A presentation given at Northern Illinois University to the faculty and Executive Advisory Council.

1. 21st Century Skills
David Lipien
04.27.2012

2. Workforce of the Future
Former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
“To succeed in the 21st century, our workforce must be able to anticipate and
swiftly adapt to changes in our economy - changes in how we work, where we
work, and how we balance our professional and family lives…We cannot
simply react to these changes; we must anticipate them…”
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3. 7 Key Skills
Business Systems Enterprise
life long learning Skills Integration Technology
Grounded in academics, nurtured with Familiarity Collaborate
Technical
with Legacy (locally &
Basics
experiential learning and honed over a Systems globally)
lifetime of learning and a willingness to
adapt. Project Management
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4. Business Skills
people process
1. Guanxi: the delicate art of 1. Understanding business
building and nurturing functions - accounts receivables,
relationships. payables and inventory.
2. Leading by influence and not by 2. Business and systems analysis.
positional power. 3. Operational expenses versus
3. Ability to understand the capital expenses.
emotional makeup of other 4. Legal contracts and intellectual
people. property.
4. Clear, concise, consistent 5. Regulations (e.g. - SOX).
communications across
6. Industry eminence.
organizational levels. 4

5. Systems Integration
using the existing to create value
1. Less about building systems
from scratch.
The Global Market for
2. Connecting legacy systems with Systems Integration is
web front ends. estimated to be
3. Having multiple vendor systems
communicate.
4. Configuring custom off the shelf
$339B
by 20171.
software.
1. Source: Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (April 2011) 5

6. Enterprise Technology
large data and service oriented
1. Data analytics and business intelligence.
2. Enterprise collaboration; content, e-mail,
and communications (VOIP).
3. Cloud: 14M
a. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Cloud Generated Jobs by
b. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and 20151.
c. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
1. Source: IDC Research / Microsoft Study (March 2012) 6

7. Technical Basics
know your way around
1. PC 101 (swapping out a device, loading
software, et cetera).
"One gap we're finding is
2. Networking principles. that colleges don't
3. How to operate a command prompt. teach the real basic
4. Basic scripting. basics," Jeff Bowden,
director of IT Systems at
Dassault Systèmes.
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8. Familiarity with Legacy
boomers are retiring
1. Legacy transformation and
systems retirement. Bank of NY Mellon has
2. Systems analysis and being able
to interpret legacy code.
3. Extracting business rules.
343M
lines of COBOL code that
4. Being able to run reports and runs core banking and
queries – do not fear the green other operations.
screen.
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9. Collaborate
teaming and globally integrated
1. Code switching between cultures,
operate and appreciate a global
mindset - show high cultural "It is the long history of
humankind (and animal
intelligence. kind, too) those who learned
2. Wielding digital influence, connect to collaborate and improvise
the dots (E-mail, Twitter, IM, world). most effectively have
3. Dividing attention deliberately, prevailed." - Charles Darwin
being able to divide and conquer
information; the prioritization and
management of productivity is
critical. Source: Extrapolated from Harvard Business Review January-February. 2012. 9

10. Project Management
increasingly complex world
1. Bring it all together with
a. Integration Management,
b. Scope Management,
79% of
c. Time Management,
d. Procurement Management, CEOs
e. Communication Management, agree complexity will
f. Quality Management, continue to rise1.
g. Human Resource Management,
h. Cost Management and
i. Risk Management 1. Source: IBM CEO Study (2010) 10

11. Conclusions
Change is a constant - emotional intelligence, adaptability, global citizenship
powered by technology are the principles that the next generation of knowledge
workers need to have.
1. Leadership and Taking Ownership
2. Creativity and Creative Problem Solving
3. Adaptability
Top 4. Drive to Achieve
Recruit 5. Teamwork and Collaboration
6. Analytical
7. Communication
8. Professionalism
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