The White Heat of Change

This week the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicted that by 2015 the UK will drop from 7^th to 11^th in the list of the world’s biggest economies.  Many people will be surprised to learn that China, India and Russia don’t already outrank the British economy, but no, apparently this will happen sometime in the next six years.

As we come to the end of the decade (and don’t let the Queen tell you it’s still the noughties for one more year!), it’s tempting to look back and ponder ten years of constant change.  Ten years ago the internet was already a part of many of our lives; now it’s insinuated itself into our very culture.  Ten years ago we’d all heard of terrorism but most of us had never heard of Al Qaeda.  And ten years ago we all knew that eventually the Chinese would start to throw their economic weight around; this is the decade in which it’s actually started to happen.

But it would be fatuous to spend too much time looking back, because the forces which brought about these and other dramatic changes will move even more quickly in the 2010s and 2020s than they have in the 2000s.       

Of all the modules on the Mini-MBA, ironically it’s Module 9, Management of Change, which has had to be revised and rewritten more than any other.  In one way or another, everyone from prime ministers to humble business trainers is busy coping with the white heat of change.