Ticket to ride
A look at the issues shaping our industry
Monday, 23 Oct 2017 11:31 GMT
For instance, on the day I am writing this I have dropped my 4-year-old at nursery and so could not start early, that mean I had to work through lunch, in which I was furiously updating more than six social media feeds for our two magazines and national shows. I conducted a 30-minute ‘webex’ interviews via a secure online meeting service, while at the very same time trying to do research online about the impact that the snap-election and Brexit could have on our industry’s long-term health.
Oh, and then all the while keeping this very magazine motoring along to its print deadline of 4pm Tuesday while answering an e-mail every ten minutes.
So, what is so bad about that? I hear you say. Well that is the very issue, I am sure my 50 or so hours a week on average at absolute full multi-tasking tilt will seem on the light side to you over-worked sign-making folk. But fundamentally that is an unhealthy symptom of a socio-economic system that has got well out of whack.
Unless we push ourselves hard every single day, the likelihood is in the long-term our businesses will not meet the competitive mark in an economy set-up to demand this level”
Unless we push ourselves hard every single day, the likelihood is in the long-term our businesses will not meet the competitive mark in an economy set-up to demand this level. This framework itself is also being strengthened and pushed to new extremes now by massive global ‘data miners’ such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, who each day endeavour to find ways to measure every click, swipe, and tap of our digitally connected businesses and lives.
On the one hand, we are all materially benefiting from this rampage towards growth using modern technology, on the other it has its costs. There is no clear answer, but for now, it is worth taking a deep calm breath—being aware of the problem is the first step to solving it.
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