Eric Schmidt (Ex CEO and current Chairman – Google) management style and CIO

Image via CrunchBase

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything.”

John Wooden (1910 – 2010) Hall of Fame basketball coach of UCLA

Eric Schmidt (1955 – ) Google CEO and Chairman from 4^th April 2011 onwards

Today’s article is the sixth in a series of articles (1^st Steve Jobs, 2^nd Michael Dell, 3^rd Warren Buffet, 4^th Bill Gates, 5^th Larry Ellison), analysing current and past leaders to ascertain how Chief Information Officer’s (CIOs) can learn better management by applying the management practices of leadership, practiced by these leaders.

This article also follows my previous articles on Google, Microsoft Googles Apple in 2011, Google Apps – The myth, hype and reality, Weather bulletin – Google Cloud and icy Microsoft downpour and Used iphone under a palm tree where I met android and formed a symbian relationship with a blackberry

Eric Schmidt arrived at Google to help Google’s inexperienced founders; Sergey Brin and Larry Page. He has led Google to become a globally recognised company with approx 24000 employees. Recently, he has stepped down to become the chairman and to pass the leadership to Larry Page (on 4^th April 2011). Over the years, he has mentored the young founders and believes that the time is now right for them to take the helm. For his efforts, he leaves with a golden shake of $100 million in equity and shares worth 9.1% of Google stock.

“As a CEO, Schmidt is more inclined to provoke than proclaim. “Google is run by its culture and not by me”, said Schmidt in 2009. In Google, when a key executive decision is reached, all interested parties are invited to the decision making process and are encouraged to share their opinions. Schmidt’s job is to oversee the whole procedure and make timely decisions. This bottoms-up way of decision making usually leads to a better buy in and a better decision.  Google allows employees to spend 20% of time on self-directed projects. To closely connect to Google’s frontline innovators, each week Schmidt and his senior associates spend up to six hours in dialogue with team members from across Google, who believe their projects have great potential. This unique management style has hatched a series of great products like Gmail and Google News.” Courtesy Vivian’s Tech Blog

PS: CIO is a generic term and other analogous titles are Head of IT, IT Director, Director of IT etc.

The Management Style

What can CIOs learn from Eric Schmidt’s management style? Let’s investigate while allowing you to decide.  (In no particular order and a few other sources utilised):

1. How do you run this company? – ES “It’s run in a strange way. We have a normal hierarchical structure. The company is organized ‘bottoms up’ from the standpoint of product creativity and ‘tops down’ from running the quarter and the financials and so forth. We encourage dissent, we encourage large group conversation, we encourage there to be somebody who’s opposed to the decision, and we work very, very hard to be not hierarchical in the way that decisions are made. Often if we can get a decision, we get the best decision if we have two decision makers, not once. We never make decisions in private; we always do them right in front of everybody.” Courtesy Marketplace

2. When the going gets tough, investment in people always pays: ES – “Getting the most out of knowledge workers will be the key to business success for the next quarter century. Here’s how we do it at Google.

At Google, we think business guru Peter Drucker well understood how to manage the new breed of “knowledge workers.” After all, Drucker invented the term in 1959. He says knowledge workers believe they are paid to be effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses will “strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers’ way.” Those that succeed will attract the best performers, securing “the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years.

At Google, we seek that advantage. The ongoing debate about whether big corporations are mismanaging knowledge workers is one we take very seriously, because those who don’t get it right will be gone. We’ve drawn on good ideas we’ve seen elsewhere and come up with a few of our own. What follows are ten key principles we use to make knowledge workers most effective. As in most technology companies, many of our employees are engineers, so we will focus on that particular group, but many of the policies apply to all sorts of knowledge workers.” – Courtesy 1000 Ventures

For more, read – Google’s ten golden rules for getting the most out of knowledge workers.

