For our posters who have not read Pink’s book, here is a quick summary of the author’s three A’s, along with a question posed for each.
Abundance: Despite our recession, we live in an unprecedented time of cheap goods. We can go to Target and get designer fashions at an affordable price, and Wal-Mart offers almost any gadget you want for cheap. Food, although becoming a little more expensive, no longer takes 30%+ of the household budget as it did in the ‘50s. Most households have a car for each driver. In other words, most needs and wants can be readily obtained compared to fifty years ago.
What makes your product good enough to buy if there are so many things like it in the same price range or cheaper?
Automation: Computers have taken over many of the functions people used to do. One person can now do a budget for the entire department using software that it used to take a whole department of people to do with calculators, pencils and ledgers. Many stateside factories have automated equipment, which perform functions skilled laborers used to do.
Can a computer or machine do your job as well as you can, or even better and/or faster?
Asia: Because of the lower labor costs available in developing countries, especially in Asia, as well as higher education now available to those populations, many jobs, such as call center representatives and software development have been outsourced to these countries. Referring back to the Abundance issue, the manufacture of goods at a much lower cost has been made possible by outsourcing.
Can someone on the other side of the world do your job cheaper?
here is a short video on Daniel Pinks Three A’s:
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