The Dream Society

The Dream Society

THE SUFFOLK SMALL BUSINESS PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

It is widely held by technology trend watchers that we are on the verge of another burst of activity in the Information Revolution. By about 2006, the convergence of a number of technologies will allow the automation of many routine administrative tasks. We could reasonably expect this to lead to the shake out of many white collar jobs. What, we might ask, will the displaced workers do? Where will the new jobs be created?

One answer to this dilemma has been outlined by Professor Rolf Jensen of the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. The concept of the Dream Society arose from a consideration of what would come after the Information Society. In many ways, the Information Society contained the seeds of its own destruction. The rise of the knowledge worker depended upon the development of information and communications technology.

This same technology can be used to automate most routine Information Society work, much as most Agricultural and Industrial work has been automated away. This technological trend, in conjunction with the trend in off-shoring to cheaper labour markets in a quest to drive down unit costs, is leading to the demise of the Information Society.

In turn, the Information Society is being replaced with what Professor Jensen calls the Dream Society. In the Dream Society, our purchases are an expression of our personal values, our self-identity. For example, a Jaguar XK8 will transport you as effectively as a Ford Fiesta. And yet, given the choice, most people would opt for the Jaguar over the Ford.

The difference between the two cars is the story that lies within them. The Jaguar tells a very different story about us than the Ford. When we buy a Jaguar, we are buying a car with a very specific story - about ourselves - attached to it. It is the story value that creates the added value that allows the providers to charge a premium for a Jaguar compared to a Ford. In the future, according to Professor Jensen, the successful companies will be those that can leverage the value added in the story value.

The basis of the Dream Society is myth, ritual, and the story. It is the story value that creates the added value. The Agrarian Age gave us the use of tools, the accumulation of capital, and the organisation of a society. The Industrial Age gave us the division of labour, cities, and the dissemination of wealth. Global markets developed through the introduction of managerial capitalism and improvements in transportation and communication. The Information Age placed knowledge as more important than physical capital.

The knowledge-intensive company is essentially a social construct because the corporate culture (i.e. the people who make up the company) are its main asset. Value is created at the point where staff interact with each other and the customer base. The valuable employee of the future will be the one who can readily network both inside and outside of the company. In essence, the value of companies will be determined by the value of the employee networks contained within the boundaries of the company.

DREAM SOCIETY COMPANIES

The emotional market underpins the Dream Society. Consumption will become a value statement, and the value statement will be encapsulated and embodied in the story of the products or services. The companies that will do well in the Dream Society are those that:

1. Can leverage the story value in their goods and services.

2. Can leverage lifestyle value as more important than value in use.

3. Allow spirituality will take precedence over materiality.

4. Recognise storytelling as a core corporate skill.

The raw materials of the Dream Society are stories, myths, and legends. These can be found in abundance in the “primitive” societies in the “underdeveloped” regions of the world.

Professor Jensen suggests that six markets will evolve:

1. The market for adventure.

2. The market for togetherness and friendship.

3. The market for care.

4. The “Who-Am-I?” market.

5. The market for peace of mind.

6. The market for convictions.

In essence, products and services in the Dream Society will not only fulfil our needs, but will also allow us to become realised at the level of our personal emotions.

To continue with the example of cars, we will buy a car not only as a means of transport, but also as a means of demonstrating who we are in the “Who-Am-I?” market. The car might allow us to gain access to an owners club in the market for togetherness and friendship. It may allow us to drive at high speeds in the market for adventure. Or it may simply be the safest car on the road in the market for peace of mind. In any case, the technical efficiency of the car is hardly relevant to our purchase. What is relevant is the story that the car tells others, and ourselves, about us as individuals.

The company will become more like a tribe. It will become a closely knit unit whose members hunt and divide the spoils according to certain rules. Productivity comes from the members of the tribe. Downsizing then becomes hazardous – those made redundant from a company will take their human capital (i.e. their personal networks) with them. The company also will become a social unit with a common purpose. This doesn’t leave much room for shareholder value. In many ways, the company could revert to a structure akin to the partnership.

This could mean that the measure of corporate success will change. A company will be judged by its staff according to their ability to undertake meaningful and challenging work. Social skills will be the key to success – particularly the ability to network. If these changes are inevitable, we need to embrace change just to survive.

This is going to have an impact on the way in which companies are organised. The main thesis is that the company in the Dream Society will become more like a tribe. Hard work will become hard fun as we move from the routine to the creative in our work. As work becomes less routine and more creative, so we shall look to work to provide us with meaning in or lives. Eventually, information jobs will become obsolete (replaced by creative jobs). This will mean that the workers are the company, and the free agent will act as part of network of professionals. A consequence of this is that traditional accounting will be abandoned and stock markets will lose their relevance because of their inability to measure value in companies. It will also have the effect of blurring even further the distinction between work and leisure.

This will impact on the family in two ways. First, we are likely to see even greater affinities between the individual members of families and the lifestyle tribes to which the members of the families belong. Second, family life is likely to involve more family team building exercises. In the Dream Society, some may question the continued relevance of the family. However, as a means of procuring and developing the next generation, the family has been quite an enduring social unit, and it may still be too early to write it off just yet. The concept of the family may change, but it is highly likely that the institution of the family will be with us for some time to come.

SUFFOLK AND THE DREAM SOCIETY

The main benefit of this theory is that it informs us of what type of company is likely to succeed in the future. Typically, the successful company is likely to be “small” in cultural terms - irrespective of size in terms of other measures. Its smallness means that it can interact with its customer base on an intimate level. It also values its staff to a high degree, and enables and empowers them to deliver the best possible customer experience.

Although a labour intensive company, authority within the company will be distributed on a network structure rather than a hierarchical structure in an attempt to capture as much staff creativity as possible. It is likely to leverage the use of technology to deliver customer solutions in any of the six key markets of the Dream Society.

One advantage that Suffolk has in the creation of Dream Society companies is the absence of an industrial heritage and the prospect of further agricultural decline in at least the short term. These will combine to produce the twin conditions of a labour force that does not have the embedded legacy of hierarchical management structures (traditionally there is very little evidence of destructive “them” and “us” industrial relations), but does have an abundance of physical space into which Dream Society companies can locate. Already we are seeing evidence of this. For example, it is planned to create an all-year round Winter Sports Complex at Great Blakenham on a disused cement works site. This provision would appeal to the “Market for Adventure” and the “Who-Am-I Market”.

The prospects, however, are not uniformly positive. There are serious questions as to whether or not Suffolk could develop a class of entrepreneurs who would be able to leverage the Dream Society. Our research indicated that 34.5% of small businesses feel that the innate conservatism of the Suffolk population was a significant hindrance to the development of small business in Suffolk. This can be translated into policy terms, as 10.9% of small businesses felt that the innate conservatism of the public agencies in Suffolk were a significant hindrance to the development of small business in Suffolk. A further 12.7% of small businesses felt that the underdevelopment of Suffolk commercially was a significant hindrance to the development of small business in Suffolk, whilst 8.1% of small businesses felt that the deprivation of Suffolk in terms of broadband was a significant hindrance to the development of small business in Suffolk.

This brings us to a critical uncertainty facing the development of small business in Suffolk out to 2020. If, for whatever reason, Suffolk does establish an economy based in the Dream Society, then it can reasonably expect to develop a high value added Small Business community. If, on the other hand, Suffolk misses the opportunity to locate in the Dream Society, then it can reasonably expect the development of a Small Business Sector characterised as backward-looking, dominated by the service sector, with low value-added work, and resultant sluggish economic growth.

It is up to us to decide which future we want for ourselves by the actions that we undertake today that impact upon tomorrow.

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