannot really explain why this was a little scary to me but I then saw myself like a tiny point in a gigantic robotic corporation. In that picture I was kind of helpless because I was just a specialized/skill worker with nothing else to boast of except my knowledge! I was not sure I wanted to be such a specialist. I now know I must have misunderstood his idea but the fear lingered on. I want to do more.
Best modern entrepreneurship practice today
As I read on, Drucker’s Feedback analysis broadened my perception not of the world but of myself which is most important. For the first time, I learnt what looked like a scientific way of measuring my competence. Self-appraisal is a hard thing to do and this requires me getting out of my comfort zone and really knowing that I can improve myself, I can do more!
So, there I was in Drucker Forum, 2016, listening to an army of global business leaders, influencers and professionals of all fields reechoing in various ways the lasting philosophy of Peter Drucker. I couldn’t wait to go back to Nigeria and unleash the potential in me. The forum was a unique kind of ignition to me. I did go back; I followed my long-time passion and started my own renewable energy company. I had ventured in various trades before but this was and still is my first company that is well registered and has a corporate structure. We have employed 5 skilled workers since then and we have a Renewable Energy Academy1. Since April 2017, we have graduated almost 200 renewable energy entrepreneurs. I designed the curriculum and I tell my students emphatically that they are renewable energy entrepreneurs. Permit me to share a quick story on how I convince my students to enroll and pay for my training and while my emphasis on entrepreneurship is worth mentioning again.
So, as we got the facilities and every other thing ready to launch an academy, I ran couple of adverts on social media and I monitored it closely.
- Advert A asked people to register to become a renewable energy entrepreneur
- Advert B asked people to register to learn how to install solar panels.
Surprisingly, the Advert B performed far better with more leads and reactions than advert A. Although it was surprising to me but it was only a confirmation of what I learnt in the 8th Drucker Forum. The word ‘renewable energy entrepreneur’ was vague to most people. The 21st century education system is designed to focus on a very narrow skill and not on something as general and as ambiguous as entrepreneurship. People were more comfortable with graduating as a solar panel installer than any other thing. I remember in the Day 2 of the 8th Drucker Forum, I opted to join the parallel session chaired by Ms. Deepa Prahalad. One of the panelist Mr. Tawfik Jelassi narrated how anti-entrepreneurship the university education system is and he made what I considered to be a famous remark when he said and I quote: “The longer you study the more likely you end up jobless”
I think Donald Trump put it even clearer in his book where he wrote: “The more time you spend in school, the narrower your focus becomes because the more you know about a particular, the more specialized you become.”2 He went on to say: “By the time you earn that JD or MD or PhD, you are among the people in the world who know the most about the least. You are a specialist, rather than a generalist”.
I think both Jelassi and Trump touched the foundation of management which can be traced to the school system or education. Continuous learning itself wasn’t the problem, but the school system. Drucker discovered this fault earlier on and advocated for a shift in the school system of the Knowledge society. I learned that being an entrepreneur is definitely not being a specialist. The entrepreneur’s world view and knowledge must be broadened beyond his first school degree/core skill. Also, I think the entrepreneur should not be a generalist as in a know-it-all kind of person. The human brain is capable of doing more so why limit it? Why scratch the surface of knowledge? Drucker in his revolutionary book “Management” succinctly stated or puts it better that in the new education system of the knowledge economy one must never stop learning but What is needed now is a new axiom: “The more schooling a person has, the more often he or she will need further schooling.”3
So, when I want to recruit new students for my academy, knowing how the school system made people to focus on narrowing their skill set, I attract them by adverts that ask them to come and narrow their skill to a point – learn how to be solar installers. But when they come in, we show them the immense opportunities in renewable energy and not just solar. We also teach them how to write business plans, proposals and we graduate them as renewable energy entrepreneurs and not just solar installers. Many go ahead to open their own businesses. This is really working for us; I mean I get pictures of the new businesses and offices set up by our students.
So, I hope and wish entrepreneurship will be deeply embedded in the curriculum from kindergarten and to whatever climax of learning one can attain.
The hammer, knowledge and …digital society. New social change?
As more efficient machines were developed in the 20th century, Drucker in the 50’s observed the mass shift of the labour force from manual workers to knowledge workers. In other words, what a hammer was to a blue-collar carpenter, knowledge is to the knowledge worker. I wrote how the realization that I was a knowledge worker became scary to me. What if you take away the hammer (tools) from a manual worker carpenter? How would he work? What if my specialized skill or knowledge as a specialist or as a knowledge worker is taken away?!
The knowledge of the knowledge worker will indeed be taken away as we prepare to transit into what I will like to refer to a digital society (in contrast to the Knowledge society) – A society where the smart machines will take over the specialized jobs of knowledge workers and where humans will become extensions of machines and technology and not the other way round as we have always seen. Machines will be able to analyse its own real time data, be able to learn and dictate to humans what to do and not the other way around. This is the digital society, a world powered by big data and Artificial Intelligence at its finest.
What then will be the role of the Specialist?
