Information Revolution
We are at the beginning of a revolution - the Information Revolution. This revolution will change how we communicate, how we make decisions, and how we are organized. It will produce impact just as the Industrial Revolution did in the beginning of the 20th century when it changed civilization from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. The Information Revolution will change countries from industrial nations into a global integrated economy and the impact is going to be very big.
With the Information Revolution, we are moving into a network-centric world, where structures will be radically different from any structure we had before because we will need better information to make decision quickly. With globalization, everything will happen at the speed of the internet and information will be transferred directly to the person who needs it to do a job, to make decisions and that is why software will be at the heart of everything.
Network-centric software will collect data, integrate data into information, and organize it to allow people to make decisions quickly. It will allow managers to send information to people who need to have it, who can turn it into better products and services.
Some people do not agree with me about the change that already take place and the important of software. Let me give you an example to understand the power of network-centric software. Forty year ago, when I was a student at university, I used the card catalog in the library to find books that I need for my research. My searches for books and information were very slow and took a long time. Today, there are search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.) that can access more information, organize the search process and optimize it. Student today has access to almost limitless sources of information, they can save tremendous amounts of time and can do research on a laptop anytime, from anywhere in the world. What is Google and Yahoo? It is network-centric software companies and they are just a few examples of many powerful systems to come in the near future.
Almost everything in a manager's life is driven by current events. They have to adjust to daily schedules and make decisions on the best use of people's time in order to get the job done. They have to read a lot of memos from higher management and take actions based on what they know. Not long ago, I have to write memos on paper which had to be send physically from my office to locations where my engineer staff work. Today I have the ability to do it on computer and send it by email to my engineers who work around the world. The technology that help me to improve my efficiency and make the jobs easier is software. In network-centric world, memos will be available automatically via emails and actions to address issues are prioritized automatically.
I think the role of management will change in a network-centric world. Since people can receive information to do work via software. Managers will no longer be the one who give order but will become teachers who teach, mentor and help their people to do their work better by removing barriers. This will bring efficiencies to working environment and allow company to build products faster, better, and capture the market with enormous benefits.
My question is how do we get the right data to the right people in the right way? The answer is although we need to build better network-centric software but the best software can not do the work if people do not receive a good education and training. We can only expect people to act logically, with common sense, and make the best decisions if we invest in their education and training.
My fundamental logic is: It is the people that make the business success or failure and every company must look at the people issue as the most important factor in every business decision. It will be difficult for people who are not trained to work in this new environment. In this Information revolution, competition will be fierce since everything will happen fast. It will not allow people to sit on the sidelines and complain because if you do not make progress, your competitors will.
My view is that many companies aren't going to survive because they won't be able to make the transition from current environment to the new way of doing business.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
