The Scared and Hungry Masses

(C) 2009 Aaron L. Richards - All Rights Reserved - Links Appreciated!

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a high school buddy of mine in Florida when he asked about the Michigan economy.

..."The guys that have run the town have targeted the medical industry. I think the number of square feet in downtown dedicated to medical treatment or research will have gone 8X or more in the next year from 4 years ago. I didn't see the trend 10 years ago, but lately it has become apparent to me that with the aging of the baby-boomer generation, there are big bucks to be made from healthcare.

Looks like you are in a good business (my friend is in medical coding). It is interesting to see how healthcare and IT are getting along. The medical establishment is spending major bucks on IT - programming, systems, networks, etc. This will help them minimize additional headcount and at some point in the next 5-10 years will actually allow them to reduce headcount substantially, even with more patients coming in the door. They will still need bodies to handle patients, but the proportion dedicated to administrative will be substantially reduced. Technology will allow fewer nurses to handle more patients, and those that come into contact with patients will be deskilled. I used to think that there would be a huge number of unemployed resulting from this transition. Now I see that as huge numbers of baby-boomers leave the workforce, they will probably leave many holes that need to be plugged - so it is a matter of developing skills in the workforce that does exist to get them ready with the skills desired by businesses.

The ebbs and flows in industry, the economy and employment will become larger and more pronounced in the coming years. There will be tremendous need in some areas, and tremendous excess in others. Online education is key. If industry wants to be effective, I think business leaders will have to integrate electronic systems of education, training and analysis into the work environment so that they can sit relatively any competent body into the chair and have them come up to speed while performing work.

Tonight I had an epiphany. The small business is back. With corporations divesting themselves of 100,000s of employees, many people are setting up small shops. These are bringing back the small shops along the strip. These small shops not only provide variety which the megastores (currently) can't afford, but they can provide service far above and beyond the megastores as well. These scared and hungry people will use their wits above and beyond what they had when employed by the Fortune 1000, to come up with creative and strategic ways of doing business. Many will leverage technology in ways that ingrain them into their niche, as opposed to trying to be all things to all people like the big box stores and services.

What trends do you see in your business? What questions does your manager not answer when asked? :^) "