"Someone in America who has a 90-point IQ is qualified for many fewer jobs today than he was 100 years ago." Warren Buffett
I read that quote in a recent edition of Time magazine. It shocked me and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it. In a Presidential election year when jobs and the economy are the primary battleground between the candidates, a statistic like this is more than a little bit worrisome. According to the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, an IQ score in the range of 90 to 99 is classified as in the normal intelligence range. A score of 90 has been labeled elsewhere as low average.
According to the Mega Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing programs that aid the very gifted, people with IQ's of 90-110 generally occupy semi-skilled positions, including typists, receptionists, assembly line workers, and checkout clerks. People in this category are not usually successful in completing college. Other research indicates about 46% of the public fall into this category.
Is it possible that one reason we are in a period of seemingly intractable unemployment is that there just aren’t enough jobs suitable for the many people who fall into a functional but lower IQ range? Historically, when we had a bustling manufacturing industry, jobs that didn’t require a college degree were plentiful. In the 21st century’s high-tech, instantaneous, information driven global economy, the jobs most readily available for those with a 90 or so IQ would seem to be limited to low paying service jobs like restaurant workers, and retail clerks.
A worrisome development indeed and, I haven’t heard any discussion in the Republican debates or the President’s State of the Union address last week that suggests the problem is being addressed. Massive retraining sounds like a great idea until you realize that many people probably don’t have the wherewithal to fully understand the subject matter, let alone perform work that involves a good deal more than making change –even using a computerized cash register that essentially does it for you.
The economy will certainly recover but it seems entirely possible that all boats will not be lifted when it does. Consider how many jobs are being lost through online ordering from large warehouse-based companies like Amazon.com that drop ship products all over the world. (Think how e-books are reshaping reading habits and affecting even a book selling giant like Barnes and Noble.) Online shopping is making life difficult for many small business owners who employ the very people we are discussing here. And shopping malls, a traditional source of employment in the retail space, are closing in part for the same reason. In the Nashville area alone there have been six closings.
For those of us comfortable in the knowledge that we have higher IQs that should serve us well in the future, consider that Bank of America announced last March that they are shutting down 600 branches, in part because so many people prefer online banking. They don’t need as many people to run their business. Thousands of jobs including professionals in legal, marketing, human relations and finance areas will be lost. Even higher IQ people are not immune to problems created by technology advances. The difference of course is that people with higher IQs are better suited to take advantage of retraining opportunities.
That may be good news for those blessed with a higher functioning IQ but what about the rest of us? What if anything can be done to help otherwise functional people with lower IQs? Thankfully, there may be some good news on that front as well. A study done by the University of Michigan strongly suggests that IQ can be improved upon. Researchers found that exercising the brain through activities like reading, writing, puzzle-solving and taking up new hobbies can improve performance. Parents of children who have lower IQ scores please take note.
More of us have to be trained and ready if America is going to compete successfully in the 21st century. According to Brenda Albright, a well known consultant in the field of higher education, “These issues are being discussed extensively in higher education policy circles. The foundations that support higher education as well as political leaders are actively promoting the idea that many more Americans should go to college and obtain a degree or certificates.”
Warren Buffett is an extremely bright man. Work that demanded less intelligence was easier to find 100 years ago. The task at hand however, is to look ahead and find a way to put people to work who might otherwise not only fall through but demolish the social safety net, taking the rest of us with it.
Copyright 2012, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Elevator Speech
I read recently that business people are in need of a better elevator speech. For the uninitiated, an elevator speech is what you should be ready to say should you find yourself on an elevator standing next to someone who might do business with you or offer you a job. The idea is you should be able to tell the person how wonderful you are and what’s in it for him to hire you. You must be able to do this in 118 seconds, the average length of an elevator ride.
You have to admit that a tiny, enclosed, rapidly moving, windowless room is an excellent spot in which to hold someone conversational hostage. The elevator speech has become a sort of conventional wisdom. If you’ve been in the business world for a while you have no doubt been made to feel inferior by someone who sniffs that you MUST have an elevator speech ready at all times. You feel inferior because even if you have one you know it isn’t good enough. In just 118 seconds you have to grab the prospect’s attention, tell her who you are, what you or your business has to offer and exactly how you can improve this stranger’s life beyond her wildest expectations. If you can do that, you might as well run for Congress. You’d be perfect.
