MY HANDPHONE is about two years old. It is still in good working condition. I have no problem making phone calls and sending SMSes with it. As a handphone, it still serves its purpose well.

However, if I were to offer it to my two teenage children, I doubt they will be interested. This is because the consumers of today expect to have handphones that boast additional features. They want new and exciting features – camera, video capture, broadband connection, MP3 player and so on.

In other words, if a handphone is unable to perform its basic functions, it is sure to fail since no consumer will want a handset that cannot make phone calls.  However, even if it is able to perform all the basic functions, it still does not mean that it will sell. This is because customers now expect much more from their handphone.

The same can be said of the labour movement.

Over the years, the world has changed. The needs of the workers have changed too.

In the era of full employment, many retrenched workers were only concerned about their retrenchment benefits. They were not concerned about whether they would be able to secure new jobs because for every job-seeker, there were three jobs running after him.

Today, as we face the increasing threat of structural unemployment, workers who are retrenched are beginning to worry about where their next jobs will come from. Likewise, low-wage workers worry about how to make ends meet with their limited salaries, whereas older workers are anxious about what to do with their long years in retirement now that their life expectancy is longer.

And that’s not all.

As we continue to enhance our education system and move into the knowledge based era, the typical profile of a rank-and-file worker in the knowledge-based economy will be quite different from the rank-and-file workers of yesteryear.

To be effective, the labour movement will have to keep up with the changing needs of knowledge workers as well as low-skilled workers. It also has to broaden the scope of services to cover all three aspects of “work, live and play”.

Indeed, only by keeping updated and adapting its products and services in a mass customisation way can we aim to stay relevant to the changing needs of workers.

In other words, even though we can’t be everything to everyone, we can certainly strive to offer something to someone according to his needs and wants.