“When Eric joined Novell, the company’s future was very much in doubt. He correctly recognized a culture of fear that pervaded the organization. Bright engineers with revolutionary ideas were reluctant to voice them for fear of being fired. The engineers however, complained vociferously amongst themselves leading to a culture of corporate cynicism. Recognizing this pervasive bellyaching, Eric asked two engineers he met on the company shuttle, to give him the names of the smartest
people they knew in the company. Eric met with each of them, and asked them in turn to identify the 10 smartest people they knew. In a few weeks, Eric had a list of 100 engineers he considered critical to Novell’s future. He met with each of them personally, encouraging them to take chances and follow their instincts. He removed the possibility of reprisals by their managers for voicing their opinions. This inspired the engineers and focused their efforts, resulting in innovative and improved products. These changes helped Novell transform itself from a loss of $78
million to a gain of $102 million”. – Courtesy Scribd.com

One person alone cannot handle everything. The secret is to surround yourself with employees that are smarter than yourself. These smart people will challenge organisations and force them to think differently. I covered this, under mobility of management when I covered; can IT Management failure be caused by a deadly disease? Part II. CIOs need to understand the importance of retaining and investing in people as one of the business’s most important assets is yet again confirmed by another business leader.

3. Business/IT Strategy: – “At Google, Eric has stated the company’s goal as “…Organizing the world’s information making it universally accessible and useful”. An engineer working to index billions of web pages can easily identify with this laudable goal. As a practical matter the goal of making information universally accessible is a more
meaningful goal for the engineer, interested in making his mark on society, rather than a mundane goal of increasing Google’s revenues by $300 million dollars. Eric considers this transfer of ownership to be so important that while at Novell he created a quarterly in-house radio show modeled after NPR’s “Car Talk”. He even made tapes available for in-car listening.” – Courtesy Scribd.com

Sometimes it’s best to follow your instincts and to believe in yourself to do the right thing. Paralysis by analysis is often the cause that many organisations cannot do well. It’s as Nike says, Just do it!

4. Rating of employees’ performance: – In the past, I have reviewed many CEO’s management style but Eric Schmidt’s style is the closest fit to Deming’s ‘Annual rate of performance’ that I have yet come across.

“Eric management style is to let the team’s progress be reviewed by individuals the team respects. In most companies there exist a few individuals that are universally respected or at least more respected than everyone else.
These individuals have a way of articulating principles and have very good memories. Since they are considered impartial, teams are more open to receive feedback or decisions even if the decision goes against them. – Courtesy Scribd.com

5. Earn respect by ‘listening’: – ES “Listening to each other is core to our culture, and we don’t listen to each other just because we’re all so smart. We listen because everyone has good ideas, and because it’s a great way to show respect. And any company, at any point in its history, can start listening more.” Courtesy Andrew McAfee

6. Competitive advantage: – This is an area of great interest, as currently, Google is the undisputed king of search but Microsoft’sa Bing is knocking on its doors. So, for the moment Google is able to keep its competitive advantage. The worry for Google has been the defection of key employees (who view Facebook as ‘cool and the place to be’) to companies such as Facebook. Social Media is an area where Google doesn’t really have a strong foothold and that is worrying for them while in the mobile arena, Android is not a huge money earner (albeit, earnings are approx $6 per user per year) when compared to Apple IOS. Google is in a battle with Apple, Microsoft and Facebook and it is ambiguous which markets Google ultimately wants to compete within.

CIOs need to ask themselves how they can help the business through leveraging IT to create competitive advantage. I covered this in my post, Leveraging IT for Competitive Advantage – Myth or Reality?

7. Talent acquisition – Hire ‘Action’ oriented employees: “I might have been mistaken, actually. Having your name and picture up on that big screen at End of Quarter may not be the biggest incentive. The thing that drives the right behavior at Google, more than anything else, more than all the other things combined, is gratitude. You can’t help but want to do your absolute best for Google; you feel like you owe it to them for taking such incredibly good care of you.” Source unknown, courtesy Oliver Thylmann

Google actively recruits recent Ph.D.’s and Ph.D. candidates. All 1,900 Google employees are researchers and developers in addition to their regular duties. Where other companies will keep their research departments and core businesses separate, Google places all their Ph.D.’s in the rank and file of the company. Workers at Google enjoy a company devoted to benefits (Stross, 2004). They also enjoy an informal company culture where employees have access to gyms, massages, pool and ping-pong tables, well stocked snack rooms and other recreational amenities (Google Culture, 2009). Courtesy Marty Andrade

A CIO needs to trust their gut instinct, as one can only learn a certain amount in an interview. I think, the strategic fit, is a very good measure. How will a new hire fit into the culture of the company? Will they enjoy it here? Have they worked in a similar culture before? The danger is that the culture could be so alien to the new hire, that they find it difficult to adjust.

