Chennai: Plan and execute on developing your skill sets or acquire new ones that cannot be replaced by AI machines, says management guru and professor Vijaykumar Jayaram.
Speaking to News Today, Vijaykumar, says, “the normal or Big economy is not just based on the size of a nation with all industries, agriculture, connectivity and knowledge, but is related to all those other nations as a global economy, where a mutual-value dependency exists.”
“Gig economy, as a term has gone viral and trending, and refers to a growing or changing part of the big economy which is built on freelancing, part-time, contractual work that is replacing full time employment. Gig drawn from gigabyte, wherein a knowledge worker need not travel to USA or India’s silicon valley to finish the job, but does it online.”
On one hand, an employment in the Big economy means you are almost as good as retired or well settled down. Kids’ education, lifestyles, job security and somewhat slow growth if not stagnant, lazy job pleasures of travel, easy meetings with occasional problems. In #BCG Boston Consulting Group terminology you are employed with a Star or a cash cow. Your revenue graphs are well structured and well defined enough to take on pandemics or uncertainties.
Vijaykumar adds, “On the other hand, working in the Gig economy means handling uncertainty, more competition, sometimes no payment but you have your full freedom and you are your own boss. All cannot survive in a Gig economy for long, unless they have certain financial cushions”.
“A Gig economy cannot exist without its core, i.e., the Big economy holds the gig. The super set always holds or controls its subsets. It a subset goes rogue or functions like a virus, consequences are obvious which is, quarantine, clean or abort. So, people need to keep a watch on the government or controllers of the host countries where you hold interests in order to avoid unpleasant surprises”, he says and adds, “There are no generalised or specific evidences to state that the Gig economic performances are mutually beneficial. The variances are high. Freelancers have survived till now, but are they thriving very well? The answer is no, exceptions excluded. Post Covid-19 if they get further caught into a debt trap of readily available loans, then their situation becomes grave.”
Freelancers et al almost go unaccountable due to different payment options, leading to tax evasion. Although beneficial to job providers in terms of cutting down fringe and other costs, as they don’t have to compensate anything much towards the social security nets such as EPF, medical etc., the question arises what sort of employability sets we are creating in future? Will this medical pandemic bring about the needed correction?, he asks.
Vijaykumar says, “When routine tasks get automated and deep learning leads to maturity of data sciences, the writing on the wall is obvious that most of the freelancers even those dealing with coding or routine tasks will replaced by AI systems.”
This point applies to the Millennial and their children. Wherever you are, whatever be the economy, re-plan your savings for easy high value liquidity, purchase something only if you have ten times its said amount to dispose. Plan and execute on developing your skill-sets or acquire new ones, skills that cannot be replaced by AI machines. Loook for changes in the big economy, that’s where the catch lies, he winds up.