Identity Crisis

This is a copy of an article that I wrote in Linkedin 11 months ago.

I believe that I have had an identity crisis for most of my working life! When I started my career 35 years ago out of Uni, I wrote computer software to model the solidification of molten metal. This software was used by Holden to improve the casting of their alloy wheels. So whilst I cut code, I identified myself with the Manufacturing sector.

Twenty years ago, I started my career in robotics. This involved writing patents (Knowledge — Quaternary Sector) to develop navigation software (Services— Tertiary Sector) that automated mining equipment (Manufacturing — Secondary Sector) to be deployed in an underground mine (Mining — Primary Sector). So the question arose — Which sector of the economy did I work in? Perhaps I was naive, but my understanding of these sectors was siloed (you could only be in one) and linear (from left to right).

Recently, I have been involved in discussions about the role of software in manufacturing — both “for” and “in” the manufactured product. And I have come to appreciate that perhaps these sectors are more like concentric ellipses, with knowledge at the centre — which means that I can exist in all four sectors at the same time. The sectors are drawn as ellipses to account for the fact that in many cases the knowledge, service or manufactured product can be sold directly to the market.