The Back Story - Innovative Partners
A while back I went to a Commonwealth Club event at Microsoft on the future of mobile
devices. Sitting there I realized all these mobile companies were only talking about consumer
products. None were for their corporations or their employees to use for work.
So I submitted a question around this and afterwards, went up to the moderator Jon Fortt,
Senior Writer for Fortune Magazine, to confirm what I thought I heard. The question wasn’t
answered, and he agreed. My impression was that they just wanted to invent the technology
and then throw it over the fence and let everyone else deal with the usage and any fall-out.
* * * * *
Not too long ago people went to work excited to use the technology. They could get access to
things they didn’t have at home such as computers and the internet.
Now people at home have much more capability, and capacity, than they do at the office. They
have 24/7 reliable bandwidth. They can have speakers and web cams and play videos. They
can choose any phone they want, both wired and cell, for whatever their personal
preferences and needs may be. They can access data remotely back home or compute to the
cloud.
And the employees are coming back to their companies saying - “Why can’t I use these at
work?” “They make me more productive, accessible, flexible, mobile...” “These are the tools I
need to get my job done!”
And the companies, from IT to HR, to Facilities, to Management are saying everything from: “Well
it doesn’t work for everyone.” “We can’t scale it / support it for everyone. “Not everyone knows
how to use the technology.” “Not everyone knows how to work that way.”
It’s the old one-size-has-to-fit-all answers for a new individual, creative, micro-niche, holistic,
interdependent world.
Not everyone needs to work the same way. What everyone does need is to do their personal
best. Contribute their strengths and unique abilities to the whole, thereby making the sum of the
parts greater.
A while back I went to a Commonwealth Club event at Microsoft on the future of mobile
devices. Sitting there I realized all these mobile companies were only talking about consumer
products. None were for their corporations or their employees to use for work.
So I submitted a question around this and afterwards, went up to the moderator Jon Fortt,
Senior Writer for Fortune Magazine, to confirm what I thought I heard. The question wasn’t
answered, and he agreed. My impression was that they just wanted to invent the technology
and then throw it over the fence and let everyone else deal with the usage and any fall-out.
* * * * *
Not too long ago people went to work excited to use the technology. They could get access to
things they didn’t have at home such as computers and the internet.
Now people at home have much more capability, and capacity, than they do at the office. They
have 24/7 reliable bandwidth. They can have speakers and web cams and play videos. They
can choose any phone they want, both wired and cell, for whatever their personal
preferences and needs may be. They can access data remotely back home or compute to the
cloud.
And the employees are coming back to their companies saying - “Why can’t I use these at
work?” “They make me more productive, accessible, flexible, mobile...” “These are the tools I
need to get my job done!”
And the companies, from IT to HR, to Facilities, to Management are saying everything from: “Well
it doesn’t work for everyone.” “We can’t scale it / support it for everyone. “Not everyone knows
how to use the technology.” “Not everyone knows how to work that way.”
It’s the old one-size-has-to-fit-all answers for a new individual, creative, micro-niche, holistic,
interdependent world.
Not everyone needs to work the same way. What everyone does need is to do their personal
best. Contribute their strengths and unique abilities to the whole, thereby making the sum of the
parts greater.
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