Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Innovation in Higher Education

A glance at the latest US employment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals sharp differences in unemployment rates by educational attainment: college degree or higher: 4.3%; associate degree or some college: 8.2%; high school graduates, no college: 9.6%; and no high school diploma: 14.3%.  Moreover, while the overall unemployment rate remains over 9 percent, a recent McKinsey report found that employers are having trouble filling specific positions because they could not find applicants with the right skills.  The report projects that if economic conditions improve, there will be a shortage of 1.5 million workers with college degrees by 2020, but a surplus of almost 6 million of workers with no high school degree.  It also projects a continuing shortage of workers with technical and health care skills not necessarily requiring a college degree.

Just about every such study points to a similar trend: for the foreseeable future, the US economy will need better educated workers with specific skill requirements.  Workers without a post-secondary education face a contracting set of job opportunities.  Those with higher educational attainments will be in the best position to obtain good jobs with good pay. 

Thus, we need to significantly increase the number of students receiving post-secondary education.  However, our colleges and universities, the very institutions to which the country should turn to help us address these increased educational demands, are facing problems of their own. Tuition costs have risen much faster than the rate of inflation and keep going up, thus making it harder for them to serve the students most in need of their services.  Many educational institutions are facing financial difficulties.  The financial crisis has been aggravating the situation, at both public and private institutions.  Government education budgets are under huge pressure at all levels, - local, state and national.

Incremental steps will not make much of a dent on the problem. We need to look at higher education through the lens of disruptive innovation, argues a report published last February, - Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education.  The report is written by Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, Louis Caldera and Louis Soares.

Social Business: e-business 2.0 . . . and Beyond

IBM executive Sandy Carter has just published a new book - Get Bold: Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business.  I know Sandy well, having worked with her at IBM for over a decade in various initiatives.  She is now Vice President of Sales for Social Business and Collaboration Solutions, as well as one of IBM's key Social Business evangelists and strategists.

IBM announced its Social Business initiative in the Fall of 2010.  Its basic definition is simple and practical: A Social Business embraces networks of people to create business value.  When I first learned about Social Business, I thought of it as the natural evolution of IBM’s Internet and e-business strategies.  Let me explain. 

When first announced in 1997, the basic definition of e-business was equally succinct: Leverage the Internet for Business Value.  So, as Web 2.0 technologies and Social Media applications emerged several years later, it is natural that e-business would have now evolved into something like e-business 2.0, continuing to leverage (the more recent advances of) the Internet for business value.  But, as Sandy observes in Get Bold, Social Business goes way beyond its Web 2.0 implications.

The Limits of Meritocracy

In March of 2010, The Atlantic published an excellent article by Don Peck which painfully described the dire consequences of a long period of high unemployment on US society -  How a New Jobless Era will Transform America.  According to Peck, the consequences of prolonged unemployment are not only bleak but truly systemic in nature -  “a slow-motion social catastrophe.”  Joblessness is more devastating to families and communities than poverty, he wrote:

“The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning.  Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults.  It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar men.  It could cripple marriage as an institution in many communities.  It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades.  Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come.”

Peck just published another very good article in the September 2011 issue of The Atlantic - Can the Middle Class be Saved?  In this article, his focus is on what he refers to as The Culling of the Middle Class:

“Arguably, the most important economic trend in the United States over the past couple of generations has been the ever more distinct sorting of Americans into winners and losers, and the slow hollowing-out of the middle class.  Median incomes declined outright from 1999 to 2009.  For most of the aughts, that trend was masked by the housing bubble, which allowed working-class and middle-class families to raise their standard of living despite income stagnation or downward job mobility.  But that fig leaf has since blown away.  And the recession has pressed hard on the broad center of American society.”

The Passing of an Era

The IBM Personal Computer was announced on August 12, 1981.  Having sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005, IBM itself did not mark the occasion, and as far as I know, neither did Lenovo or the other companies still selling IBM PC’s.  But, the 30th anniversary of this important event in the history of computing was duly noted by IBM Fellow Mark Dean, - a member of the small team that designed the original machine, - in a nostalgic and thoughtful blog.  At the beginning, Mark writes:       

 “It’s amazing to me to think that August 12 marks the 30th anniversary of the IBM Personal Computer.  The announcement helped launch a phenomenon that changed the way we work, play and communicate.  Little did we expect to create an industry that ultimately peaked at more than 300 million unit sales per year.  I’m proud that I was one of a dozen IBM engineers who designed the first machine and was fortunate to have led subsequent IBM PC designs through the 1980s.  It may be odd for me to say this, but I’m also proud IBM decided to leave the personal computer business in 2005, selling our PC division to Lenovo.  While many in the tech industry questioned IBM’s decision to exit the business at the time, it’s now clear that our company was in the vanguard of the post-PC era.”

“I, personally, have moved beyond the PC as well.  My primary computer now is a tablet.  When I helped design the PC, I didn’t think I’d live long enough to witness its decline.  But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing.  They’re going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs.”