'The Coming Jobs War' and what entrepreneurship can do about it.

Welcome to a challenging new book by Jim Clifton, Chairman of the Gallup organization. His book is called 'The Coming Jobs War. What every leader must know about the future of job creation.'

The Coming Jobs War is an important contribution to entrepreneurship, governance and job creation: "This changes everything for world leaders. Everything they do – from waging war to building societies – will need to be in the context of the need for a good job."

First some excerpts about the premise of this book, then quotes for Mr. Clifton's chapter on Entrepreneurship VS Innovation and how both fit into the solution.

From 'The Coming Jobs War'

"Six years into our global data collection effort, we may have already found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful, world-altering fact."

"What the whole world wants is a good job."

"This is one of the most important discoveries Gallup has ever made. At the very least, it needs to be considered in every policy, every law, every social initiative. All leaders – policy makers and lawmakers, presidents and prime ministers, parents, judges, priests, pastors, imams, teachers, managers and CEOs – need to consider it every day in everything they do."

"That is as simple and as straightforward an explanation of the data as I can give. Whether you and I were walking down the street in Khartoum, Cairo, Berlin, Lima, Los Angeles, Baghdad, or Istanbul, we would discover that the single most dominant thought on most people's minds is about having a job."

"Humans used to desire love, money, food, shelter, safety, peace and freedom more than anything else. The last 30 years have changed us. Now people want to have a good job. This changes everything for world leaders. Everything they do – from waging war to building societies – will need to be in the context of the need for a good job."

"Creating good jobs is tough, and many leaders are doing many things wrong. They're undercutting entrepreneurs instead of cultivating them. They're running companies with depressed workforces. They're letting the next generation of job creators rot in bad schools."

The following solutions are quotes from Mr. Clifton's chapter, Entrepreneurship VS Innovation:

"What the U.S. needs more than anything in its quest to win new good jobs in its cities is that rare talent to start companies or to create business models that work, that grow organizations - big ones, small ones, medium-sized ones, sustainable ones."

"Here is a Gallup economics finding that few leaders anywhere know: Even the best ideas and inventions in the world have no value until they have a customer."

In Mr. Clifton's concluding chapter he cites America's - and everyone's - need to master 10 global demands. My favorite is #4:

"Entrepreneurship is more important than innovation. The supply and the demand is backward here: Almost all countries, states, and cities have bet everything on innovation. Innovation is critical, but it plays a supporting role to almighty entrepreneurship. The investments should follow rare entrepreneurs versus worldwide oversupply of innovation. Put another way, it's far better to invest in entrepreneurial people than in great ideas."


The Coming Jobs War, by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup

Great Forbes interview with Jim Clifton about 'The Coming Jobs War.'

Sustainable Work first post. April 12, 2005. Dubuque, Iowa.

Wisconsin Innovation Kitchen