Now technology bubbles up to the Business Enterprise level from Consumers

The technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will bubble up into business and into enterprises quickly – far quicker than IBM, HPE, Cisco, or any of the enterprise strength IT companies would like. Initially technology came from business to consumers – think PCs. The sheer size of consumer market and its willingness to put up with beta releases makes the consumer world the ideal proving ground for the less fault tolerant enterprise world.

Drones are bubbling up. While they started in the military, they now are big segment of the consumer market. Drones or autonomous flying vehicles have been improving including automated stabilization, 4K cameras, enhanced flying times, etc. Many of them have dozens of computers on board and some rather impressive programming to make them simple to use.

Due to the wide-spread usage of drones in the consumer market, they are vastly improved and far less expensive. One of the leader’s in the industry, DJI’s basic drone, Phantom 3 Standard, is just under $500 flying for ~25 mins, includes GPS tracking, tracks subjects based photo recognition using a 1080 camera for photos and stills. Refurb is $329 and knock offs are even cheaper.  Just 5 years ago, this would have been a top of the line $5K drone, if even available.

Part of the attractiveness of the consumer world is scale. The other factor is that the consumer world is filled with willing beta testers. Recent releases of drones from reputable companies come with lots of complaints on the internal boards of not flying well, not following waypoints, and simply flying away. A drone that loses its signal is supposed to fly back to the point of origin and land. In the business world, this would be a breach of contract and might result in loss of property or life. In the consumer world, the drone manufacturer can just send a firmware update, a coupon, or at worst replaces the device.

While scale makes the money, it is the willing beta tester that enables advancement. Haven’t you signed up to be a beta or an alpha tester. I know I am for many of IBM’s early release programs. We have marvelous internal site called “Technology Adoption Program” where individuals submit their software inventions. Many have become key enablers of IBM’s business.

What else might bubble up? Virtual Reality has real possibilities for training. Consumer IoT devices will make it into manufacturing. Fitness IoT devices will make it into Medical IoT devices. Home IoT devices by Amazon, Google, and Apple will rapidly make both IoT device and cognitive (AI) advances as we all beta test their devices for more hardened uses. I know send in correction reports regularly and in general they do a good job following up. The list is endless as people gobble up consumer technologies.

We used to make fun of 3rd world countries using the computers out of toys to steer their weapons. Maybe they were just ahead of their time.

Saving $1.8T but at what cost? and do we have a choice?

We continue to automate and improve business systems. I’ve spent my whole career improving business efficiency. Each time we do so, we mostly disrupt lower level service jobs and now some medium level professional jobs. We do this because making a business more efficient, effective, and cost competitive keeps that business ahead of its competition.

The recent article by CIO Insight “How Repetitive Tasks Waste $1.8 Trillion” made me consider the consequences, both bad and good. That $1.8 Trillion amounts to a lot of people’s jobs. The downside is elimination will be the elimination of jobs. I once recall discussing how we were going to put in telephonic automation for the service desk when someone said “you know, we just fired 300+ people.” We observed about 30 seconds of silence, swallowed hard, and then finished our task of designing the solution. It was going to happen regardless as most of their competitors had already eliminated large human level 1 service desks. Now we are observing the impact of readily available cloud wiping out many small and medium data center and application support people’s jobs. I’m certainly not against cloud solutions. IoT, Mobile, and SaaS solutions all stem from basic cloud capability and are creating NEW job markets and careers.

Jobs are both a way wage along with an identity for most of us, so I take it personally and seriously. I’ve done both the laying off of people and been laid off. Neither is fun. After I had to lay off my staff, I was physically ill and just thinking about it gives me the chills. I was able to get the best of them lined up with new job opportunities. No one wants to be told they are no longer needed and can be discarded.

To the positive, people can be moved to new jobs. The best companies work with their people to find them jobs that can help the company grow. As individuals, we all need to be on the look out for the possibility we’ll be disrupted by new technologies. There is no job that is immune entirely. Hands on trades people are probably the least susceptible, but even they must learn new skills constantly to stay employed. If you are in job that can be digitized, you need to start planning how to adapt. Your job will be under threat inevitably.

Companies are not social employment agencies and I don’t advocate socialism. I think it is in their best interest to be part of the community, since ultimately it is the community who consumes from them and makes them successful. Companies in capitalistic market that must out compete each other and to do so must make money for the owners / stockholders. In addition, if a company does not continue to move forward ahead of its competition, it will fail and NO ONE will be working for that company.

