Work Trends – Croixstone

2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report

Each year LinkedIn analyzes data from the previous five years to identify emerging jobs and the skills associated with them. Some of the biggest takeaways in the recently released LinkedIn 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report are as follows:

AI is here to stay (6 out of the 15 emerging jobs are related to AI in some way).
Basic business operational functions are on an upsurge.
Soft skills – oral communication, leadership and time management – account for the largest skills gap.

Read the full report to learn more about the top 15 emerging jobs, those jobs with the largest hiring growth and the skills with the biggest skill gaps.

Businesses are Moving Toward Being Technology Companies

Our Managing Partner, Mark Weber, kick-started last week with a conference call with the CEO of one of our clients. The conversation focused on the topic of talent development (the #1 concern of mid-market CEOs who attended last month’s sixth annual mid-market CEO convention at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania). During the call, the CEO stated that in today’s world, ALL companies are tech companies. Many organizations don’t understand this concept and continue to see technology as a separate entity from the rest of their businesses. Greg Williams, the Deputy Editor of WIRED Magazine, recently published a blog post on the 5 reasons why businesses are moving toward being technology companies. Read it here.

Spotlight on Disruption

Coworking office spaces represent a fundamental shift in the way people work, and the coworking industry is disrupting the commercial real estate industry in a very BIG way. The future of work is a huge topic of discussion every week at Croixstone, and the shift in how people work is what incentivized us to relocate our offices from our business loft in South End to Industrious in Uptown Charlotte nearly one year ago. Learn why companies like Spotify, Lyft, Hyatt and Chipotle have joined Croixstone in calling Industrious home across the United States. Click here.

July 2018 Workforce Report

LinkedIn publishes a monthly analysis of employment trends in the USA workforce. The report is divided into two sections: a National section that provides insights into hiring, skills gaps, and migration trends across the country, and a City section that provides insights into localized employment trends in 20 of the largest USA metro areas. In its newly-published July report, LinkedIn shared that Charlotte ranked among the top 10 cities in two different categories. Learn more here.

Cataclysmic Changes in the Workforce

According to one expert, North Carolina is facing a serious economic challenge. Read this article to learn how some believe the world changed in a very BIG way in 2007, resulting in cataclysmic changes in the workforce.

What You Need to Know About Social Enterprises

On April 16th, Social Venture Partners Charlotte (SVP) will host the annual SEED20 program which identifies, highlights, and connects the community to twenty of the region’s most innovative ideas for tackling pressing social challenges. In today’s business world, nonprofits are not the only ones concerned with being integrated into the social fabric of society. Earlier this week, Forbes ran an article titled the “The Rise of the Social Enterprise: A New Paradigm for Business” which illustrates that businesses today need to make a shift in management in order to be more integrated into the social fabric of society.

Social enterprises are revenue-generating businesses with a twist. A social enterprise has two goals that are equally important:

Achieve social, cultural, community economic and/or environmental outcomes
Earn revenue

In the Forbes’ article, a yearlong research and survey of business and HR leaders by Deloitte revealed that “citizenship and social impact” were rated critical or important by 77% of respondents.

One of the trends identified is that companies today must be “social” in a truly external sense, and one of the biggest challenges is that C-suite executives are not operating or organized effectively to deal with the new world of economic growth and technology revolution while effectively addressing diversity, inclusion, fairness, equity at work and more.

There are two dimensions to the evolution of social enterprise.

Moving from an organization which operates as a functional hierarchy to one that operates as a “network of teams.”
Each part of the company looks at the impact of external factors and the company’s footprint in the external world.

Click here to read more about the new paradigm shift for businesses addressed in the article and click here to learn why social enterprise can be a win-win for companies.

Freelancing in America

Did you know that 36% of the U.S. workforce are freelance workers? This equates to 57.3 million workers earning an estimated $1.4 trillion annually. By 2027, the majority of the U.S. workforce will freelance, according to findings in the “Freelancing in America Study: 2017” released in mid-October. The study conducted by Upwork and Freelancers Union defined freelancers as “individuals who have engaged in supplemental, temporary, project- or contract-based work.”

To learn more about freelancing in America, check out the following:

Click here for a complete guide from entrepreneur.com to the highest-paying jobs, companies, freelance jobs and more.

Prepare for the future as a freelancer by following these 3 tips here.

Want to quit your job to go freelance? Here is a list of 10 skills that are in hot demand now.

Are we all fated to become “solopreneurs”? Read here about the four key criteria needed to stay competitive and successful as freelancers.

Re-Envisioning the Future with Generative Design

Could the current manufacturing, distribution, assembly and maintenance processes become obsolete in the not too distant future? Today, we take a look at generative design as an innovative approach to thinking outside the box when it comes to design and its implications to manufacturing.

At Croixstone we are inspired by mavericks…those unconventional thinkers who can see past conformity and who can accomplish what others say can’t be done. Generative design has the ability to generate unconventional design options that go beyond our imagination alone and can be used to create everything from running shoes, earbuds and airplane partitions, to a revolutionary approach to designing the office space and buildings of the future.

So what is generative design? According to Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, “Generative design is a technology that mimics nature’s evolutionary approach to design. It starts with your design goals and then explores all of the possible permutations of a solution to find the best option. Using cloud computing, generative design software quickly cycles through thousands—or even millions—of design choices, testing configurations and learning from each iteration what works and what doesn’t. The process lets designers generate brand new options, beyond what a human alone could create, to arrive at the most effective design.” To better understand what generative design is all about, click here for a short video.

Learn how generative design and additive manufacturing (i.e., 3-D printing) is changing the manufacturing world here.

Check out how generative design could radically transform the look of our world here.

Delve into a new world of highly efficient products made by generative design here.

Take a sneak peak into the first large-scale generative designed office here.

Trends Shaping the Consulting Industry

In the 2017 Management Consulting Outlook report prepared by Greentarget, a strategic public relations firm focused exclusively on business-to-business organizations, the global management consulting market has been growing revenue approximately 4 percent annually over the past few years. As the most mature market, the U.S. market grew 7.7 percent in 2015 to reach $54.7 billion, up from $50.8 billion in 2014. The global management consulting industry is now delivering an estimated $150 billion in revenue, and the growth trend is expected to continue, with the U.S. accounting for nearly half (44 percent) of the global market.

We at Croixstone know it is important to keep abreast of the many forces and trends shaping the consulting industry. Demand for change as result of disruptive technologies and competition from new market competitors continues to drive investment in consulting. What else is new in the consulting industry?

Learn more about the who’s who of the consulting world in 2017 here.

What makes a great consultant? Here are 10 attributes required for long term success as a consultant.

Read here about five consulting technology trends in 2017 that are more than buzzwords.

Agile For Business

Back in 2001, seventeen people at The Lodge at Snowbird met to talk, ski, and relax, and what emerged was the Agile ‘Software Development’ Manifesto. Those seventeen individuals may not have predicted that the agile methodology would now go well beyond IT and impact all areas of business.

As agile becomes more and more popular, business teams across a broad range of industries and functions are continuing to adopt an agile approach as a wide-ranging global business strategy. And, big businesses aren’t the only places where agile is flourishing. Small businesses and startups are also benefiting from embracing agile strategies and mindsets.

Learn about the secret history of agile innovation here.

Read how to make agile work for the C-suite here.

When it comes to scaling agile, learn how the devil is in the details here.

Finally, read about changes required to make your organization truly agile here.