Evolve and In Sync With Business Demand

POSTED BY KH TANG ON SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2011 / LABELS: SELF DEVELOPMENT, WISDOM

《庄子·列御寇》："朱泙漫学屠龙于支离益，殚千金之家。三年技成，而无所用其巧。"

Zhuangzi once told a story:" A man, PengMan Zhu, wanted to learn the skill of killing
dragon from a master, LiYi Zhi. He spent a great fortune for learning the skill. Three
years later, he mastered the skill. But, he got no where to apply what he had learnt. (or
in today's term, he cannot find a job.)"

The moral of the story is that one must lean a skill that can be applied in this reality
world.

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Well, let's see how this story, when combine with the following story, may help one to
look at thing in a different perspective in this modern society, which may help to rock
one out of her comfort zone or develop a sense of urgency in change.
Looking back in our history, the main business of all the developed countries had gone
through the phases of shifting from farming/fishing to industrialization(factories), then
from industrialization to information age and eventually become financial centers.

The paces of the shift were happened at different rate in different countries/regions of
the world. In general, the more developed countries, it happened faster...

Now...
Let's take a look at a real life example of such rapid change of my lovely country,
Singapore, in the past 4 decades...

1.) Since the late 60's Merlion was the key symbol representing Singapore. Its name
combines "mer" meaning sea and "lion". The fish body comes from Singapore's ancient
name back when it was a fishing village.

Merlion

2.) Then in the 70's, Singapore attracted more and more foreign investors from the west
to set up factories, and getting more and more industrialized. Changi Aiport
Tower became another important symbol to represent that milestone.
 Changi Airport Tower

3.) On the same time, Singapore had also developed many theme parks, such as the
famous Singapore Zoo, Bird park, and the representative one is Sentosa, for tourlism.

Sentosa
4.) Then Singapore evolved into a Financial Center with Shenton Way Buildings as a
Logo.

Shenton Way

5.) Now, Singapore has its new logo -- Sands Singapore -- a world class
glamorousintegrated resort.

Sands Singapore

6.) What's next in the next decade?!

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With the above example, it shows that most skills that one can learn from the University
would likely to be obsolete and out-of-synch with the market demand in about 10 years
time. While a typical person working life span is about 40 years nowadays (say, 25 to
65).

Take for example, when the manufacturing plants move out to other countries, an
engineering manager may choose to move together with the plant for start up...
However, if he did not manage to learn some new skill, while he is working full time on
the current job, he would need to follow the plant when ever and where ever it goes...
and provided the plant is still need him...

"Without continual growth and progress, such words

as improvement, achievement, and success
have no meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin

http://blessedfool.blogspot.com/2011/03/evolve-and-in-sync-with-business-demand.html