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Technological change is accelerating. So what? How is this going to affect you? You may think that
the evolution of technology is just great. You can hardly wait for the next iGadget to come out.
But pause for a second and imagine you graduated from college in 2004 and went to work
for one of the largest and most successful home entertainment companies in the United States—
Blockbuster LLC. In 2004, Blockbuster had 60,000 employees and 9,000-plus stores with $5.9B
in annual revenues. Everything looked peachy. Fast-forward 6 years to 2010 and Blockbuster was
bankrupt! Why? Because streaming a video over the Internet is easier than driving to a store. High-
speed Internet connections made it all possible.
The point is that after graduation you too may choose to go to work for a large, successful,
well-branded company. And 6 years down the road, it could be bankrupt because technology
changed and it didn’t.

How Can I Attain Job Security?

Many years ago, I had a wise and experienced mentor. One day I asked him about job security, and
he told me that the only job security that exists is “a marketable skill and the courage to use it.” He
continued, “There is no security in our company, there is no security in any government program,
there is no security in your investments, and there is no security in Social Security.” Alas, how right
he turned out to be.
So, what is a marketable skill? It used to be that one could name particular skills, such as
computer programming, tax accounting, or marketing. But today, because of Moore’s Law,
Metcalfe’s Law, and Kryder’s Law, the cost of data processing, storage, and communications is
essentially zero. Any routine skill can and will be outsourced to the lowest bidder. And if you live
in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, or another advanced economy, the lowest bidder
is unlikely to be you.
Numerous organizations and experts have studied the question of what skills will be market-
able during your career. Consider two of them. First, the RAND Corporation, a think tank located
in Santa Monica, California, has published innovative and groundbreaking ideas for more than
60 years, including the initial design for the Internet. In 2004, RAND published a description of
the skills that workers in the 21st century will need:
Rapid technological change and increased international competition place the spotlight on the skills
and preparation of the workforce, particularly the ability to adapt to changing technology and shifting
demand. Shifts in the nature of organizations . . . favor strong nonroutine cognitive skills. 4

Whether you’re majoring in accounting, marketing, finance, or information systems, you
need to develop strong nonroutine cognitive skills.
What are such skills? Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, enumerates four: 5
• Abstract reasoning
• Systems thinking
• Collaboration
• Ability to experiment
Figure 1-4 shows an example of each. Reread the Falcon Security case that started this
chapter, and you’ll see that Jennifer lost her job because of her inability to practice these key skills.
Even though Reich’s book was written in the early 1990s, the cognitive skills he mentions are still
relevant today because humans, unlike technology, aren’t changing that rapidly. 6

How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Nonroutine Skills?

Introduction to MIS is the best course in the business school for learning Reich’s four key skills
because every topic requires you to apply and practice them. Here’s how.