2020 Starts Tomorrow-Future Skills Profiles in the Media Industry

Erik Stevens,Chairman of

the Board

A short introduction of GOC:

- Dutch consultancy firm and training centre with main focus on Creative Industry

- Owned by social partners (employers & unions)- Core activities: (labour)market research, technical

and ‘soft skills’ training, organisational consultancy (strategy, productivity), developmentof new programs for educational institutions & labour mobility (from job to job)

In 2013 GOC researchers travelled to 2020 to search for new competences in the media industry

(specifically: publishing & media production).

With which insights did they travel back in time?

First: an experiment

Three questions

1.

A racquet and ball cost together €1,10. The racquet costs €1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _____cent

2. If 5 machines need 5 minutes to make 5 panels, how much time does it take for 100 machines to make 100 panels? ____minutes

3. In a pond grows a tuft of waterlilies. Every day this tuft doubles in size. If it costs 48 days for this tuft to cover up the whole of the pond, how long does it take to cover half the pond? ____days

The ‘easy route’ answers:

1. 102. 1003. 24 days

The right answers:

1. 52. 53. 47 days

The relevance of this experiment:When thinking about the future we tend to choose

the ‘easy route’ for ourselves.

Why?Because it ‘protects’ us from uneasy thoughts. It’s a self-defense mechanism which eases the inevitable

pain accompanying change.

Rational thought – analysis – forces us to ‘open our eyes’, see the consequences and act accordingly.

This, however, is not mainstream!

A bizar illustration:In our annual research on economic developments in

the Dutch graphical industry, in 2014 we asked the following question:

“What is the main strategic focus of your company at this moment?

A bizar example:Main strategic focus % of total

No specific strategy: “we do our thing” 46%

Growth with existing products/services 17%

Cost reduction 14%

Broadening products/services offering 12%

Development of new business models 8%

Realize a merger or acquisition 2%

Back to core business 1%

100%

Red = denying or downplaying rapid changes(total 78%)Black = realizing change is necessary (22%)

The last 2 years:• Many presentations of the research findings

• Educational institutions are more readily changing than companies

• The market sees new companies (new entrants) taking over business

As Einstein said: If you keep doing what you did, you keep getting

what you got.

The only trouble is: the market is changing rapidly and traditional business activities are losing ground.

Let’s look at some market changes:

Advertising:- Mobile marketing

- Video ads- Content marketing- ‘customer journey’

“Bonding instead of branding”

Let’s look at some market changes:

Journalism:- Online first/offline second

- Database publishing- Big data

- Video/audio/text ‘integration’

“(Big) data has become just as important as content”

Let’s look at some market changes:

Media production:- Cross media capabilities (one stop shopping)

- Project management (Scrum)- Efficiency: digitization of production logistics

What does this mean for skills?

What these trends show isthe big dilemma:

Generalist or specialist??

Technology seems to force us to broaden our competences, but this makes in depth skills

nearly impossible

Looking at 2020 we tackled this dilemma by defining ‘competence profiles’ instead of ‘job descriptions’:

trained for new skills, whichever the job

We found and described 10 competence profiles

10 profiles:- Concept manager

- Community manager- Web care assistant

- Interactive marketeer- Content logistics manager- Content logistics engineer

- Content engineer- Data journalist

- Data visualization-designer- 3D-print designer

The Concept Manager develops content concepts based on market research; a strategic, analytical thinker and can-do-er!

The Community Manager engages with consumers and fans online; an energetic network builder and a social media expert!

The Webcare Specialist monitors online conversations and answers customers’ questions; A service oriented social media fan!

The Interactive Marketeer designs and initiates interactive marketing campaigns; a creative and cross-disciplinary multitasker!

The Content Logistics Manager is responsible for back-end service and logistics of web2print sales; an enterprising problem-solver!

The Content Logistics Engineer plans and monitors multimedia production processes; a concise and precise problem solver!

The Content Engineer edits and formats digital files, writes scripts and is up to date on digital media and technologies; eager to learn

and do!

The 3D Print Designer supervises the 3D printing procees from sketch to product; a creative and experimenting designer!

The Data Visualization designer creates audiovisual content based on large datasets; an analytical thinker and a creative designer!

The Data journalist collects, processes and interprets data and creates content based on them; a inquisitive storyteller.

The essential skills of 2020…

To Curate

To Create

To Communicate

To Convert

… are required to perform core activities

Aggregation

Content production

Advertisement and distribution

Realization

Now, 2 years later, we might add the following footnotes:

- the growing necessity of Cooperative skills (network economy, solving the dilemma generalist-

specialist)

- The importance of Audio Visual (concepts & production)

So…. What is next?What do we do today to be prepared

for 2020?

What does this mean for our HR policies, for company training

programs, for educational institutions?

?

Rationally or logically we would say:

•2020 starts tomorrow•So we already start training and educating•Not for new jobs, but for essential skills•We have to learn how to learn. And… how to keep learning.

Ideally we would hope that:• Companies demand this from your training

institutions!• Schools and training institutions invest in future

skills profiles!

BUT: remember the mental shortcuts and the defence mechanisms?

A further illustration:

Even if we know that our brain is playing tricks with us, it’s still hard to resist and therefore we tend to persist in denial…

KEEP THAT IN MIND WHEN LOOKING AT THE FUTURE!!!!!!!

P.S.The publication “2020 starts tomorrow” can be downloaded from our site:

http://www.goc.nl/Onderzoeken-Publicaties/2020-starts-tomorrow