The idea of a digital society is very exciting to me. Being a knowledge worker or a specialist is scary to me. I strongly believe that the answer to any fear of the future or question we may have, lies in the past. Doesn’t history repeat itself? On the knowledge workers, Drucker wrote: “But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren’t managing their knowledge workers’ careers. Rather, we must each be our own chief executive officer”. We know that Drucker is right. We can also say that as machines achieve levels of self-awareness, independent thinking and ability to learn using Intelligence augmentation, Artificial Intelligence and the big data, just like Drucker wrote about knowledge workers, these future machines will replace the knowledge workers and learn to be their own CEO. Just like Drucker’s philosophy was humanistic, I think we will also see the ‘human’ side of the future machines. They will ask and continuously learn to have the ability to answer the same questions – 1. What are my strengths? 2. How do I work? 3. Where do I belong? 4. How can I contribute and lastly but not in any way the least 4. What are my values?
Just as we will always have blue collar workers, there will always be specialists, only that we will have less of them. I think the specialists will be more of researchers or as Bill Gates puts it: “But if your talents take you towards science or programming or advances in biology or energy breakthroughs, those kinds of deep areas are going to be the biggest source of change.”4
New renaissance: Printing press Vs. The Internet
Looking back at history again, we know that any great social change is accompanied by a social revolution. So, another change is here as machines once again is taking over jobs, not blue-collar jobs this time but knowledge workers’ specialist jobs. Smart machines are fast becoming our favorite translators, teachers, surgeons, composers, etc. This great shift and change remind one of the great European renaissances from 14th century up till the 17th century.
Looking back at history once again I see a striking parallel between that period and this digital society age and more striking is the roles the printing press played then and the internet is doing now. Over five hundred years ago as the renaissance thinkers shifted from thinking about souls, religion and afterlife to focusing on humanism and how to make life and work easier for humans, the coming of the printing press helped spread this new social change to all corners of Europe and beyond! I see same similarity today. Knowledge workers have been doing nothing but improving on machines and technology to make life easier for man. We live in an interesting time in this 21st century as it appears that machines are getting so smart and they will soon retire humans from work altogether. Just like the printing press, the internet is aiding the new workers and thinkers in the digital society – the smart machines – to communicate faster among themselves. The Internet of things is here as UK launched her 5G service on 30th of May, this year. There is now a real time communication between machines to machines and humans to machines and very significantly, machines to humans. Today even the survival, safety and security of the human can not be guaranteed without the artificial intelligence of machines.
New Renaissance Entrepreneurs/Managers
Management as we have known it right from the renaissance period has its focus on humanity. But with most skilled/specialists’ jobs of the next economy jobs going to smart machines and technology, another great revolution in management and a new crop of human mangers and entrepreneurs who will no longer need to be highly educated specialists but just like in the renaissance period, they will be some sort of generalists or polymaths who will be able to know more and do more. We still have to look back to history to have a better understanding of these modern renaissance mangers predecessors.
The great 15th century renaissance philosopher and teacher Vittorino da Feltre is quoted by his biographer saying that “the perfect man should be able to discuss natural philosophy, ethics, the motion of the stars, geometry, harmony, arithmetic and surveying.”5 The modern renaissance manager should look back, learn from Feltre’s perfect man in other to be able to manage himself and also manage the humans and smart machines in his organization.
This modern manager must be open minded willing to accept change, innovate accordingly and continuously learn. Peter Drucker in his book ‘Management’ advocates for a discipline of (lifelong) learning. He wrote “people have to learn how to learn”.
I personally admire modern entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. who has proven themselves not just to be polymaths but modern renaissance men. They all manage businesses spanning from Arts, media, ICT, space technology, etc. and their ability to manage and chair all these shows us how smart our brain is only if we put it to work. Looking back at history, they mirror the renaissance men of 14th to 17th century. The most famous of them all is undisputedly Leonardo da Vinci who excelled in wide areas of knowledge from arts, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, … to engineering. In his book “How to think like Leonardo da Vinci”, Michael Gelb wrote: “Your brain is much better than you think”6. He went on to outline what he called the 7 da Vincian principles. He drew these laws from his study of the man himself. The 7th principle “Connessione” which is A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking. This looks like the motto of Richard Branson and co as I listed.
This interconnectedness of all things is the theory of things scientists like Einstein searched for. People need to be taught this. In my renewable energy academy, we teach our students how to install solar panels which attracted them in the first place, but the curriculum is designed to shift their minds from the particular to the bigger picture of energy generation through clean and renewable sources. They leave satisfied knowing they can actually start up their own business in renewable energy and not just take up jobs as solar installers.
The modern renaissance manager must continue to learn and most importantly understand that all fields of knowledge points towards one goal – humanism- How to make life easier and better for mankind on earth or even in another world! This is the core of management and we will all be polymaths in the new economy if we adhere to Drucker’s message of continuous learning. Our brains have the capacity and capability of doing more, so why limit it?
Notes:
- Wavetra Energy Academy: https://www.wavetra.com/academy
- Kiyosaki, Robert; Trump, Donald (2011). Midas Touch.
- Drucker, F. Peter (1999). Management (Revised).
- Bill Gates: These skills will give you the most opportunity in the job markets of the future. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/bill-gates-these-skills-will-help-you-most-in-the-future-job-market.html
- Woodward, H. William; Rice, F. Eugene (1996 reprint). Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators.
- Gelb, Michael (2000). How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.
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