IT as a tranfomation catalyst and an enabler to challenge "Status Quo"

Blog posted in response and as an extention of thought to Vineets blog pasted here under FYI !

Vineet, Changing "Status Quo" is very appropriate a title for the today’s times. Your thought starters do raise a few important questions. Here are some of my view submitted for consideration.
The IT industry for long has been viewed as a productivity enhancing industry supplemental to the other core businesses. The offshoring services business has created a service model where cost imperatives have been taken care of and global supply of talent effectively leveraged.
Though we are seen as information industry dwelling in knowledge far too often the army of human talent who form the prime capital of the business is at the receiving end during recession. Human capital is often times seen as a cost rather than an asset base even if umpteen annual reports carry the cliché “People are our biggest assets”
As an industry we have the onus on us to drive significant belief amongst corporations that knowledge services along with information and people assets will form a core component of any business and agendas like transformation, value creation, globalization, turn around et al have a significant bias toward IT messiahs.

Some of the significant challenges which needs to be addresses with telling impact and influence are the stuff discussed here under:
Oil, metals with other commodities has with the help of Finance hogged prime capital consumption. Not for a moment I am I negating their significance. But consider the use of silicon at IT and Solar energy creation and the prowess of deploying them in tandem to help global companies depend less on oil and create stronger currencies out of the burning sun.
It is a time when IT can ill afford to be seen as a electric power devouring giant to being an enabler of a greener world. IT as an enabler to designing world class energy efficient cars. Being able to effectively mange the emerging global financial markets and economic architecture. Crunching data to get break through in bioinformatics, drug discovery and deciphering the DNA for healthcare benefits.
IT as a platform to support education and micro finance is reached to the remotest village. Ensure that the produce at the fields reaches the dining table by maximizing value to the customer while ensuring highest profit to the tiller.
Help reach new and entertainment in real-time and allow the pleasure and power of the content chosen by the consumer. Importantly create an information democracy where quelling terror with global partnership becomes the order of the day. Predict climatic changes and save, prevent or minimize the impact of today’s unforeseen climatic disasters.
Support democracy by effectively aiding psephology so that popular peoples government are elected and help governance in policy execution, revenue collection and plan expenditure.

All those and many more are what we should as IT professionals deliver today more that just profess the potential we have as an industry . Not that we don’t do it today. That not enough is been done for the IT industry to be acknowledged as a player with a changed “Status Quo” and helping other change their “Status Quo”. And importantly people wont go under the axe every time there is a dip in NASDAQ or SENSEX or other bousers.



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Vineet's Blog from HCL Technologies
November 20th, 2008
Challenging the Status Quo

All around us, the rules of engagement are being rewritten. Perhaps the term ‘rules’ itself is inappropriate in this age where Wikipedia, Linux, Facebook, Napster and eBay are new flag bearers. These live laboratories of the human mind are governed not so much by rules as by the power of collaborative thinking.

In a process-driven world, the quest for efficiency and productivity through best practices of the past often inhibited innovation and evolution. Yet, today an ostrich-like approach will not be able to withstand the winds of change. In order to find solutions to some of the unprecedented challenges being faced by business, we need to challenge the status quo and break mindsets with a fresh approach.

Outside our business silos, we see traditional structures of creation tumbling as an unstructured collective of individuals become the new custodians of power and choose, create and destroy according to their needs. This process of co-creation and innovation is an exciting new territory as it multiplies synergies and has a disruptive impact on existing thought process.

In business as well, there is a compelling need to challenge the status quo. And there is an important lesson here staring us in the face: a need to “unstructure” the highly strait-jacketed world of business and technology today.

The changing mechanics of the human thinking is intrinsically linked to the future of business – and in turn linked to the future of technology.

As an instance, for the large part today technology plays a key role in enabling businesses – rather than businesses defining how they wish to leverage technology. But the individual has power over technology – and when business and the individual come together – and define the future of technology – structures will be broken, and the true power and ubiquitous nature of technology will set individuals free to run powerful businesses.

We need to bring business, technology and people together to unlock thought by raising questions that reveal new perspectives.

Existing thought leadership platforms, however, tend to structure the thinking upfront stating the problem and a suggested solution. Instead, the need of the hour is free-flowing discussion on the interlinked future of business and technology. Thought leaders, who play the role of the ‘thought provoker’ rather than problem solvers; who become a catalyst that creates other thought leaders without a care for hierarchy.

This will help bring alive communities rather than organizations, stimulating thought with the power to transform technology and business. It is only through such unshackling of ideas that the world will emerge more creative, collaborative and empowered to deal with tomorrow.