I watched an interesting webcast of Philip Condit, CEO of Boeing over at mitworld. It was filmed in 2003, but seemed very 2001 - ie very pro Information Technology.
Conduit argues that we are only at the begining of the information technology revolution, which much like the industrial revolution, is extremely disruptive, forcing people to change their lives or perish. About half the US gross domestic product is defined by transformational activities, such as making airplanes or hamburgers. The other half of the economy is defined by transactional activities—information passed back and forth among people. Technology is creating a vastly more efficient transactional economy and we are just at the beginning. Condit cites studies showing that faster computing increases productivity, while drastically decreasing the workforce. Condit’s conclusion: We’ll need to rethink the organization of our institutions to ensure that the current economic revolution poses an opportunity as well as a challenge.
Some interesting ideas:
Large companies will be able to reduce the numbers of layers of management due to communication improvements. Boeing has 8 layers, but he sees the future as being more like software companies where corporate heirarchy is extremely flat.
I would like to see the numbers of layers of management tracked in annual reports. I believe it is a better indicator of productivity of a firm than the number of FTE.
Employees and customers will increasing be located anywhere in the world. But the need for travel will remain.
Posted by Anthony at March 11, 2004 01:40 AM | TrackBack