Expect the Unexpected
Chapter five
Expect the Unexpected
Prepare for the digital future
Customers are the main people who benefit from the increased efficiency of information technology, and the benefits will increase as the economy becomes more digital. The other people who benefit are business people who take advantage of digital methods faster than their competitors. The solutions I have talked about in this book are the result of the vision and leadership of business people who used IT to serve their customers better.
Business leaders who succeed will take advantage of a new way of doing business, a way based on the increasing speed of information. The new way is not to apply technology for its own sake, but to use it to change how companies act. To get the full benefit of technology, business leaders will make their processes and their organizations simpler and more modern. The goal is to make business responses nearly immediate, and to make strategic thought a process that goes on all the time - not something that’s done every twelve to eighteen months, separate from the daily flow of business.
New technology should provide better information to every worker who might possibly use it. Knowledge workers are the brains of the company. If they’re disconnected from the company’s important data, how can they work, how can they take responsibility? You can give people tasks and authority, but without information they can’t do anything. Knowledge is the best power tool. If important information about production systems, product problems, customer crises and opportunities, lost sales, and other important business news gets through the organization in minutes instead of days, and if the right people can be working on the issues within hours instead of days, a business obtains a huge advantage. This change in the structure of processes is more important than any other change since mass production.
Every company can choose whether to lead or follow the digital trends. The Internet is changing the basis of industries in real time. Winning is not easy. Digital information flow and giving power to employees is part of achieving and maintaining competitive advantage. A belief in giving people power is the key to getting the most out of a digital nervous system. Knowledge workers and business managers benefit from more and better information, not just senior management. When employees get a couple of good tools that deliver better results, they demand more. It’s a positive cycle.
However you organize your company, one thing is clear: it is impossible to manage a company totally from the center. It is impossible for a single person or group of people to stay on top of every issue in every area of a business. Leaders need to provide planning and direction and to give employees tools that enable them to gather information and understanding from around the world. Companies that try to direct every action from the center will simply not be able to move fast enough to cope with the speed of the new economy.
In business the argument between central authority and the individual is the difference between the old-style way of thinking, which saw workers as lazy people who needed to be controlled, and the theory that workers are creative and should be given responsibility. Digital processes support the idea that workers can - and will - do more if allowed, enabled, and encouraged to think and act.
This argument about the center and the individual is not just academic. The choice affects the design of companies and systems. The design of the first manned space ship shocked the original pilots years ago. There were no manual flight controls. Don’t worry, said the scientists. The system would fly the ship. The pilots, like the monkeys before them, were just there for the ride. The pilots resisted. They all had experience of “advanced” systems that failed when things got difficult. The pilots won, and on several flights the pilots’ skill brought them home safely when the central, programmed system failed. The issue is not whether computers can fly better than pilots. Today planes and space ships use large amounts of computer technology to extend the human ability to fly. The issue is whether someone “at the center,” away from the real circumstances, can possibly predict all of the things that can change or go wrong - whether in space or in a business office.
Many parts of business can be improved through digital systems, but it will take a number of years to improve every single part. Every bit of data in a company should be in digital form, and easy to find, including every file, every record, every piece of e-mail, every webpage. Every internal process should be digital and connected to every other process. Every operation with partners and customers should be digital. You should allow partners and customers to have all the data that is appropriate to them, and they should do the same for you.
Human beings are not the biggest animals, the strongest or fastest, or the sharpest in sight or smell. We survived and grew successful because of our brains. We learned how to use tools, to build shelter, to invent agriculture, to keep farm animals, to develop civilization and culture, to cure and prevent disease. Our tools and technologies have helped us to shape the environment around us.
I’m a positive person. I believe in progress. I’d much rather be alive today than at any time in history - and not just because in an earlier age my skills wouldn’t have been as valuable and I’d have been a good candidate for an animal’s dinner. The tools of the Industrial Age extended the capacities of our muscles. The tools of the digital age extend the capacities of our minds. I’m even happier for my children, who will grow up in this new world.
By joining the digital age enthusiastically, we can accelerate the positive effects and do better with the challenges, such as privacy and the problem of “haves” and “have-nots.” If we sit back and wait for the digital age to come to us on terms defined by others, we won’t be able to do either. The Web lifestyle can increase the involvement of citizens in government. Many of the decisions that need to be made are political and social, not technical. These include how we make sure that everyone can get on the Web and how we protect children. Citizens in every culture must join in the discussion about the effects of digital technology, to make sure that the new digital age reflects the society they want to create.
The digital world certainly makes it tough and uncertain for business, but we will all benefit. We’re going to get improved products and services, better responses to complaints, lower costs, and more choices. We’re going to get better government and social services that cost a lot less. This world is coming. A big part of it comes through businesses using a digital nervous system to improve their processes. A digital nervous system can help business define itself and its role in the future, but success or failure depends on business leaders. Only you can prepare your organization and invest in ways that take advantage of the rapidly dawning digital age.
Digital tools extend the abilities that make us unique in the world: the ability to think, the ability to express our thoughts, the ability to work together to act on those thoughts. I strongly believe that if companies give their employees the power to solve problems, and give them powerful tools to do this with, they will always be amazed at how much creative and independent thinking will appear.