Eric Schmidt has hired the smartest people who can ‘get the job done.’ Hire your friends and past colleagues, as they will have loyalty to you and as you know them personally, an informed decision can be made on whether they have what it takes to realise your ‘vision.’

8. Spotting opportunities and innovation: LE –  “innovation is the key to Google’s success, everything Schmidt does revolves around creating more innovation. Without it, Schmidt believes there is nothing to prevent another company from overtaking Google as the king of digital information.  Innovation is systematically encouraged at Google at all levels throughout the organization, including management. At Google, management follows the “70/20/10″ rule where seventy percent of their time is spent on core business projects, twenty percent is spent on projects related to the core business and ten percent is spent on projects unrelated to the core business (Battelle, 2005). Schmidt, in order to remain true to the 70/20/10 rule, actually divides these projects into different rooms and tracks his time spent in each of the rooms.” Courtesy Marty Andrade

For More Info:

The Daily Telegraph’s articles on Eric Schmidt

Google’s greatest innovation may be its management practice

Android OS is profitable, might generate $10 billion per year

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt: “We don’t have a 5 year plan.”

The New York Times: Eric E Schmidt

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, will not talk about “Private conversations” with Apple about becoming CEO

Related Articles

• Eric Schmidt Caught By Surprise At Rate Of Mobile Growth (kwiksocial.com)
• “Google Gives Eric Schmidt $100 Million As Larry Page Becomes CEO” and related posts (pulse2.com)
• CHART OF THE DAY: Google’s Stock Under Eric Schmidt (GOOG) (businessinsider.com)
• Eric Schmidt Out, Larry Page In As Google CEO (search.slashdot.org)
• Why Eric Schmidt Left As CEO of Google? (tech.slashdot.org)
• Eric Schmidt Steps Down As Google CEO; Larry Page New Google CEO (techie-buzz.com)
• Larry Page is the new Google CEO, replaces Eric Schmidt (globalthoughtz.com)
• Google Awards $100 Million To Outgoing CEO Eric Schmidt (huffingtonpost.com)
• Eric Schmidt: CEO shuffle “nothing to with competitors” or China (slashgear.com)
• Mobile Growing Faster Than Predicted, says Google’s Schmidt (searchenginewatch.com)

e-reader and printed books

Image via Wikipedia

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972) – 33^rd US President

Harry Truman, did not know that in time, one could carry his or her entire library on a 6 inch device. We find ourselves surrounded by information. The Information explosion leads most of us to suffer from information overload. There is so much information that it has impacted the world of books as well. In our daily lives, we not only have to keep abreast of the news, blogs, RSS feeds etc but also have to decide on the books to read.  Now, if you are like me that means scouring the resources, I just mentioned and creating lists. I always managed to lose my paper list until I found the Amazon, ‘Wish list’ feature and the LinkedIn ‘Reading List’ (powered by Amazon). Now, all I have to do is purchase the book from Amazon or visit my town’s ‘online’ local library database, to check if it is stocked.

That is all well and good but I do have a problem with all the books that I end up purchasing. I am not a library builder and believe that books should not be kept on shelves. If books are kept in cupboards/shelves then they are not benefiting anyone. I strongly believe that books should be read and given to book charities or to someone who could benefit from the book. That is an age old practice and as far as I know, no one has ever been sued by any publisher for reading a borrowed, presented or purchased book at the local jumble sale.

