Paul and ALL, article...Andrew Grove tells Europe get connected..
Intel warns Europe: get online
By Reuters
January 24, 1997, 11:45 a.m. PT
BONN--Intel (INTC) CEO Andy Grove is planning to deliver a blunt message to heads of state and business leaders during a European tour next week: get online or fall behind.
Grove, whose trip includes a stop at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, plans to say European firms risk falling further behind their U.S. competitors if they don't make the Internet, electronic mail and other computer technologies part of everyday business, Intel said on Friday.
"He will say Europe has to use technology more to be more competitive," said Intel spokesman Georg Albrecht in Munich, where Grove will speak to business executives on Tuesday.
"Using email and the Internet speeds up business dramatically," he said. "Andy will say European companies have to use these technologies in their daily life, or they will fall behind. That is a danger he sees."
Computer industry analysts agreed European companies have been slower to embrace personal computers, and may be missing out on extra bits of productivity and profit.
"There's no question that information technology is very efficient in some areas," said James Bates at London-based researcher Context. "But it's not automatic. You have to use the technology wisely to turn it into profit."
According to Context, 53 percent of European white-collar workers use PCs, while the U.S. rate is 90 percent.
High costs, language differences and fear of technology have kept European firms from using PCs more widely to link departments and talk to customers, Bates said.
PCs are about 30 percent more expensive than in the U.S., while the continent's language landscape complicates cross-border communications, he said.
Culture is another element. The French, for example, find email impersonal and value the impact of hand-written notes.
In Grove's view, the pen has seen its day.
In Munich he planned to say some German firms such as car maker BMW AG and software developer SAP AG profit from computer technology, but too many others lag behind, Albrecht said.
Grove would express the same sentiment to key political leaders at the Davos forum, where German Finance Minister Theo Waigel and Bundesbank chief Hans Tietmeyer will attend.
In particular, Grove saw risk in Europe's reluctance to embrace email and video conferencing from desktop computers--technologies Grove himself uses almost every day to communicate with Intel managers and customers around the world.
"One of the frustrations we see in Germany is that not many executives have email addresses on their business cards. Or if they have an email address, it really goes to their secretary or someone else," Albrecht said.
"In U.S. businesses, email is used as much as the telephone," he said.
Intel requires all 48,000 of its worldwide employees to have an email address on their business cards, Albrecht said. "From the security guards all the way up to Andy," he said. "It helps make Intel very efficient because you can reach people and make decisions very quickly."
Intel employees including Grove also regularly use tiny cameras linked to their desktop PCs for video conferences--something Grove will tell European companies to use in order to cut costs, Albrecht said.
Bates, the Contex analyst, said video conference equipment costing several thousand marks could pay for itself by eliminating just a few business trips.
"You don't have to get on a plane and fly to London," Albrecht said, noting that Intel has used video conferences between Munich, London and Switzerland to design its exhibit for the colossal CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany in March.
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Once again the U.S. is showing the world the way! They might be slow, but they will follow. The Internet is going change EVERTHING!
Regards, Michael |
