For societies to be successful in navigating huge demographic changes, it will be necessary to view them as a new reality, as an opportunity to change the way we organise ourselves for the better and as a chance to build more dynamic, creative, productive, sustainable, fairer societies.

Organisations which choose to change before it is, inevitably, imposed on them, who choose to truly become People Organisations, stand a better chance of survival. Many businesses will not understand, until it is too late, that the only way through this is to value people as the reliable route to survival, success and profit.

Unfortunately, for organisations which operate like this, the majority in our modern world, there is a shortage of people on the way, the likes of which we have never experienced. Demographic change, an inevitable result of what happens under Capitalism, is now with us for decades . . . possibly forever.

Organisations which are able to re-invent themselves and produce creative, imaginative, workable solutions to attract, induct, train, develop, grow, reward, promote, retain and value their employees stand a better chance of surviving, succeeding and of making a difference in their sector . . . and possibly of making a profit as well.

Under Capitalism, women and their partners start having smaller families or choose to have no children at all. Children are expensive and people in relationships need two incomes to get by. As societies transition successfully to a capitalist economy, the seeds are sown for drastic demographic change a few, short decades down the road.

What happens to the Capital = Labour equation when Labour is not cheap, available, biddable or affordable? It is one of the clear faults of Capitalism that only a Chosen Few Workers are valued and allowed to share in the pie, the rest have to make do with the crumbs. What happens when the Crumb Workers leave to go and share in a different pie? What happens when you can’t find Replacement Crumb Workers?

All members of society from the youngest to the oldest will be seen as vital to the functioning of that society. The whole of society will be engaged in ensuring that a productive and worthwhile working life is followed by involvement and productivity when older. Revolutionary changes in medicine and health-care will ensure that citizens are willingly involved and energetically contributing for longer: your healthspan will become your lifespan

AI and robots will steal jobs and parts of jobs. The good news is that they are most likely to steal the unpleasant, repetitive, mindless work unsuitable for humans. Excellent!

China will shrink from about 1.4 billion to around 800 million by the end of the century. Italy and Japan will have about 50% of their 2000 population in 2100. Russia will be irrelevant, their population will have died or emigrated, their political system and existential alcoholism problem exacerbating an already dire demographic.

In less than 30 years, 25% of the global population will be African. Today 75% of Africans are under 30. Africa has more than half of the earth’s arable land, mostly undeveloped, large resources of critical metals and 17 rare earth elements. Will this really be the Chinese century?

The only way to deal with what is coming is for countries to develop long-term planning capabilities, smarter politics and more flexible ways of organising society. Key political skills will include the willingness to plan for the future, take calculated longer-term risks, to think the unthinkable . . . and then do it. During this the population will have to be involved, informed and motivated. And politicians will have to start learning to tell their citizens the truth . . . this won’t happen soon.

Fairer societies, with more meaningful involvement from people living in those societies, will be able to measure growth in different terms: growth in experience, contribution, learning and development, the variety and richness of an individual life . . . rather than only in financial profit accrued.

If societies would like to prosper, then ways have to be found for all citizens to participate and to benefit. That would be a pragmatic, common-sense approach which would see more willing involvement from all ages and levels of society. From our politicians we will require real action which changes thing, not words written on air which blow away with the winds of economic change.

None of this will happen quickly, it takes time to turn a juggernaut.

If it doesn’t happen, then we will experience problems and societal breakdown on an unimaginable scale. Look around the world, it has begun.

Economies under Capitalism are supposed to go on growing, with allowances made for the composting and pruning effects of the business cycle, into the future. It is alien in business to think of successful commercial entities which remain the same size, or which exist to help their workers by producing quality goods and services but which do not primarily exist to serve the gods of profit.

Over the last four fifths of this century, we will recalibrate how we think about, regard and operate business organisations. We will analyse deeply what their primary purposes are, what they are really for, what they exist to do, to achieve. We will come to realise that the most important measure of an organisation is not necessarily, or primarily, how much money it makes.

Increasingly, people will want to work for organisations which look after them, which reward them adequately and which seek to develop their skills, potential and value. It will take many organisations quite a long time to understand why this is desirable, necessary and, in light of the demographic detonation on the near-horizon, non-negotiable.

In the new business world, already upon us, people are of premium value because there is a shortage of them. It’s not that they don’t want to work, that they’ve gone back to Europe or somewhere else, that they’re on a Gap Year . . . they don’t exist because they haven’t been being born. Organisations which don’t pour energy and money into solutions for this shortage will die.

Companies which have the imagination to picture how they will operate in a world where people are at a premium, and consider how they can become places where people want to work, will have a distinct advantage over companies which don’t really care and can’t be bothered to do the thinking. The arrogance and exceptionalism of the corporate world is about to undergo a rude awakening. The transition from ‘Please, please give me a job’ to ‘Give me reasons why I should want to work for you’ will be swift, confusing and difficult to deal with.

Organisations which want to survive, and would like to be successful, will have to take the tough decision to spend money and time transforming themselves into organisations of the future where people want to spend a significant part of their lives.