Welcome to the Olympic economy

A few days ago, I was watching on TV the Olympics in Torino when the commentator shouted something that surprised me and that I'll never forget. An Olympic skier was speeding downhill when he suddenly skidded on a curve.

The commentator said: "Oh my God, he wasted so much time -- a whole second!"

I think the new globalized economy will be that intense. Every second will count. This is more or less the message that Tom Friedman delivered in his book The World is Flat - A brief history of the 21st century.

(Well, "brief" is an inaccurate subtitle, because the book is actually 469 pages!).

Friedman could have used another title for his book: "Let the Games begin!"

Or "Welcome to the Olympic Economy."

The point is, we live in a truly global economy, where any knowledge worker on the planet can compete directly against any other knowledge worker.

The remedy, Friedman says, is to constantly upgrade your skills and learn new ones.

The problem, of course, is that companies only train employees to become better at their job. The skills acquired may or may not be useful from a career standpoint. For example, employers will rarely teach employees how to network, negotiate, or anything that can increase the worker's career options and mobility.

It would be like a husband teaching his wife how to seduce other men!

I fear that unless people wake up to the new reality of a global economy, they will not take the appropriate actions to equip themselves with the very best knowledge and skills in order to succeed in the intensely competitive economy.