Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your wake-up call

Am three-quarters of my way through the book The World is Flat (Thomas L. Friedman, 2006 ed) and is already utterly, utterly convinced that the world, and more specifically, the employment market is utterly different from even five years ago. The fundamental question, it seems, is "How do you continuously re-innovate and re-invent yourself" to stay relevant in a world where your competitor, sorry, partner, can be anyone around the globe? How can you not afford to continously update your skill set to remain relevant in the global job market?

Mindshift 1: You want to run like a top dog? Then treat everyone like a top dog. And keep running. Don't stop.

Mindshift 2: It's no longer nation-state vs nation-state. It's no longer company vs company. It's individual vs individual. And they are all your potential partners.

A few 'sticky' ideas for the generalist who should really be a 'versatilist'

0. Education, education, education.

1. 'Sticky', portable skill sets:

subject content matter communication skills up and down the knowledge chain: from experts to novices. Learn on the fly. With Google, there's no reason why information scarcity is 100% roadblock.

generally communication skills (aka influence)

project management skills

SMILE!

Most importantly, HOW TO SYNTHESISE YOUR KNOWLEDGE into NEW STUFF in the integrative, cross-functional, cross-industry manner.

2. Flexible, hungry, can-do, want-to-do mindset

3. Always on 24/7/365, jacked into the twin real worlds of physicality and wired (i.e. virtual, Internet-based). Leverage on Globalisation 3.0 and Web 3.0. Skype (or your favourite VoiP provider). No more problems with presentism or absentism! Go have a life! Proviso: mesh work into your life.

4. Network indiscriminately. Know the center of the network and the tipping point.

5. Always remember the triple bottom line/corporate social responsibility (or whatever the newest buzz word is right now).

6. Energy sufficiency and bio-technoloy are going to be HUGE.

I am enthused/terrified already.