Are You Dead?

Companies and executives often ask the same question: What is the future of work? The honest answer is simple: nobody knows. What we know is this: being prepared for only one future is no longer enough. As Darwin said, the one who survives is not the most intelligent but the most agile. Prepare yourself for multiple futures!

That starts with a difficult, often avoided question: what is my unique value proposition on the market? And just as importantly: who actually needs it? Because if you have a value that nobody needs anymore, you are irrelevant.

Last year, one of the largest technology companies announced plans to lay off 3,000 employees globally, including more than 400 in Luxembourg. Those employees are highly qualified. Many hold doctorates. Their diplomas did not disappear. Their experience did not vanish. What changed was the environment. Artificial intelligence evolved faster than the roles they have occupied.

The lesson is uncomfortable but clear: relevance is not protected by credentials. Saying “I have 20 years of experience in finance” does not differentiate, nor do technical skills. They are the entry ticket to the game.

The real game changer is your unique value proposition in the executive market.

This is not what you have done. It's what you have been through and what you have learnt from it.

Crises navigated. Pressure absorbed. Uncertainty faced.

What matters is how you reacted, what you brought to your organisation when things were unstable and how those experiences shaped you as a leader. That is where value is forged. Once this is clear, a second question becomes unavoidable: Who needs my value?

A value proposition that no longer fits the market is irrelevant.

In China, where there are more than 200 million people living alone, a paying application was created that sends users, every two days, a message asking "Are You Dead?" If there is no response, an emergency alarm is triggered.

Professionally, the same logic applies. Every six months, leaders should perform a relevance check. If the answer starts to feel uncertain, it is not a failure. It is a signal to reinvent or to rethink positioning before irrelevance sets in quietly.

The same applies to organisations. Too many companies hire for today’s organisational chart, cloning the profile of the person who left. This may feel safe, but it locks organisations into yesterday’s logic.

Companies must hire not for today’s org chart, but for tomorrow’s complexity.

When everything is uncertain, the most fundamental capability becomes agility: the ability to question assumptions and resist autopilot. The ability to prepare for multiple futures.

That agility starts by asking the right questions.

As individuals. As leaders. As organisations.

In times like these, relevance is no longer something you achieve once. It is something you must continuously earn.

And it always begins with the same fundamental question:

Are you dead?