But let’s give this a try: “Forty-sixth floor please. Imagine; 46 floors! Looks like a vertical roulette table doesn’t it? Say, my name is Vito Corleone. I sell imported olive oil by the truck load with an easy -you never miss a payment plan. If you buy your oil from me, you will be my friend and people will fear you.”
Okay, Vito’s elevator speech needs a little work. But I wonder if it’s worth the time. Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, I suspect that proponents of the need for an elevator speech are the same kind of people who told us the world was flat, that Y2K was the next apocalypse and that everything happens for a reason. Conventional or fanciful, wisdom isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
For starters, the vast majority of us don’t even live or work anywhere near a building that has an elevator; certainly not one that would take an average of 118 seconds to ride. A better term for elevator speech might be waiting area speech, since most of us actually do spend hours waiting to see the doctor, waiting for a table at the Bonefish Grill or waiting at the Wal-Mart checkout line. Just like elevators, waiting areas like these have at least a few people who might buy from us.
On the other hand, considering how wrapped up we are in our techno-gadgets these days, can you really get someone’s attention in one sentence without a snub nose 38 and words like “Your watch and your wallet now?” Please, it takes about seven sentences to get the kid at the fast food counter to pay attention to you. And how do you get the Donald Trumps of the world to remember your name when they are so hypnotized by the sound of their own names?
Then there’s the fact that very few of us are actually involved in a business that can be adequately explained in mere seconds. Anybody who’s ever read a company mission statement knows that. It takes about a hundred and eighteen minutes to read one of those. Being succinct about what you do sounds great in theory but in practice it’s not easy. Not if you want to impress your quarry. After all, an elevator speech without terms like osmosis marketing, B2C and a perennial favorite, synergy, will brand you as someone who lacks gravitas.
The one thing we are all good at though, is explaining why our new friend and potential benefactor can’t live without us. That is a lesson we are fated to revisit every election cycle. You know the formula: Big promises no cost to you. Works ever time.
Copyright 2012, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.
You have to admit that a tiny, enclosed, rapidly moving, windowless room is an excellent spot in which to hold someone conversational hostage. The elevator speech has become a sort of conventional wisdom. If you’ve been in the business world for a while you have no doubt been made to feel inferior by someone who sniffs that you MUST have an elevator speech ready at all times. You feel inferior because even if you have one you know it isn’t good enough. In just 118 seconds you have to grab the prospect’s attention, tell her who you are, what you or your business has to offer and exactly how you can improve this stranger’s life beyond her wildest expectations. If you can do that, you might as well run for Congress. You’d be perfect.
But let’s give this a try: “Forty-sixth floor please. Imagine; 46 floors! Looks like a vertical roulette table doesn’t it? Say, my name is Vito Corleone. I sell imported olive oil by the truck load with an easy -you never miss a payment plan. If you buy your oil from me, you will be my friend and people will fear you.”
Okay, Vito’s elevator speech needs a little work. But I wonder if it’s worth the time. Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, I suspect that proponents of the need for an elevator speech are the same kind of people who told us the world was flat, that Y2K was the next apocalypse and that everything happens for a reason. Conventional or fanciful, wisdom isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
For starters, the vast majority of us don’t even live or work anywhere near a building that has an elevator; certainly not one that would take an average of 118 seconds to ride. A better term for elevator speech might be waiting area speech, since most of us actually do spend hours waiting to see the doctor, waiting for a table at the Bonefish Grill or waiting at the Wal-Mart checkout line. Just like elevators, waiting areas like these have at least a few people who might buy from us.
On the other hand, considering how wrapped up we are in our techno-gadgets these days, can you really get someone’s attention in one sentence without a snub nose 38 and words like “Your watch and your wallet now?” Please, it takes about seven sentences to get the kid at the fast food counter to pay attention to you. And how do you get the Donald Trumps of the world to remember your name when they are so hypnotized by the sound of their own names?
Then there’s the fact that very few of us are actually involved in a business that can be adequately explained in mere seconds. Anybody who’s ever read a company mission statement knows that. It takes about a hundred and eighteen minutes to read one of those. Being succinct about what you do sounds great in theory but in practice it’s not easy. Not if you want to impress your quarry. After all, an elevator speech without terms like osmosis marketing, B2C and a perennial favorite, synergy, will brand you as someone who lacks gravitas.
The one thing we are all good at though, is explaining why our new friend and potential benefactor can’t live without us. That is a lesson we are fated to revisit every election cycle. You know the formula: Big promises no cost to you. Works ever time.
Copyright 2012, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.
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