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It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"—Thoreau FACING 20 By Michael N. Chetkovich As Haskins & Sells rounds out its seventy-fifth year, the calendar reveals the Nineteen Seventies stretching out ahead of us, unexplored, a bit mysterious, challenging certainly and even in some ways frightening. One is reminded of the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times"—for interesting times they will be. And one knows that to those for whom challenge means opportunity, "living in interesting times" is a blessing and not a curse. At such a point we must consider thoughtfully the unfolding picture and what it holds for all of us connected with H&S. Thinking and planning ahead are nothing new for most of us. But the rapidity of change in our environment demands that we think and plan ahead today on a scale to which we have not been accustomed in the past, even as we recognize that our plans are more susceptible to change than ever before. Only if we look at the future as clearly and objectively as possible may we expect to meet the Michael N. Chetkovich, Executive Office partner, has been designated as Managing Partner to succeed John W. Queenan in June 1970. challenges which lie ahead, to respond affirmatively to change and to progress as a vigorous and constructive enterprise. For we live in a time that is without precedent, a time when change is taking place at an incredibly accelerating rate. One can have no confidence that past patterns necessarily provide guidelines for what will occur in the future. In the period just ahead we may easily find that some of the best trained, most productive people in our present day society will be unable to keep up with the times, because their orientation is outmoded so swiftly. In Horizon magazine a few years back Alvin Toffler, who was an associa-ate editor of Fortune, wrote an article called The Future as a Way of Life. In this article he coined the term "future shock" to express an idea similar to the "culture shock" which anthropologists have called the bewildering effect that immersion in a strange culture has on an unprepared visitor. Toffler describes future shock as "the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future." He warns that unless intelligent steps are taken to combat this disease, many people may find themselves increasingly disoriented and therefore progressively less competent to deal rationally with their environment. We are experiencing this future shock, the result of the enormously accelerated rate of change which, in effect, superimposes a new culture on an existing one. And unlike an instance of culture shock, one cannot return to the culture he left behind. Change, of course, is not new; it is an old and continuing phenomenon. But what is new is the tremendous acceleration in the rate of change in today's world. Tomorrow is here, it seems, before we have closed the door on yesterday. The late Dr. Robert Oppenheimer put it pretty
Object Description
Title |
Facing the 70's |
Author |
Chetkovich, Michael N. |
Subject |
Accounting as a profession Economic forecasting -- United States |
Personal Name |
Chetkovich, Michael N. |
Office/Department |
Haskins & Sells. Executive Office |
Citation |
H&S Reports, Vol. 07, (1970 winter), p. 20-21 |
Date-Issued | 1970 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | HSReports_1970_Winter-p20-21 |