When employees and supervisors are physically apart, management will have to adapt, and each individual will have to learn to be a productive employee on his or her own. New feedback mechanisms will have to evolve too, so that both employer and employee can determine the quality of work being done … Part-time work and job sharing will take on new meanings … The very nature of almost every business organization will have to be reexamined. This should include its structure and the balance between inside, full-time staff and outside consultants and firms.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”In 1994 in the United States there were more than 7 million ‘telecommuters’ who didn’t travel daily to offices but instead ‘commuted’ via fax machines, telephones, and e-mail … When employees and supervisors are physically apart, management will have to adapt, and each individual will have to learn to be a productive employee on his or her own. New feedback mechanisms will have to evolve too, so that both employer and employee can determine the quality of work being done … Part-time work and job sharing will take on new meanings … The very nature of almost every business organization will have to be reexamined. This should include its structure and the balance between inside, full-time staff and outside consultants and firms.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Telecommuting
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: Implications for Business
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 152, 153
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne