Four IABC leaders look 20 years ahead - International Association of Business Communicators - International Association of Business Communicators: 1970 - 1990: Section 1: Vision to Reality

Communication World, May-June, 1990 by Norm Leaper, Brad Whitworth, Ron Martin, Elizabeth Allan

Worldwide trends in place today-a global economy, instant access to information, satellite technology, cultural diversity and loosening or disappearance of political borders-will continue to accelerate and intensify, according to experts. The changes will be rapid, breathtaking, shocking and thrilling.

Successful organizations in the next 20 years will turn global challenges into new opportunities, often seeking alliances with foreign competitors. Key to this success will be the ability to manage the volumes of information generated by satellite-linked electronic networks around the globe.

The need for effective management of communication with both internal and external audiences worldwide will be greater than ever. Today the wise communication manager spends time meeting the information requirements of customers, distributors, shareholders, employees and influencers. Tomorrow this effort will be multiplied by the number of countries where a company does business. And each message will have to be adapted to the individualized needs of each audience in each country.

The communication professional will develop strong skills in managing corporate affairs multinationally-to see the global implications in all actions undertaken by the organization. As Asian Advertising and Marketing magazine notes, "Losing the communication initiative under the spotlight of the world's press... can do irreparable damage to a company's credibility."

Maintaining employee loyalty to a multinational organization through staff communication may well be the ultimate test. The communicator must have a commitment from top management to share information with candor and honesty to all audiences. But this may pose a dilemma in some countries where open, candid communication is not only not desired but goes against cultural mores.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the communicator in the next two decades will be coming to grips with language. To be successful, according to John Naisbitt's Megatrends, he or she will have to be trilingual: fluent in English, Spanish and computer. Or will it be English, Japanese and computer?

Salvation will arrive via technology. Software today offers computerized correction of misspelled words and substitutes synonyms for weak words. Can the technology be far behind where a message written in one language can be automatically translated and printed out in another? It may be more important to know how to access such a program than to learn a foreign vocabulary. The universal global language may well be computer.

And what of IABC in the next 20 years? First, it no longer will be necessary to talk about the "I" in our name. Members will just naturally think internationally as a fact of life-and in order to survive and prosper in business.

Here's one possible scenario: The association will continue to add members and chapters outside of North America and by 2010 half of our membership will be non-North American. IABC/UK will change to IABC/London (there will be other UK chapters) and will vie with New York and Toronto for the honor of most members. New chapters will appear in Japan, China, Singapore, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Portugal-to name but a few.

International conferences will be held in Mexico City, Hong Kong, London (again) and Melbourne-but more members will watch the conference via satellite than will attend in person. Members will access a computerized Communication Bank from around the world, operating 24 hours a day.

Main world headquarters still will be in San Francisco but services will be available through subsidiary offices in Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Europe. Regional issues of Communication World will be printed in these offices. Pre-assembled pages will be transmitted electronically.

IABC will continue to be the preeminent international communication association. As a worldwide federation of its chapters, IABC will be recognized as the authority speaking for the profession.

The best communicators in our business still will be those who think strategically, are part of the management decision-making team... and know how to use communication to get results. And when they need help, they'll be only a key stroke away from a colleague halfway around the world.

TECHNOLOGY

IN

2010

By Brad Whitworth, ABC

"Carbon paper? Why didn't you just make a photocopy?"

I can't believe that some of our college interns and new hires at Hewlett-Packard have never used carbon paper or dirtied their fingers changing a typewriter ribbon.

The pace of technological change is sweeping us faster and faster toward a different way of doing business. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there'll be electronic marvels galore in the next 20 years that will enhance our communication efforts and make your IABC membership even more valuable. You'll use new tools that will make personal computers, faxes and cellular phones look as old-fashioned as mimeographs, dial telephones and computer key punch cards.

The driving force behind these changes will be the ever-increasing power of the microprocessor-the computer chip. Engineers and scientists here in California's Silicon Valley have been able to increase the amount of computing power per dollar by about 30 percent year after year for the last 20 years. That's what makes today's desktop computers affordable and gives them the power of yesterday's expensive mainframes. These increasingly powerful chips that have brought you microwave ovens, VCRS, cellular phones and Nintendo games will continue to put more processing power into your hands in the future.