I have always been a great believer in kids as I do consider them the future of a nation. The fact that I can still (almost) remember how I grew up and the experiences that I have had over the years, I look apon young kids and see the pure enjoyment of life and the expectation and anticipation they perceive.

Of course we cannot buy their youth nor can they buy our experience. But it really is fun giving them the benefit of our experience and getting them to form the basis of a business understanding and how they will see themselves being part of the great big world.

I am at the moment, involved with a 19 year old finishing his design course and who is a crack in the construction of websites. It’s not that it is his vocation in life…he just happens to be good at it. OK he has had some informal training (in designing websites) and coupled with the experience he has gained from the course he is involved in at college, he spent sometime looking around the internet and got the bug.

But what really is quite refreshing is that he can very easily understand from the experience being with someone in business and begin to see a future and a position he can enjoy for himself.

I actually believe that companies of the future will be a collection of smaller companies coming together to form a larger structure as and when necessary, while at the same time, maintaining their own individual company. It’s like animals forming a zoo or trees forming a forest., a colection of athletes forming a team…..they are part of an official structure, while still being able to maintaining their individuality.

I visited the offices of United Spaces in Stockholm, Sweden in 2003, where there co-existed several individual small companies working on their individual projects for their individual Clients, although sharing common infrastructure, like receptionist, meeting rooms, copiers, kitchen, etc.

One of the very interesting cultures that was encouraged by the managers of United Spaces, was that at the end of each friday, all these micro companies came together to discuss the experiences of the week and where invitations to form a larger team for a specific proposal would be discussed. Each micro company had the possibility to form a larger depending on their availability.

I imagine the future to be individual micro companies coming together to form a company of a larger dimension. These micro companies will be specialists in their field and therefore bringing expertise necessary to the team.

What is, for me, more interesting, is that the enlarged company will not have people dragging their heels or not coming in tomorrow, on not liking the boss, or all the other negatives that exist in a large company. People are there because they want to be there and because the work is interesting. Not because they are being told by their boss to do this, that or the other.

Micro companies are people who assume the responsibility for their life and who are prepared to put their necks on the block.

Getting young kids in this frame of mind and watching them become enthusiastic about the future is very rewarding. I shall continu this theme and tell you more about how things develop.

In the meantime, you should look at the results of the first two weeks: www.Mission2Design.com

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