Learning to learn in a change-or-die economy

Madan Birla
Guest columnist
Madan Birla

I started my career as an industrial engineer at RCA in Indianapolis, manufacturing Elvis Presley records and tapes. Technology transformed the world of music from analog to digital. RCA switched to making CDs.

Today RCA does not exist because people can simply download music from iTunes. All those manufacturing jobs disappeared. In 1998 Kodak employed 170,000 people and sold 85 percent of all photo paper. Three years later digital photography forced Kodak to file for bankruptcy.

Digital technology and the internet have impacted every industry. The same technology that impacted RCA and Kodak negatively helped FedEx grow and employ over 300,000 people globally.

Businesses and jobs don’t exist in a vacuum. They exist in a larger environment. Changes in that environment present opportunities as well as threats. For businesses to grow and thrive in a rapidly changing environment, their internal rate of change must exceed the external rate of change. 

Is the rate of change going to slow down? Of course not. Therefore, leaders in all organizations, public and private, must take time on an ongoing basis to look out of the window and ask what’s happening out there, and what are we doing internally to take advantage of those changes? 

As a member of FedEx’s long-range planning committee for nine years, I saw Fred Smith engage the management team in asking these questions every month and develop innovative business growth strategies. 

After leaving FedEx, I had an opportunity to consult with Larry Papasan, president of Smith and Nephew at the time. During one of our conversations, Larry said, "There’s a reason the front windshield of a car is almost 100 times the size of the rearview mirror. To reach your destination you need to look through the front windshield at the big picture and what’s happening down the road. You don’t go forward and make progress by looking in the rearview mirror."

Good-paying jobs are the key to overcoming high poverty in Memphis. Community leaders are trying to attract new businesses such as Toyota and Amazon to Memphis. Both of these businesses will require high-skilled workers, that is technical training and trade education post-high school.

Online retailing giant Amazon is looking for a city in which to build its second headquarters or HQ2.

Recently it was reported that Shelby County’s high school graduation rate is 79.6 percent. To achieve close to 100 percent graduation rate and, more importantly, the needed technical training beyond, we need a culture of education. 

The most important component of the education culture is home, where education is priority number one. Parents have to internalize and act on the reality that in today’s economy their children’s earning capacity will be determined by their level of education and learning capacity.

Workers themselves are primarily responsible for upgrading their skills. But government and business have important roles to play. 

When political leaders say or imply that the world will return to the way it was in the 1970s, they are only compounding the problem. That train has left the station. It does not help the workers in comprehending the reality of and dealing constructively with his or her situation.

In a rapidly changing world, the growth principle of the internal rate of change exceeding the external rate of change applies equally to individuals, businesses and governments. 

Jobs, careers and the skills needed for them will change frequently over a lifetime, so people have to be prepared to adapt to those changes. The most important thing today is learning to learn.

Madan Birla, a former FedEx executive, is author of "FedEx Delivers" and "Unleashing Creativity and Innovation." Contact him at madanbirla@gmail.com.