I have been debating and following the progress of the e-reader and recently on a trip abroad thought that I ought to take the plunge and invest in an ‘e-reader.’ That would shave some weight off my luggage (especially my hand luggage – weighed down by my books) and give me the opportunity to carry my own library around with me. Herein lies my problem:

Cost:

The average price of an e-reader is approx £100. Now, I could buy an awful lot of books for that amount. Once I finish reading those books, I could ‘pass’ them around to many benefiting others. I am not so sure, I could do that with all the security that is embedded in e-books, such as Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Portability

Portability of e-books is a lesser problem as for example, Amazon’s Kindle Apps allow e-books to be read across multiple hardware devices. Not so sure though that if I purchase a book in 2011 that it will be readable by my e-reader in 2030 though. I do know though that in 2030, I will have no similar problem with my printed books!

According to an article in The IET;

“Many books are now published as e-books at the same time as the hardback version is released. But some authors, including big names such as JK Rowling, have so far not published electronically. According to Neil Blair, a partner at literary agent Christopher Little: “We have been looking into the options for digital publication of our client JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books for some time now – evaluating the market and determining the right time and method. This evaluation is on-going. The truth is that we wanted to take the time to make the right decision. The market is developing very quickly and this vindicates our strategy of ‘wait and see’.”

Publishing and buying an e-book can be a bewildering process depending on the different software and digital rights management (DRM) restrictions involved.

Firstly, there are a variety of file formats for e-books, with EPUB being the most wide-spread. This can be used on a variety of devices, but interestingly, not the Amazon Kindle, which is one of the most successful e-readers on the market but uses a different file format. Secondly, there are a variety of DRM restrictions which are used to limit copying, printing, and sharing of e-books, with the level of restriction specified by the publisher or distribution agency. So lending a friend one of your books is now often not possible. Because buying e-books is an anonymous and instant process, publishers have found an increase in demand for erotica and other unusual books.

Despite the unprecedented growth in e-book sales, many people do not believe that e-books will mean the end of books in dead-tree format. Jon Howells, a spokesman from book seller Waterstones predicts the company will have sold one million e-books by the end of the year, but that this does not signal the death of the paper book. He said: “There will always be a place for the physical book. The format has been unchanged for 500 years.”

Where do I stand at the moment then? Well, undecided as I remain unconvinced that I need to purchase an e-reader at that cost. Besides, inspite of all the tax cuts, we still have libraries and I haven’t reached a stage where I have exhausted all the reading material that I have access to…

For More:
The IET article – Will e-readers dominate this year’s Christmas market?
Comparison of e-book readers

ebook readers review

ebook reader review

E-Book Reader Matrix

A publisher’s point of view on e-readers – Accolade Publishing

Related Articles

• Ready for an eBook Reader (dickstersrandomthoughts.com)
• How Buying a Kindle Helps You Build Your Brand (personalbrandingblog.com)
• Macmillan: eReaders are heralding “a golden age of publishing” (sociable.co)
• The Differences Between the Kindle & Sony Reader’s Keyboard (brighthub.com)
• Leading Educational Publisher Launches Best-Selling Products on Kindle, iPad, and Over 20 Other eBook Readers (prweb.com)

Mobile Payments – Coming to a phone near you

At the end of August 2009, I wrote a post – The future is bright but is it mobile? In that post, I mentioned the fact that in the developing countries mobile phones were increasingly used for a wide variety of tasks, including banking. Meanwhile in the developed world affluent consumers were purchasing increasingly powerful mobile phones, including smarut phones and were looking for more ways in which to use them. Mobile commerce hadn’t taken off in the developed world due to the availability of other payment methods available to the relatively affluent customers such as credit cards and contactless cards. The move to using mobile phones for commerce is akin to where we find ourselves in terms of laptops morphing to smart phones, as this is where traditional wallets will be replaced with electronic digital wallets operated by mobile phones.

