Chapter 2
Putting the Business in Perspective
Back in 1969, the United States sent a man to the moon. Think about the computational power required to perform all of the calculations to consider all of the variables and unexpected changes necessary to execute that feat. Ten years later, virtually any business could be run with more computational power than NASA had had available to them. Ten years after that, more computational power was available on the desktop. Ten years after that, it was mobile and on our laptop. Today, we have more computational power, individually, in our pocket. And, along with the computational power, that pocket computer has global communications, location-based services, audio and video, Internet access, and commercial telecasts. Don't be surprised if we have simultaneous translation capabilities in those smartphones, thus eliminating language barriers, within the next ten years...maybe sooner. After all, you can get Web pages translated instantaneously; why not voice? If you can imagine it, it can happen.
During that same period of time, we have experienced many new industry initiatives and transformational strategies to leverage these gains in technology, communications, and information management. Industry initiatives, such as Quick Response (QR) in the apparel industry, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) in the grocery/consumer packaged goods industry, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in the automotive manufacturing industry, have all promised ...
