Learn, unlearn and relearn
The late businessman and futurist Alvin Toffler famously said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
At Kyocera, we are proud of our culture that promotes future thinking and technological innovation, as was demonstrated at CES, the world's largest technology trade show recently where we unveiled some of our most cutting-edge technologies.
But what’s important to remember in the relentless march of progress is that sometimes we have to take a step back to unlearn what we thought we knew. One of the most dangerous approaches any business can take is to believe that because they have achieved success by doing something a certain way, they will continue to be successful by doing it that way in the future.
As Dan Newman, Cofounder of V3*Broadsuite says in this article: “The future of the industry will be defined by companies that can change faster than the competition – those that can adapt to new market demands and execute accordingly. This isn’t a far-out requirement. We’re already in a world where cars drive themselves, smart speakers listen and grant our wishes, and AV can be done differently with mobile, flexible spaces. This is what our own technology adoption and media consumption patterns have been telling us.”
“We need to build companies and hire people because of their ability to be entrenched in
change – and for them to learn to like it. To realise that the most successful employees, managers, and leaders will know that today’s popular product or service will be tomorrow’s history lesson.”
The rate of technological innovation is faster than we ever could have imagined and it is
only by embracing change, and by accepting that we must constantly learn, unlearn and relearn that we will successfully stay relevant in this exciting future.
Werner Engelbrecht - General Manager - Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa
