Summary
Leaders appear to get Blamed for a lack of IT Innovation in the Business that they are Leaders of.. Is it their lack of desire or is it the lack of Capital allocated for the expenditure necessary to implement Innovative IT Infrastructure,Software, and human resource costs?
Analysis
In the 1970's through the Mid-Eighties, IT Innovation was a non stop Jet Plane, increasing speed and distance every minute of every day. These were Corporate Leaders, whom had the desire to create growth, scalable profit through scalable IT Innovation. Computers were born into the Large Corporate World and this embracing of the Computer began to embrace the Mid-tier Companies by the late seventies, The Real Growth in Innovations in IT for the Corporate, Mid-tier, and small business came with the Birth of the PC (Personal Computer) in 1980.
This Computer, thus called the "Personal Computer" was to be used by individuals at home on a personal basis, but Corporation, Mid-tier, and Small Business Leaders welcomed the PC as the most Innovative IT Solution thus far. Along came local area connections of multiple computers and then Wide area Connectivity....oh it spread like a Wildfire across the ranks of the Business World.
I was a part of historic times during this Technology Revolution, which never slowed down until; "The First Stock Market Crash in my lifetime" in 1987. Leaders of IT Innovation put a hold on Everything; Stopped Planned Software and Hardware Upgrades, terminated programmers, consultants, various IT related support employees, etc.
Fortunately. It was a short lived phenomenon, as the market strengthened quickly, Business began to outsource technical services which consumed the terminated employees and began to create a shortage in technical proficient staff. Software upgrades that were needed to make up for the shortage of administrative employees in order to improve work flow continued to drive the need for new Computer hardware and Leaders again were the drivers of IT Innovation. More Memory, larger storage, faster speed chips, and the Innovation in the IT world flourished again.
This takes us to the year 2000, when the USA again falls into a slow but continuous negative economic times. Next, comes the turmoil of "911" and the material and financial devastation of economic times for the American people.
If you asked a CIO, or CTO what he/she did for a living, they would tell you that they no longer were IT Innovators, but they were technical financial budget cutters. NO NEW Technology to be brought into Corporate America, please find ways to cut costs.
It was a fact that Computerization brought speed and accuracy to the work place, allowing employees to handle more volume in a shorter amount of time with quality and accuracy. IS this still True?
Yes, I still believe that IT Innovations allow us to do more in less time, with increased accuracy and quality. The truth is, we need more work, because today there is less work to do with more Unemployed People. As Franklyn D. Roosevelt implemented the "Make Work Programs" across the USA in the olden days; SO Must the American Population get back to work so that we will need to "Lead the growth with IT Innovations".
Steven H. Rothman,SCR CONSULTING LLC.
