Borderless Ecosystems & Why Diversity is Good for Business
Borderless ecosystems have been opening doors for companies as well as individuals across the globe. With technology breaking through barriers, the possibilities of hiring, collaborating, and project development/management with fresh, less represented people, are endless.
Having borderless ecosystems also promotes representation of more minorities in the workforce. People from remote locations have access to employers that can provide higher wages than the locally set minimums per country. This bridging of location, ethnicity, and sometimes even gender, is promising (though a lot of work still has to be done) because not only are more people seen, but so are their skills.
This diversity in choice from technology and people pave the way in elevating what it means to do a job fairly and properly. In a traditional workplace, it is often the loudest or biggest voice that’s heard. In spaces like Slack, Figma, Miro, or Invision, tones of voices are equalized. Everyone’s comments are there to be seen, tracked, acknowledged (“hepeats” be damned), so credit goes where credit is due.
Digitalization also enhances the efficiency of the company, people, and the products or services being offered. Collaborations are easily discussed over a digital workspace, communications, ideations, and revisions happening simultaneously in different timezones. Developments in projects can be readily executed and launched globally. Applications that do HR work, clocking hours, calendar planning, and routine tasks are readily available to ensure they are manageable but also not a drain on a person’s time. A developer who is also a parent can actually work on a project that contributes to their household income while being in the same house as their baby. A writer in Manila can send in their copy without having to pay exorbitant gas prices just to get a stamp on a printed piece of paper and then leave, freeing up that budget for something else.
Four hours of inspired, productive work a day, will always beat eight hours of drudgery. This means no more obligatory commutes, traffic or parking fees. When you have your workplace accessible to a wide range of people that are not limited by their location, you also get a wider variety of perspective and voices that can contribute to better projects.
But what do we know? Our team is only composed of a diverse group of awesome women all based in different countries and coming from very different backgrounds. Sisa’s in Toronto, Asia’s in Bali, our awesome development and design team is spread out across four continents. The funny thing is, everyone on our team has their specialty, and everyone on our team has been either passed over for a promotion, had their ideas mansplained first, and then “hepeated”, discriminated against, or even just outright been ignored. But is that actually because we deserve this or is it because no one has ever decided to shared the stage with us?
We’d love to share more of our individual experiences and how we benefit from this strange and beautiful new world if you’d like to hear them.
