To be financially successful in the coming years, it’s not just about capitalizing on the new ways to make or save money.

The world is changing, setting up a situation in which organizations must learn to take two seemingly opposite actions in order to be profitable. As we move to distributed work, as technology advances, and as other trends transform society, a set of opposing but connected forces have emerged: Fragmentation and Integration.

Fragmentation is occurring because of the following four factors:

1. Employee range: different employee types have emerged, from full-time to part-time to contract worker to just-in-time employees hired through marketplaces.

2. Wider spectrum of resources: to get work done, companies are drawing from diverse places, including platforms such as Amazon Web Services and other cloud providers; different real-estate resources, from owned, rented, and accessed (WeWork); and varied ways to reach customers through traditional media, digital media, and more.

3. Differences in measurement: because of technology and a plethora of real-time data, companies can measure everything in astonishing detail, creating a wide variety of dashboards and metrics.

4. Customized products and services: companies now have a growing complexity of products and services in a world where customers expect personalized approaches and different ways to pay.

The Importance of Integration.

As everything fragments into a mind-boggling variety of employee types, resources, measures, and products/services, organizations must integrate these various elements into a viable whole.

Specifically, they must create:

1. Seamless interfaces with employees regardless of employee types: consumers and customers do not want to see the complexity of different types of workers or where they may be based, so companies need to ensure seamless service and handoffs between employees. This complexity is only going to become worse at many companies, and leaders need to figure out ways to coordinate employee projects effectively.

2. Best combination of resources to manage costs: companies need to combine all the resources that go into creating products, to ensure lowest cost and continuous availability.

3. Integrated measurement and dashboards: businesses can combine myriad sources of data into an accessible, useable (by management) dashboard.

4. “Goldilocks” strategy for products and services: companies need a sufficiently large range of services and options to remain competitive but not so many that their complexity leads to increased cost and consumer confusion. The goal is to find the ideal mix.

Integrating all these elements in the face of fragmentation isn’t easy. Managing a paradox is challenging, requiring that leaders go beyond their traditional management strategies and try something new. Yet this is one of the keys to financial success in the future, making it worth the effort.

The most successful companies combine this personalization and customization at every interaction with a combined intelligence that integrates the data, focuses the choices to those most relevant while combining inputs in ways to maximize impact while minimizing costs.

The largest TV network in the world which is You-Tube is a case study of a company that on one end fragments individuals into one person media companies, personalizes messaging and content by viewer but integrates the measurement and the sales process to ensure ease by combining data and providing simplicity of access.

The future of not just media but every firm is this paradox of fragmentation through personalization by person and customization by platform, language and country on the edge combined with integration through data powered by AI algorithms at the core and center.

Work, organizational design, measurement, talent flows and company valuations will all be driven by the ability to handle the paradox.

The Rethinking Work Platform is launched.

Paradox is extracted from Rethinking Work which is 30 days away and available as a book, as an e-book and as an audio book (Feb 4, 2025 including in India). Now available for pre-order on every platform.

The book will be supported by Rethinkingwork.io which will include videos, podcasts, resources and much more. The initial pre-launch platform is up at Rethinkingwork.io. where you can watch videos of the key themes (Watch), download the entire opening of the book (What’s Inside), find comments from CEO’s and more who have read the book (Testimonials), access the first 3 amazing resources on where work is going (Resources) and find a range of places to buy including 25 copies or more at half off (Where to Buy).

There will be much more coming once the book launches.

Until then it would be terrific if you pre-order. This book will change your perspective on work and provide not just trends, cases and points of view but highly actionable frameworks, provocative new data and a vision for how to best thrive in the tsunami that has just begun regardless if you are a CEO or a trainee.

Work will change more between 2019 and 2029 than it has in the five decades before.

Rethinking Work is one way to prepare your firm and yourself.

More on Rishad Tobaccowala here: https://rishadtobaccowala.com/bio