Have we reached the point for determining how the future of work will be or are we delaying the inevitable change which is required in how we work.There definitely is a strong current which is running that will enable this generation for defining and working for the futuristic needs of employment. One of the strong factors for this will be physical location and it is truly time that we make jobs location agnostic.

Having experienced the growth of digital revolution from the 1985 to the launch of Netscape browser, to the first smart phone or launch of the iPhone this enabled me to notice a visible information arbitrage and that helping me start connecting the dots.

This visible information arbitrage made be fully move from brick and mortar business and be a part of the digital economy. Invariably with information being everywhere this soon became a knowledge arbitrage. This evolved into a passion of creating new business models and work with really talented people.

There are few reasons which define the future of work and how jobs would be location agnostic.

Increase in Urbanization:
According United Nation forecast, that 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050. This means that most people will be living in “smart” ecosystem and infrastructure. This trend is going to accelerate in post Covid-19 world.

Broadband penetration:
Broadband has become ubiquitous. Most the world has an access to broadband through optical fiber or satellite or 5G. There are 53% of 7.75 billion people with access to broadband. About 87% of people living in developed world use broadband. Which has essentially meant that in 21st century broadband has become equivalent to what electricity in 20th century. 

Access to mobile devices:
There is considerable change in the last decade in terms of mobile devices. Today there are 4.2 billion which means 61% of world population has a mobile phone. By placing a mobile device in hand of people, now we have made every node a smart one. This allows us to do Tele education, tele health, telework and list goes on.

Knowledge worker economy:
This title was coined by management Guru Peter Drucker in 50s / 60s era which was earlier termed as a ‘white collar” worker.  As per reports today, we have 1 billion workers in the world under this category. OECD countries the percentage of workers in this category is much higher.

Emerging countries will be the ones who will change this number drastically. As we are making every job “smart” more and more people will shift to this category. Even traditionally restricted industries like manufacturing can evolve like 3D printing can get local and smart capabilities.

Freelancer Population:
‘Free Agent Nation’ is the title of the book, which was published in 2002, written by Daniel Pink.  At that time there were 30 million freelancers in USA. Fast forward to 2020 and now we are projected to have 60 million free lancers. This is the projection before Covid-19. It is projected that by 2027, more than 50% of workforce will be freelancers. The gig economy will play a dominating effect.

Evolution of artificial intelligence:
It is a well-known fact that AI will change the world as we know it. As the word progresses cooperation between machine and humans are key to humans living better lives. As each node of intelligence gets smarter and gets empowered by AI, more and more jobs can be performed from anywhere. 

“Beam me up Scotty”:
Invariably this quote was never spoken in Star Track film or TV series, but it become famous for any conversation about teleportation. As we know that more than 60% of communication is non-verbal, which we call body language. We already have the technologies with Virtual Reality and Virtual Augmentation, to create a smart workplace either at home or wherever we are. Covid crisis will force us not only leverage what we already have but it will generate massive Innovation Ecosystem for new Workplace. 

Greater support for female in workforce:
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. In USA, as of December 2019, almost 50% of the jobs were held by female workers. However they’re the challenges which women workers face are well known and well documented. By moving jobs at home, female workforce will benefit a lot. There will be challenges but the flexibility feature of working from home will provide more benefits than challenges. Just imagine, what can happen in emerging countries and countries where culturally females workforce have hard time to balance work life balance.

Realignment of education: 
If the knowledge industry is moving to a place where you can work from anywhere, then the education sector will have titanic shift in the way they provide education. They will also have to get on board with Tele Education which will prepare the new generation of workers who can work from anywhere. They will also have to offer new programs to old workers to get retrained form work from anywhere reality. The educational institution and corporate world will not only have to provide domain knowledge but also teach them to be successful with only meritocracy. 

Timing it perfectly:
Covid-19 has created a perfect storm we had megatrends happening even before Covid. Now we have an affect of an earthquake and Tsunami getting mixed with the megatrends. Perfect timing for changing our pace of change. We already have everything, for example, WebEx was found in 1995 and Zoom was found in 2011 we could be literally work from anywhere right now. However, the businesses have a 19th century mindset which happened in Industrial Revolution. Now even manufacturing can go local with 3D print manufacturing.

We are forced to use what we already have, and we will be asking for new technology which a knowledge worker has been asking, that is essentially to get free from office desk. 

Give the defacto reasons I do have a wish list for the new age economy.If we work from anywhere, will it address biases towards race, rise of meritocracy and positive impact on climate change.

Will end with the statement “With every crisis there is an opportunity’ which pretty much summaries how new age companies and workforce should align their thoughts.