The growth sector of a developed society in the 21st century is most unlikely to be business-in fact, business has not even been the growth sector of the 20th century in developed societies. A far smaller proportion of the working population in every developed country is now engaged in economic activity, that is, in “business, than it was a hundred years ago. Then virtually everybody in the working population made his or her living in economic activities {e.g., farming). The growth sectors in the 20th century in developed countries have been in “nonbusiness”-in government, in the professions, in health care, in education. As an employer and a source of livelihood business has been shrinking steadily for a hundred years {or at least since World War I). And insofar as we can predict, the growth sector in the 21st century in developed countries will not be “business, that is, organized economic activity. It is likely to be the nonprofit social sector.
• source: Activity • Cross-Ref: Management Challenges for the 21st Century • See also XlnkS511