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Futurist Barlow Challenges Educators, Business to Address Workforce Issues printer friendly viewprinter friendly  
Rare is the speaker who steps to the podium and warns his audience that he's about to dish out a large dose of discomfort. But that's just what futurist Ed Barlow did on September 9th at the Arden Shishler Center on The Ohio State University OARDC Campus.


"I am going to make you very, very uncomfortable here today," said Barlow. "But there's a big hug behind all that discomfort. Dealing with the future is going to require a lot of tough love."


Barlow, a futurist and president of Creating the Future Inc., spoke to a morning audience of over 200 people to begin his "Creating the Future" leadership summit for community ambassadors, business professionals, and educators.


Using a blizzard of numbers, graphics and statistics, Barlow outlined a national and regional economic picture defined by stiff global competition overseas (from China in particular), U.S. demographic and educational trends that put the nation at a competitive disadvantage and a cycle of technological innovation that is accelerating at high speed.


"We are in a time of incredible structural change in the world as we know it," he said.  "No individual, organization or community is immune."

Surviving the future requires focusing on "eight areas of structural change," Barlow explained. Moreover, all eight must be tackled at once.


One of those areas of structural change is in the ability of communities and businesses to attract and retain a talented workforce. In particular, human capital will be critical in determining which companies and communities sustain themselves and flourish, Barlow said.


"Seventy percent of wealth creation is related to human capital," he asserted. "Success rests in drawing in talent, not in drawing in companies," he advised attendees regarding their economic development efforts.


Educating a diversity of people in greater numbers and with higher skills will be essential for the United States and the region to compete.


Retraining older workers with new skills also must be expanded, he said, and is the most needed.


However, it is the "least funded mechanism," he said.


Following Barlow's presentation, groups from Ashland, Holmes and Wayne counties identified workforce issues unique to their areas and developed plans to address those in the future.


"It is clear, that to be successful in the future, our region needs to construct a knowledge strategy to complement our economic development efforts, said WEDC president Rod Crider.
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