Part 2: Tapping the potential of the medium

How can companies create more economic security for people?
I think we do have to redefine what the role of companies is in the economic security of people in an age of so much mobility. It's hard for companies to provide jobs for life anymore and no one would believe it even if they said they did. It would feel like imprisonment to employees.

Companies need to make sure that people's skills remain fresh so that they are always desirable in the labor market even if this particular company goes out of business or changes what it does.

I feel the most important investment that companies can make in people and their future is education and training.

What can employees do to create what you call "employability security" in the face of loss of traditional job security?
People should be investing in and making sure their training is as up to date as possible. Learning is a lifelong proposition now. Whenever there is an opportunity to go to a seminar, go to it, let the company pay for it. Show up if they've got a workshop on company facilities. Volunteer to be on company task forces doing something new and different so you'll have the chance to learn.

Is it easier for women to break the proverbial glass ceiling in the high tech sector? If so, why?
The high tech sector has advantages and disadvantages for women. I saw, in the startups that I looked at, a lot of women represented in the top team. I still saw a relatively small number of women as CEO's, although Meg Whitman, stands out as a great example at eBay. Also, Jean Jackson who is CEO at Walmart.com - those are very good examples because those companies need talent and they don't care what that talent looks like.

And I did not see women represented as much in the technical side of the business or as CEO's. They still tend to be clustered in the classic three P's of personnel, public relations and purchasing.

Why should small and mid-sized businesses be the focus of communities' economic development efforts?
Because large companies are not particularly loyal to the places in which they are operated. For a long time communities relied upon companies that had a headquarters in their particular city. Even before that they depended upon a few wealthy families.

As companies move out of their local headquarter city, or start having to be equally responsive to all the countries in which they do business, large companies lose their local identity.

Small and mid-sized companies have not necessarily expanded globally. They have customers and suppliers in the region so they have a different stake in the local community. And also there are many more of them. There are only 500 CEO's of the Fortune 500, but if you start looking at all the prosperous, growth-oriented businesses in a city, there are often thousands of people in leadership positions that have energy and talent to contribute.

Can you tell us a little about the research you are currently involved in?
I am helping to make sure that the message of Evolve! gets to the right audiences. I'm working on translating some of the messages of Evolve into web-based, electronic tools that will eventually be widely available in businesses, in school systems and in health care to help people really use this material.

I really feel strongly that we can solve a number of depressing problems that we have, particularly here in the United States, in education and health care using this technology.

I am helping IBM's Reinventing Education Initiative take advantage of my change tools so that school systems everywhere can change, not only by using the technology but can change by helping principals and teachers be better leaders of change. I am going to keynote the American Hospital Association annual meeting talking about the Internet and health care.

What do you think the future holds in terms of change and the Internet?
To me ecommerce is interesting but a minor note. We need to see how we can use that technology to truly reshape institutions to improve the quality of life. I also hope businesses really make money doing that because that's their incentive to keep innovating and that also produces a strong economy which in turn provides economic security for people.

I think that the economy will start turning around when technology spending improves and we start tapping the potential of the medium.

Thanks Dr Kanter, for your valuable insight on change, security and getting unstuck!