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| Opportunities & Exposures: Industry |
The New Normal
Roger McNamee
03/01/2005
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As a technology investor and venture capitalist, I am required to detect—and
capitalize on—trends in the economy and business landscape. The most significant
development I see is a revolution that has been decades in the making, and is
happening right under our feet. I call it the “New Normal,” a time of
unparalleled opportunity in the face of high risk.
For most of the 20th
century, people lived in a world with abundant safety nets but limited choice.
Most people picked a career, a spouse, a place to live and the rest of their
lives, for the most part, was a predictable train ride to retirement. During the
economic boom that began with World War II, we did not notice that the corporate
and government safety nets were slowly unraveling, only to be replaced by
freedom of choice. As the importance of institutions has waned, individuals have
been gaining power, due in large part to the twin engines of the New Normal:
technology and globalization. Those engines will continue to drive the future in
dizzying ways.
The New Normal will be with us for at least the next decade,
and it differs from the Old Normal in these ways: - The power of the individual
is growing rapidly.
- The world offers more choices than ever, but it also
requires us to make more decisions.
- Technology and globalization are facts
of life. They rule our economy.
- None of us has enough time, so it is
important to use the newly available tools for making the most of it.
Here
are 10 strategies for thriving in the New Normal.
Know who you are and what
you want. Self-awareness is more important in the New Normal than in any
previous time because you do not have institutions to fall back on. This is as
true in career planning as it is in investments.
Adopt longer-term planning
horizons. If Internet mania was about getting rich overnight, the New Normal is
about living well for the rest of your life. Time horizons should be longer,
affording the opportunity for due diligence and planning beyond the next couple
of quarters.
Get connected. Invest the time and money required to become an
early adopter of wireless voice or data. If you get there before the masses, you
will make yourself more available than the next guy.
Take advantage of
unprecedented access to crucial investment information. Thanks to an onslaught
of new regulations and technology innovations, the investment playing field is
more level than it has ever been. Such initiatives as Regulation FD, which
requires companies to release information to the general public, institutional
investors and analysts simultaneously, are making more corporate intelligence
available to everyone. Meanwhile, the Internet gives you access to much of the
same data available to institutions.
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