Pharma’s Journey in the Network World of the Infonaut

Humans come together in different ways during different stages of their cultural and societal evolution.
Groups of humans, micro-civilisations can be at different stages and evolving in different ways at the same societal stage of their evolution.

Mimi Lobell identified seven of these stages in her work on the Spatial Archetypes of Civilisations.

Mimi describes these archetypes as (See Opposite):-

At what stage is the Pharma micro-civilisation?

Does Pharma’s evolution cover a number of stages?

Why is Pharma’s appreciation of micro-civilisations relevant?

Judging by recent history there seems to be significant sections of Pharma that has yet to recognise their relationship to a rapidly evolving society?

Does this describe the micro-civilisation of the Pharma you know? …………..

 
How does Pharma relate to Points of Reference in our Civilisation?

• International commercial and industrial networks are the largest cohesive social unit;
• The economy is based on mass production and trade, extreme specialization and fragmentation;
• Systems are highly prevalent involving large groups of people organized into manageable machine-like components;
• Political mechanisms and ideologies are ostensibly seeking the decentralization of political power;
• Cultures are in decline, empty repetition of old forms, bloating and collapse of institutions, loss of confidence, difficulties with maintenance of existing systems and facilities, lack of spiritual thrust, lack of creativity;
• The marketplace dominates in determining values;
• The pinnacle accomplishments is in engineering;
• Extreme standardization of products, language, currency, uniforms, education, housing, record-keeping (census), taxation, welfare, etc;
• The perception of the world as a Grid of conceptually uniform measureable units, or as a machine;
• An emphasis on enumeration and measurement as in census-taking, statistical surveys, empirical sciences, the ‘objective’ documentation of events, mathematics, reading and writing, information storage and data processing;
• A sense of alienation from spirit, matter, nature, the inner-self, history, and tradition;
• Conquest of the natural world;
• Mastery of technologies functions;
• Faith in progress.

How does Pharma utilize its relationship with these general societal dimensions? Is its relationship optimal for either Pharma or society?

Does Pharma Recognise its Position in an Evolving Civilisation?

Is Pharma Largely Stuck in the World of the Technocrat?

And can Pharma thrive in the fluid world on The Network ?

The Network world into which we are moving involves a very different thinking.

It’s a world in which:-

The global communications network is the largest cohesive social unit

The economy is based on the exchange and production of information

Organisation is fluid, both the generalist and the specialist are rewarded

Community becomes fluid and voluntary

Urban centers become important mainly as obvious meeting places; geography increasingly loses its importance.

Declining number of people are involved in manufacture of physical products, services and information become highly significant.

People organise into networks of shared interests and views (Special Interest Groups, activist movements, adhocracies, fan-clubs, task-forces).

• Meritocracy is redefined: you gain access to high status networks by your skills, knowledge or contacts.
• Politics becomes polycentric, with old power centers partially losing powers to new centers, often with new power dimensions.
• United culture dissolves into a sea of possibilities. Creativity is unleashed but coherence is lacking.
• Values are influenced by the constant media flow, they move like Brownian motion.
• Pinnacle accomplishments are in computer science and media.
• Products, services and contacts become customized; service and quick delivery is paramount.

Gaining Attention is Everything!

If Pharma is to thrive in the world of The Network, if it is to be a leading Infonaut, what will be its strategy?

How will it see itself and relate to the Civilisation in which it now exists and the one that will exist tomorrow?

(Tomorrow’s Blog: Pharma & communication – In the ‘Groove’ or in a ‘Rut’?)