The other presentation that inspired me at The Web and Beyond was by Josephine Green. Her proposal is simple: we’re moving from an age dominated by pyramids to one made up of pancakes. She was talking about corporate structure (of course).
In the social media and business spheres, this sort of talk has been going on for some time – corporate hierarchies are part of the old industrial age; a flatter, more collaborative, corporate structure is more effective.
What was great about Josephine’s talk (and she’s a professor of history so knows her stuff), was the way in which she drew everything into her argument: climate change, finite resources, changing social expectations, emergent human behaviours…
The “techno-market” age is behind us, Josephine says: we are now entering the “socio-ecological” era. As an example of this change in focus, she cited her old employer, Philips, which has re-branded itself from a consumer electronics company to a “health and wellness” specialist.
And if any of us are in any doubt as to what we (like Philips) can do to make the most of this apparently unprecedented opportunity, Josephine quotes Ghandi: “Be the change you want to see in the world”.
Ethnography, user research and digital strategy for purpose-led organisations. Author of Monkeys with Typewriters, featured by BBC Radio 5 and the London Evening Standard.
We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and analyse our traffic. View our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
