So many well-meaning individuals and initiatives, startups, and scale ups from professional services to academia to non-profits all seek resources, funding, grants, and revenues to finance their work yet there is little practical attention on growth, the engine itself yet the discussion is on the meta, the strategy. The art of sale is as innovative as strategy.

There has been a recent flutter in the discourse about remote work, pandemic and moonlighting which has raised important questions about the Future of Work itself, as WFH is actually work from anywhere. Geographies are global in terms of knowledge work as talent is available on demand as a Netflix series. The Uberisation of work calls for a new social contract, as talent can be let go at any juncture hence the trampoline available in the words of Senior Minister Tharman is not available to most employees. Side hustles are a way to earn an additional buck, but from the employee perspective they are simply safeguarding their livelihoods as a lot of us have families to support. Terms such as trust, authenticity and ‘cheating’ need a rethink. Please look at the context of the employee as most young graduates simply find it challenging to maintain one job, let alone having ‘additional’ hustle income. Easier for an Ivy League MBA to chime in on an employee who is struggling to make ends meet as the social capital cache is lopsided.

Each worker is a gig worker as there is hardly any security of work, as the lexicon of social protection is nonexistent. If an entrepreneur can be a serial entrepreneur, then why can’t an employee be considered in similar terms? Expectations need to be managed better as Millennial’s operate on a different understanding of a work life balance.

#FutureofWork

With the just transition landscape evolving quickly, the professional services terrain is evolving slowly as well as the services needed by buyers are moving from compliance to resilience, and the ESIA+ESDD+ESMS trifecta needs to update as tools too.

The point of a moonshot objective such a climate change is not to fulfil the objectives at one go, make increments furiously towards generating a critical mass while taking care of the immediate concerns, and the ramifications such as floods is happening right now.

There is often an option to press the F5 button, in our lives only if we can learn from the past yet not carry forward the residues which tend to calcify around the memory arteries, that tend to shape the contours itself.

The point of learning is to take you from point A to B to build capacity to deliver work, which takes conceptual understanding, tactical skills, and the strategic mindset. There is too much emphasis on the correct credentials rather than ability to deliver.

I find it meaningful to build initiatives with/for impact focused entrepreneurs, academics, and civil society actors over the past decade plus as configuring networks, forging partnerships, winning business is a specific expertise and connecting the dots is vital for solutions for wicked problems such as climate change across scales, modern slavery in global supply chains, and migrant worker histories of the Indian Ocean, which are not bothered to be included.

Subject Matter Experts need wider networks and expertise to create actionable solutions as sometimes the blinkered focus is limiting to foster change.

#entrepreneurship

Scale and Resilience are interrelated and having an ‘anti fragile’ framework requires a distinct understanding from growth.

Climate migration will be a crucial issue, the inequities will be mapped in adaptation outcomes. The rich and the vulnerable will have different norms of adaptation.

Climate Tech is awaiting the Model T moment as no amount of adaptation will work unless it is as convenient as an app. The approach which the knowledge broker’s aka consultants is anchored in compliance and performance rather than anticipatory and predictive. The community lens is the LCM in the just transition paradigm. ESG is an ethics filter and has its utility in risk mapping for sustainable finance.