Let’s first take a look at the history behind the scenes to understand where we are today and the importance of the latest report released on 14/1/10 on this new technology, Near Field Communications (NFC). NFC happened as a result of the NFC Forum and its members, founded in 2004, recognising that evolution meant a new, short-range wireless connectivity technology had to be created. This article on the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation’s website (ITSO) provides a good introduction and will bring the reader to where we are currently and the new NFC adoption by the mobile industry for mobile payments in the future. In the UK, the movement towards contactless cards was initiated by ITSO in 1998, a non profit sharing organisation owned by its members. This led to the first contactless RFID Oyster cards being issued to the public in 2003 for the London Underground by TFL. As we moved closer to mobile phone NFC, other initiatives such as prepaid cards and prepaid contactless cards used by retailers such as Pret a Manger and coffee republic were developed.

Over the last few years, banks and payment vendors have tried different technologies with a varied success rate, including the latest contactless cards. The reason that mobile phones can be used with NFC now is because finally different standards have come together to support one another and make these payments secure. So, what we now see is that ITSO supports NFC as even the UK government is prepared to fund the switch to NFC compatible transport ticketing and the various card issuers have agreed the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Trials of NFC technology in London revealed that Londoners wanted to use their mobiles to travel and shop. Mobiles will start replacing cash as the technology is rolled out within the UK from 2011. “Decisions made in 2010 will be critical in determining which mobile network operators, which banks, which industry suppliers and which service providers become the leaders in the field,” says Sarah Clark. “Ultimately, only two or three companies in each country will succeed in building a major new business providing NFC services to businesses and consumers. The winners could be banks or mobile operators, or even a new entrant to the market.” As the technology becomes widely adopted, NFC based payments could reach $30 billion by 2012.

The following excerpt courtesy of Sourcewire. “NFC technology will be used to replace everything from credit cards and loyalty cards to bus and train tickets, library cards, door keys and even cash,” says Sarah Clark, author of ‘NFC: The Road to Commercial Deployment‘. “What hasn’t yet been decided, however, is who will win the battle to provide consumers with their new hi-tech mobile wallets.”

Consumers with NFC-enabled phones will be able to simply touch their phone to a ‘smart’ poster or product label containing a RFID chip to sign up for a loyalty programme, collect a money-off coupon, download a trailer for a new movie, access the latest travel information or go straight to a product’s website to read customer ratings and reviews and compare prices.

Social networks will also get a major boost as with a NFC phone, you can exchange details of someone befriended online by simply touching your phones together when you meet them in the real world. Or touch your phone to a smart poster as you go into a restaurant to automatically update your Facebook status and get an offer coupon from the venue as a thank you for telling your friends you’re there.

Commuters will be able to store their travel pass on their phone and mobile versions of airline boarding cards, hotel room keys and even passports will make it quicker and easier to get from place to place. Paying bills will become much simpler, too. Simply touch two NFC phones together to transfer money to a friend, buy a drink or pay for a service.

“No more rummaging around for the right change, card, keys or paperwork and no more texting your location to your friends — with NFC everything can be handled by your mobile device,” says Clark. “And, of course, NFC is a highly secure technology. Consumers will be able to instantly lock all the mobile wallet services on their phone if it is lost or stolen and then get them automatically transferred onto a new phone as soon as it arrives. They will also be able to use their phone to make payments even when the battery is flat.”

Search wars – Past, Present and future – Bing, Google or new entrant?

My favourite quote of the year, interestingly, was about Bing. In June 2009, The Onion asked the question, “Microsoft has announced the launch of a new search engine it calls “Bing.” What do you think?” George Wade replied, “Bing? Interesting. I’ll have to Google that when I get home.” 

As the year, 2009, draws to a close and I write my last blog of the year (I will return, Insha’Allah, in the New Year). I wanted to write about, ‘Search’ that will have the greatest impact on our Internet lives, not only now but well into the future.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as we have all realised as life progresses. Why am I mentioning this? Internet and indeed Web Search Engine history is fascinating as the pace of IT continues akin to a Ferrari in the fast lane, as a branch of IT, the web’s pace has been analogous to that. Even before, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, searches were conducted using Archie (Inspired by Archie comics), Veronica etc. This was eventually followed up by the acceptance of Netscape Navigator as the world’s first leader of web browsing software. In the early 90s, Microsoft (MS), did not think that the Internet would really take off, and even their boss said, “The Internet? We are not interested in it”- Bill Gates, 1993. That soon changed when they went head to head with Netscape and launched Internet Explorer, in the first browser war that MS eventually won. At the time, even I thought that MS could not win and that Netscape would retain its title and the majority of its market share.

