In troubled waters
When Christopher Columbus set out for the East Indies in 1492, uncertainty rumbled on board the ship for weeks. Where was this stalwart crew heading? And what would the promised land hold?
The East Indies, of course, did not appear. But something else did.
Today our ‘new world’ has been thoroughly mapped out.
Technology is now the promising, but also inhospitable, landscape we need to explore, and conquer.
New services, concepts, tech, and ideas are crashing down upon us. Many of them so attractive and convenient we feel we must take advantage of the possibilities, or risk missing out.
At the same time, the new wonders threaten to tear up the foundations of everything we know, everything we have spent hundreds of years building up and fighting for. Everything that we stand on. And stand for.
It is all happening so fast that we rarely grasp the consequences. A new invention — no matter how small it seems at first glance — can mean the world to business, society, communities and the individual. But what’s good for some can be suffocating for others.
In tumultuous times, we see more extremes — when a wave hits there will be a counter reaction. Some exploit the possibilities one way, while others go the other. And others again, those who are afraid to falter, simply surrender to confusion.
This is the dynamic of globalisation. Everything becomes radicalised. Policy. Culture. Business.
Break-ups and change move the world forward, yet what’s good for some comes at the expense of others. It must be so.
As the game changes, you must rewrite the rules. Knowing that you will most likely have to change your course underway.
Like Columbus, we must be fearless and insisting as we set off into the unknown. As there are no maps, we must point in a direction and launch off into the unknown.
It is the world as we know it.
We know nothing.
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