In the end, the march of improvement and technology is inevitable part of human history. Stopping progress is neither possible or wise. We can and should think about how to do it humanely by recognizing the impact and helping those impacted find ways to be productive members of society. We can use it wisely to improve our conditions as a planet and as human beings.

 

Extreme Business Travel stories

Business Travel is the most fickle part of my job.  I travel enough that I’m in upper tiers on airlines, auto rentals, and hotels.  I’m also pretty good at it due to practice.  I do decent job of planning so that I can easily get 3 cities in a week if required.  I have had to change plans including re-routing at my layover airport to new destination, but the plans gave me ability to adapt including the fact I always carry a raincoat.  Sometimes, it just doesn’t seem to matter what I do. 

In the last month, I’ve planned and executed well and had terrible results, and of course the inverse where I planned and executed poorly yet had a wonderful result.  Interestingly, both were the same airline, Delta, and out of New York Airports – LaGuadia Airport (LGA) and JFK (JFK).

First, the not so good.  I planned to take a flight from LGA to Fort Myers (RSW).  I started in New Jersey, so got there extra early to avoid the traffic since the flight was at 7 p.m.  I was extra early since it was raining and there were major storms in the area.  I knew I was in trouble when the times started pushing back by hours.  Eventually it cancelled.  The alternative was to depart at 10 p.m. to Tampa (TPA), rent a car and drive about 2.5 hours to home.  I had 8, 9, and 10 a.m. calls I needed to be on in the morning with the 9 a.m. requiring me to review a document. Unfortunately, the TPA flight was delayed and didn’t take off until 2 a.m.  The result was I got into TPA around 4 a.m.  I took a hotel, took my calls from the hotel, and got home around 1 p.m.  I had done everything right, but I lost.

I had the inverse, too.  I had JFK to San Francisco flight 7 a.m.  The airline adjusted the take off to 6:58 a.m. which I somehow read as the flight was at 8 a.m. or at least that is what I had in my head.  I had a really nice mid-town NY hotel, but that night I didn’t sleep well and found myself watching clock.  At 6 a.m., airline app gave me an alarm telling me I had 20 minutes to boarding and I’m in my hotel room in my undershorts brushing my teeth.  GASP!

 

• 6:00 Panic! 
• 6:01 Don’t Panic per the Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy (valuable even if fiction)
• 6:01 Dress, stuff suitcase, etc.
• 6:10 Ask for car via UBER (love that app).  The account is tied to your credit card, so no long goodbyes or failed credit card transactions at curb as with taxis
• 6:12 UBER driver meets me on the curb with trunk open in front of hotel
• 6:15 Looking up alternative flights for 2:00 pm PST meeting (none on my airline, so big $s if I miss the flight)
• 6:30 Traffic is light and the driver is moving quick, but not insane. 
• 6:46 Dropped off at the curb at JFK
• 6:48 Go through TSA line asking for Pre-check and telling them “I screwed up, mis-timed my flight, and it was my fault”
• 6:49 TSA agent closes her stand, walks me to front of the line, puts my bags in the front and puts me first in for the scanner
• 6:52 Walk to JFK Gate 62 which is about 20 meters from security with my belt and shoes in hand
• 6:54 Gate agent hands me an upgraded seat for the 5+ hour flight
• 6:56 Butt in seat 44 minutes from mid-town on a weekday morning
• 6:58 Sent a nice tweet to the TSA for their angel of an agent
• 6:59 While shutting down I check the PDF bill for UBER (got to love it)

If you judged travel by these 2 sensational accounts, you’d argue planning doesn’t matter it is all luck.  What is missing is the boring part – the other 50 weeks where I made my flights with no real ups or downs, but got there on time according to plan.  Too often we define a topic based on the extremes and the sensational.

So besides being a good story, there is lesson.  Build your plans to give you enough structure to support your requirements, but enough flexibility to adapt to inevitable changes in your business.  Most of the time it will work to your advantage and sometimes no matter what, it fails due circumstances beyond your control.  All you can do is roll with it. Finally, sometimes you get help from an unlikely source – just be sure to send a thank you note / tweet / e-mail.  Even angels need encouragement.