We live, needless to say, in a time of great and profound change.
The accelerated changes in the technological, social, demographic, political, scientific, economic, cultural and psychological context make it necessary not only to be able to perceive them, but also to become aware of their consequences and to be properly trained to adopt the measures that are necessary.
For many centuries the levels and ways of life had changed little, to happen in recent years to rule in all areas changes with notable repercussions. It is enough to just take note that at the beginning of the 20th century the world had approximately 1,300 million inhabitants, and today the barrier of 6,000 million has been exceeded.
It took millions of years to reach 1.3 billion inhabitants, then doubled in less than 60 years, and doubled again to reach 6 billion in forty years. To get a clear idea of the issue, consider that at the beginning of the century the world population was equal to what currently only one country has: China (People's Republic).
More scientists currently live on Earth than ever existed on the planet in its entire history. We are currently subject to what has come to be known as the diploma fever. Every day more universities increase the supply of technicians and professionals.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the industrialized countries were very few: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and to some extent Japan. Today at the beginning of the XXI century to the aforementioned must be added Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, Czech Republic and Sweden among others.
The speed of communications is constantly accelerating, with what previously took weeks to be known in the rest of the world, today it is seen in real time. Today the whole world is interconnected. Greater speed and cheaper communications have made the world smaller.
Product life cycles are constantly shortened. Products that remained practically the same for decades are now history. Consumers demand higher quality and variety of products and services.
Large movements of people occur from rural areas to cities, and from peripheral countries to central or more developed countries. The central countries are today true magnets that attract the world's poorest and most needy populations. Every day hundreds of beings try to reach European shores, or else they try to enter the United States.
The profile of the world is undergoing enormous and shocking changes. In this environment the current phenomenon of globalization is manifested.
In this increasingly changing and competitive environment, companies must fight. This is a competition that unlike sports is daily. Every day someone wakes up somewhere in the world with the obligation to compete in order to survive and grow.
It will try to make new ideas come true, in products or processes, that allow it to keep a market share. Every day someone struggles to gain that market share, those resources necessary to aspire to a better standard of living.
For a manager under the current context to say: "this is not the time to invest in training or training", "we are going to wait", or things like that, is not being aware of the new reality.
In the same way that somewhere in Africa a gazelle wakes up every day with the obligation to outrun its predators, and predators have the supreme obligation to hunt their prey so as not to die of starvation, in the globalized market every day one must wake up, whether manager or worker, with the obligation to improve in order to continue competing and living.
Today we must constantly learn, our parents could live with the same knowledge as our grandparents. Today we can no longer live with the knowledge and information of a year ago.
Large companies do not escape this environment, if they are not updated by adapting to the new context, they remain in the same situation as dinosaurs, that is, in a position to disappear. The man with his intelligence knew how to adapt and be able to survive. Today more than ever his creativity and innovation are required to continue to exist, both he and the organizations of which he is a part.
The rapid changes and growth referred to earlier are increasing the consumption of non-renewable resources, increasing the average temperature on the planet, generating a constant increase in pollution, and a continuous demand for food and other inputs. The problems that this generate cannot be solved under the same way of thinking that originated them. New problems require a new and creative way of thinking.
Creatives and innovators are needed today more than ever. It is necessary to give rise to new paradigms that adapt to the new and critical circumstances.
The time has come when history, society, politics, the economy and culture must be observed and analyzed from a new and special point of view. Now as never before, acceleration of change is the watchword. We are faster than our competitors, or we are ahead of the times, or we will be left out.
The strategy is no longer only to anticipate the facts, but to generate the new rules of the game. A society, organizations and individuals that do not prepare for change will lose much more than the train of history.
