On another note, technology has helped improve the management of many companies. However, don't confuse management of business with "The Management". I agree there is alot of bad "Management" out there. However, the line workers will tell you of vast improvements, cost savings or productivity-wise, in virtually every industry. This has translated into better business conditions and led to the bubble. What was not counted on was "The Management" stealing many of those gains via various methods.
But the stealing occurred at only a few companies, so I won't use ORCL as a template to describe it. In fact, I wouldn't use 90% of the companies in the US to describe it. The problem is 10% of the companies it occurred at were very high profile, and garnered a disproportionate amount of media attention.
It is good that they did, as it makes the other companies clean up their act to an even greater degree.
As for the "new economy" not being so new. I'd agree with that. But it has changed dramatically. If anything it is MUCH more competitive now than it was 20 years ago. That requires much more market savvy management, and better systems to managed slight changes in the market. My own industry (media) has improved systems remarkably since I entered it 18 years ago. I remember working with simple pen and paper at the start, and having huge filing cabinets. Then the PC made things better, and now improved sales and supply chain DB's. Even with these improvements, the one "killer app" for media has not been instituted as yet. The one thing, that will lower costs, time frames and improve information is EDI. While it COULD be instituted, it has not yet. After that, who knows what changes lie in store? |
