Next Stop - The 21st Century

In the next millennium, the new economy will mean different things to different people. It will require different things from each of us. And it will reward each of us in different ways. What will it mean to you? We asked each of 21 thought leaders to offer one idea to prepare us for the 21st century. Meet our Unit of 21.

Peter Drucker

Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California

For the first time in human history, people can expect to outlive the organizations that they work for. As we live longer and work for more years, we risk becoming "too good" at what we do. Work that felt challenging when we were in our thirties may feel dull when we reach our fifties -- at which point we have 20 years left in our careers.

So we need new ways to manage the "second half" of our work lives. That might mean retraining yourself for a different kind of job. It might mean developing a "parallel career" -- for example, working in a nonprofit organization that interests you while cutting back on your regular job. It might mean doing the same kind of work that you've done, but in a different setting.

An old client of mine, a man who built a machine-tool company, plans to leave that company. He's only in his mid-fifties, but he told me, "I know too much about this industry, and everything I know is about yesterday." His knowledge is an obstacle; it no longer applies to today's business world. So he has switched to a new job -- managing the finances of an archdiocese -- that will keep him busy for a long time.

How do you know when you're ready for a career change? When the harder you work, the less you seem to accomplish -- or when you're sure that you know all the answers, and you've stopped asking, "What are the right questions?"

There will always be people who "retire on the job" and then count the years until they stop working. But those people who see a "second career" as an opportunity for continued personal growth will be the ones who lead the richest lives. They will also be our role models.

Peter Drucker is a celebrated business thinker who has written more than 30 books, including 2 novels and a memoir.

Helayne Spivak

Founder, president, and creative director
HRS Consulting
New York, New York

What will the workplace of the future look like? That depends on who's there -- on whether we encourage women to stay and minorities to enter.

These days, women are feeling so dispirited about the work world that they're actually leaving their jobs. The so-called glass ceiling isn't the problem. The problem has to do with what women see when they look up at the glass ceiling. They see what they are expected to sacrifice, and they opt out of even trying to smash the glass.

They are expected to sacrifice who they are as human beings. Even those of us who create ads don't seem to know how to address women these days. Should we address them as career women? As soccer moms? As middle-aged daughters caring for aging parents? The answer is that women are all of those people -- and more. Every day, women go out and do the impossible -- and then berate themselves for not taking better care of their families. So they lose on all fronts.

There are so many things that organizations can do to retain their women employees -- and so few organizations that choose to do those things. I've seen the resentment that a high-ranking woman causes when she takes maternity leave. I've seen the skepticism that emerges when she says that she'll be back. How can it be that so few companies, on Madison Avenue or elsewhere, offer on-site day care? More than a decade ago, Hill, Holliday in Boston created one of the finest day-care centers around. Yet very few agencies have followed that model.

While women are being driven out of the workplace by frustration and despair, minorities are having trouble entering the work world in the first place. Corporate America still hasn't recognized this country's ethnic diversity. You don't see it on TV, and you don't see it at work. Instead, you see an us-versus-them mind-set. To keep pretending that we live in a white-majority world is absurd -- not just because it's wrong, but because it's bad business.

Helayne Spivak (hspivak@erols.com), one of the most accomplished leaders in the ad business, has run some of the world's top creative departments: At Young & Rubicam, she was chief creative officer; at J. Walter Thompson, she was worldwide creative director. She has won nearly every major honor that the industry offers, including numerous Clio Awards and the Gold Award at the Cannes Advertising Festival.