2010 - The NEW Normal

By David Wee, Founder & CEO of DW Associates & Asia Speakers Bureau | Aug 6, 2009

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David Wee

It’s not a great depression, neither is it a great recession we’re going through now.  It is a great compression, as economy built on perceived value reconciles with actual value.  A great restructuring of the economy and society, starting with a fundamental change in our relationships - how we are linked and intertwined and how we act.

This financial crisis forced many to change their lives in ways large and small. It's with more belt-tightening, less income and, in many cases, a newfound gratitude for the most basic human comforts: family, home and health.  After all, life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.

There are a lot of aspects of the situation that are really unique to this recession that we haven't seen in recent decades. We don't know how fast we pull out of it, although it does look like we have hit bottom in terms of overall economic growth.

In particular, the housing numbers don't show signs of falling further. We have also seen, around the world, very big declines in production - but not as much of a decline in consumption. That normally sets you up for some kind of economic rebound.

Technology and globalization are the context of the New Normal.  The Power of the Individual and Time are the keys to personal success.

According to Roger McNamee, The NEW Normal is a time when there are four unshakable issues that everyone has to deal with. 
 

1. Technology is changing just about everything. 
2. Globalization is changing the nature of economic opportunity. 
3. Every individual is on his or her own.  We have more power than ever before, but no safety nets. 
4. None of us has enough time to deal with life.

New normal refers to an extended future of slow growth and a shift in economic leadership to developing nations.  Creditor nations will recover first.

The trend is the unending demand for new and better forms of communication.  We are nowhere near solving the puzzle in wireless, especially wireless data.  The same is true in broadband.  As with everything else in the New Normal, the gigantic opportunity in communications brings with it many challenges.

We are moving from an era of finding customers for our products to one of finding products for our customers.

The need to integrate marketing and communication these days makes a world of sense.  This requires competitors to come together and work directly with each other, perhaps in ways they might not otherwise.  It really forces you to rethink what were once comfortable business boundaries.  The new normal will be about partnering out of necessity and also of opportunity.  Together has power.  Don’t run alone.

Our interconnectedness is also what made the complex derivatives, the toxic assets that triggered the financial crisis possible, but that is all the more reason why we will demand transparency, our best antidote to evil. That will change how business is run in fundamental ways.

The problem is not lack of data.  We’re drowning in data.  The problem is not even a lack of tools.  Technology has given us an amazing array of tools to help in our decision-making.  The problem is lack of time.  There doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get done all things we have to get done.  Worse yet, there doesn’t seem to be enough time to change our personal business processes to get ahead of the curve.