As I was becoming comfortable with Yahoo, along came Google and swept us all away. The ever evolving pace of technology seems to catch most of us off guard. Who could have known, even a few years ago, that the iPhone would give established players like Nokia a run for their money.

So, we arrive in the present, just before Christmas 2009 and are left to wander whether the razzmatazz with which MS launched, its new search engine, Bing, has actually made a dent to Google’s popularity or not. After all, inspite of being in denial in June that it was not competing with Google, we all knew that MS was after Google’s crown. 

If we take into account, the first browser wars, the battle was simple as it was just between two browsers. Forward to the future, today and it is a completely new and different arena and era. It is a complicated affair as it is not simply a battle between Google and Microsoft for the, ‘search’, crown anymore. Both MS and Google thrive on innovation. Technological history has taught us that innovative businesses do not always get things right, as witnessed by Nokia losing to Apples’s iPhone, MS Zune to iPod/iPhone and Google’s failed products.

So, anyone sense where I am going with all of this? Well, firstly, in the true sense of innovation, Google acknowledges and accepts when it has brought a product to market that fails to capture the imagination of that market and withdraws such products, whereas, others haven’t done that. What is the secret to Google’s success? It’s simple, no, really it is. The secret to Apple’s and Google’s success is that they listen to us, the customer. They are finely attuned to what, we, the consumer want and need, just as my previous article, has alluded to. Secondly, this battle is not just about the search functionality anymore, as Google is now providing Cloud Computing - MS has Azure now, the Chrome browser, Android mobile phone Operating System (OS) – MS has Windows Mobile, Chrome Desktop OS, YouTube , Google Wave - MS has no equivalent as far as I know, Google Docs  (MS equivalent version in Office 2010, free for home/students) and many more. Microsoft is still innovating, albeit, not so successfully. It is therefore clear that wherever Google/MS innovate, the other is forced to follow. This is the problem as it is becoming increasingly blurry on whether Google is a search engine or whether MS is a OS/Apps provider.

2010 will be very interesting as the search arena witnesses some significant changes, such as, news channels paying for inclusion within searches, Yahoo using Bing as its engine to take on Google and perhaps even the search for the holy grail of corporate data mining using search engine technology, as let’s face it, Google has been in the business intelligence business for many years now! MS is getting serious and judging by its recent release of Bing’s iPhone app, as always, will take the fight to Google. 

In terms of current market share, where are these two behemoths, well, again, it depends who you talk to. This article puts MS Bing with 10%, while this article reckons that the previous article is all baloney and that MS Bing has 3.49%. Will we have a completely new entrant? Who knows? 

For those, who want to use Google side by side, click here. 

Let the wars begin! 

Let me finish by wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Microsoft and Apple Tablets, pens and swords

It doesn’t really matter whether I take a look at Microsoft’s (MS) Courier dual screen booklet/tablet or Apple’s itablet; I quickly arrive at the same conclusion. I will explain as I go through this article. Obviously, an official statement has not been made by either camp and nor have the names for both products been released as yet.

It was in 2001 when I enthusiastically unwrapped my Windows tablet complete with stylus. I was enthused as I had imagined my world to be free of paper and totally digital. The price I paid for the tablet was probably equivalent to 2500 paper notebooks but I didn’t really care as I was too tunnel visioned by the allure of the future promised by this technology and the MS marketing hype.

