In the year 2000, Tom Peters, in his characteristically bullish manner, suggested that within 10 years 90 per cent of American white-collar jobs would have disappeared. His assertion was that this would be driven by intense global competition intensified by destructive local entrepreneurs, new productivity tools and global outsourcing.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the number of job losses was clearly not as high as 90 per cent, but it is also clear that many professions have undergone significant structural change with job-losses compounded (and possibly masked) by the deep recession. If you were to look at, for example, the finance or human resources functions in large organisations today, they would indeed look radically different to their predecessors that existed at the turn of the millennium. Technology, outsourcing and global competition have undoubtedly caused widespread and permanent change. Except in the law?
