The Last Durable Industry (BBC)

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In an opinion piece published by the BBC, Dartmouth’s Sydney Finkelstein says there’s a catch to President Obama’s recent call for a return to the era of steady jobs in durable industries.

“The trouble is, there are no more durable occupations that offer long-term job security,” writes Finkelstein, associate dean for executive education and the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business.

“What’s more,” he writes, “most people would not want to go back to that era, for the age of disruption has created many benefits we have become accustomed to and opened even more opportunities.”

There is only one durable industry, he says: ourselves. “We have no choice but to be durable, since the world around us is so capricious. Job security is not only an unrealistic goal, it’s a foolish one.”

Read the full story, published 8/22/13 by the BBC.

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