I spent some time mastering the stylus functionality and went to my first board meeting. This was the first time I felt a misfit. It suddenly dawned on me that I was the only one in the room with a tablet. The meeting started while I was being scanned by all these eyes that seemed to be under a trance by the tablet. It was just great, I was writing notes and didn’t have to retype them either as the handwriting to type function would quickly create a document for me when I needed it. Then it happened. The tablet crashed. The meeting continued and as I started taking notes on my paper notebook, I realised the trance had been broken, replaced by bewilderment. The tablet rebooted but it was too late, I decided to continue to write on paper.

Well, why am I sharing this with you? I am not at all convinced that these new technologies will be as successful as the iphone or can convince people to part with our love for writing on paper. That said, I would love to be proven wrong as there is a big part of me that wants to use a digital equivalent, if it is indeed practical enough.

Here is my list of reasons why I think these technologies can’t replace our love for paper and why the pen will remain mightier than the tablet and sword: 

1. I don’t need to start the pen and paper.
2. If I drop the pen/paper, it doesn’t break or stop working.
3. Paper does not need to be rebooted.
4. It is considerably cheaper.
5. The next version of paper is always the same.
6. The next version of paper does not require retraining.
7. Nobody wants to steal my paper notebook.
8. I know how to locate my information contained within my paper notebook.
9. I don’t need to migrate my entries in the paper notebook to the next version.
10. My paper notebook seems at home in any boardroom (for now, anyway).

I could probably go on but you get the picture.

Would you like to add to my list or defend the new technology? Feel free to add your comments; I do look forward to reading them.

The future is bright but is it mobile?

Brief History and introduction

There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for landline phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16!

Current situation

Mobile phones are everywhere. We may think that without laptops or desktops, electronic communication is difficult or we cannot conduct electronic transactions etc. Yep, that is an entirely incorrect assumption as whatever we may do with laptops/desktops we can either already do with mobile phones or we can pass that problem to the myriad of firms who specialise in such solutions to make it happen. What is fuelling the adoption of this small device to do everything? Well, firstly as stated above it is the sheer fast coverage that has been enabled by the explosion in mobile devices. How it has spread so fast and in many cases bypassed the landline/analogue scenario, is quite amazing. Many countries used to have outdated systems and waiting queues for landlines that ran into years, in many cases. Enter the mobile phone. You want one and you want it now? Okay, we aim to please was the response by the mobile operators. Secondly, in the developed world, the cheap costs contributed further to ubiquitous adoption.

Now we live in almost two parallel worlds. One world is dominated by the developing countries that use the mobile phone for payment of goods, banking, medical alerts and general communication at rates that they can afford. The second world is the developed countries and the adoption of smartphones, even by the consumers. As these users are considerably affluent, they are looking for more ways of using these devices to do almost anything. Attend a meeting and they want to know about more people who they have something in common with, whether at that meeting they can locate their next marketing director or whether they want to do their weekly grocery shopping.

The Future

I predict that within the next five to ten years, laptops, desktops, land lines and client side installed applications will become obsolete.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you the future – One world, One device!

Yes, it’s true. Why would we need any more than one device.

Here is the story of Paul in the not too distant future.

It was 8am in New York and Paul was ready to attend his first meeting for 9am. While shaving using his mobile (Yep, okay, maybe not), he was lost in thought and was wandering whether to have breakfast delivered to the room or to go downstairs. This thought was quickly interrupted by the phone that was still charging; he looked up at the head up display just above the sink in the mirror trying to recognise the number. He didn’t have to look too long as he could see the silhouette of the automatic doctor telling him quite loudly that he had to take his medication.

He was just about to phone for breakfast to be delivered to his room when the auto doctor reappeared. He knew he wouldn’t go away, so he opened the tablet bottle and took his tablets (RFID tag triggers that the bottle has opened & transmits signal via phone).

At approximately, 905 am, the phone rang for attending the meeting. The Head up display showed that six people were in attendance virtually around a table including him and the meeting started. During the meeting, another colleague had to be called but no one knew his mobile number. A quick look through the mobile device’s address book gave them the number of his landline. Luke, picked up his phone and told them that he was actually in Argentina (VOIP enabled extension on follow me). The meeting recommenced and concluded around approx 1030am.

Paul looked at his Calendar and noticed that he had a presentation and a whitepaper to write for a conference later in the week. He sat back in his chair and enabled the head up display. As all the company’s files were held in the Cloud, he called up the necessary applications via voice commands and finished his work by approx 2pm.  While looking at some stats, he was thinking to himself how far the banking world had come from the days of the 2009 bailout and reliance on in house systems.

As he was networking in the evening, he decided to look at the attendee list to identify and mark the people he wanted to meet in order of priority. He also set auto replies for these people and others who he could not meet.

As he was leaving the hotel room, he paid his bill.

The future is One world, One device!

Challenges facing CIOs at the UK’s leading companies

If you enjoy my blog, please recommend my blog for the Computerweekly IT Blog Awards 2009 in the CIO/IT Director category at:

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Recently, Jeremy Oates, – Managing Director for Accenture systems integration & technology did an interview for Computing magazine – 10/8/09 and was asked about the challenges facing CIOs at the UK’s leading companies.

I enjoyed that interview and have responded by providing additional answers to Jeremy’s thoughts, as below:

What is the biggest problem for FTSE 100 CIOs?

I just wanted to discuss the Green IT issue in a bit more depth. CIOs need to recognise that the Green issue will be climbing higher and higher up the CIOs agenda. Addressing this is not just good business but a necessity. We are increasingly living in a world that faces an energy crisis and a pollution bombshell. Anything that we do that can lower our carbon footprint will be good PR, good business, provide a good ROI (For example, reducing travel expenses by video conferencing) and value for money. It is the duty of any corporate citizen to ensure that we leave a sustainable world for future generations.

How can these problems be solved?

In addition to your thoughts, there are once again, at a corporate level many initiatives that can be introduced that can address the problems that we now face. Every CIO should have a team looking after innovation and ensuring that it is horizon scanning to ascertain the technology that could be the next killer application or IT, ‘must have’.

Businesses’ need to ensure that they actively promote IT graduate placements (Discussed in my blog – The future graduate and the IT and computing skills shortage -http://tinyurl.com/skillshortage) and women are encouraged to not only become IT graduates but to work within the IT arena.

Businesses also need to look at mobile workforces and how best to equip them (Phones vs Smartphones), how best to use social networking (bearing in mind the next generation knows no other way to communicate) and how to leverage Cloud Computing. In addition, ERP systems need to be utilised more efficiently as well.

The above will generate new ideas and solutions for new world problems.

What are the challenges for enterprises considering cloud-based services?

As outlined before, innovation and horizon scanning should mean that businesses start to research cloud computing and what it can do for businesses (Discussed in my blog – What is Cloud Computing? Its Pros/Cons and making it work – http://tiny.cc/mXOJA). The challenge will be whether businesses are prepared to take the same applications into a ‘test cloud environment’. The issue of security and enterprise data can then be tested. The risk here is that this is a double edged sword, whether to operate in the cloud or not!

£70 billion dollars is being pumped into global broadband infrastructures, so the question is not if but when!

What is the biggest compliance issue facing FTSE 100 firms and how to prevent data loss and security breaches?

I agree it is Security and in my view the one single reason for data loss is human error. Technology, for example can encrypt data but cannot stop an employee from leaving a physical paper file on the train or stop onlookers looking at sensitive data on the screen of a laptop. Business cultures need to change through education and understanding. Businesses should take the UK government’s view  – http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/news_events/stories/PI.asp and ensure all employees handling information undertake appropriate exams/certifications.

What is Accenture’s view on Digital Britain, particularly the next-generation optical-fibre rollout? Is 2Mbit/s as a universal service commitment (USC) good enough?

To enable the UK to be a market leader for the next generation of product/services that will enter the market as a result of universal broadband coverage, we must be at the forefront of this technology. For example, Australia is spending $33 billion for broadband speeds of 100Mbit/s and the UK is enabling only 2Mbit/s. The statistics prove that the UK is equipped with better connectivity, or we risk being outperformed by countries that are investing  heavily in the telecoms infrastructure now rather than tomorrow.