Link to Think . . . . 智在埋堆: 香港新論述，新角色

[Originally presented at PES CME Dialogue]

In an article posted on the web by Leader To Leader, (No.16, Spring 2000,) Peter Drucker outlined one of his famous observations: “Managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself”. This was how he began:

In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time -- literally -- substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.

Drucker was amazingly forward-looking. Indeed, momentous disruptive changes—an oft-repeated theme in Drucker’s writings—are already breaking through into our world today, right before our eyes. At other discussion group meetings, I identified the following as massive global changes that have taken place since the turn of the century.

Disruptive Changes in the Global Context

2008: the beginning of the 21st Century;
Collapse of Market Fundamentalism: The end of Capitalism as we knew it;
Civilization's historic crossover into the era of Ubiquitous Knowledge.

Massive Global Shifts in terms of Content

Link to Think: The rise of the We-Link-therefore-We-Are generation;
The phenomenal expansion of the Global Middle Class;
Yin Yang (陰陽) as a prevailing way of seeing black and white.

I believe these are significant factors that serve well as a backdrop for discussions on the future of marketplace ministry in HK, which I propose may include: