Technology and Change

Technology and Corporate Change

7.3 million pages of information are added daily to the Internet. An individual based in San Antonio, TX, can conduct a virtual conference call with live cameras (built into a computer) to an unlimited number of people in multiple countries daily. A company can network its phones, printers, computers, bank accounts, payment systems, meeting schedules, human resources functions and almost anything else between offices across town or offices around the globe. Today’s American business is operated by knowledge and data along with the prowess to sift through what is important and what is not. An encyclopedia used to take up a large bookshelf. Today, all of that information can be stored on a piece of equipment the size of a stick of gum and taken with you in your pocket.

Since the mid-1980’s the ability to consolidate and assimilate information via technology has been the core growth factor in US business. If you aren’t convinced, check out almost every paid position in the country over $30,000 per year and see what the requirements are for having a grasp of the computer or another tech oriented device. The positive side to this is that we are aware of vastly more of the world around us than before and where business used to be limited to a small area for most, now a company of only one employee can be described as a multi-national. The downside of it all is that we have become far less personal. Most business today is conducted via the web using email and similar communications functions. As an example, the youngest billionaire ever(23 years old) created the communications website Facebook. It is a social network, professional network, and advertising space all built into one. Companies use it to recruit while populations in Columbia use it to fight a war against rebel factions. That removes a lot of the personal element of business making the relationships much more about how an employee can act and react to what technology they have at their finger tips.

If one is to study and learn the rapidity with which a corporation can change, they must recognize that data transferred via different technology to its core customer, employee, or constituent can be done in the fraction of a second. That can mean instantaneous sales or instantaneous business collapse.