The Loss of Distance and Justification to Worry

Historically distance has limited what we must worry about.  Our cave-dwelling ancestors only had to worry about being heard, seen or smelled by predators or enemies in their immediate surroundings. 

As time went by large human armies could retreat and separate themselves by 100 miles, which during the Roman era equated to 5 days of marching.  That meant they didn't have to worry about a battle happening for at least 5 days.  Today it is different. One hundred miles equates to mere seconds. The security of distance has died.  Today, we must worry about wider circles.

Future Failure Guaranteed

"When the ship was invented, so was the shipwreck."  This statement from urbanist and cultural theorist Dr. Paul Virilio, is important for all of us to ponder.  All successful inventions, according to Professor Virilio, include a guaranteed accident/failure.  Invention and accident are inseparable.  

The key to a better future is knowing which inventions and innovations are valuable enough to withstand and persevere through the inevitable accidents.  It is also necessary to consider which accidents are so costly that developing the invention or innovation might not be justified.  The atomic bomb is an example of this debate.  It is an invention that has lead to the wide proliferation of atomic weapons by both friend and foe.  That was not the intent.  It was the accident.

Implementing new policies, laws, processes and regulations also come with a costs in terms of unintended consequences and guaranteed accidents.  For example, repeatedly data has shown that when abortion is outlawed crime increases in the years following.   Freakonomics Radio did an entire episode on this phenomena - listen here.  Increased crime rates were not the intent, but the resulting accident.

If you accept Professor Virilio's statement, then it is important that we unite around some set of agreed upon aspirational goals.  We can use those goals to then judge whether a particular innovation or invention will help us achieve our goals.  For example, will cutting down the rainforests and polluting our planet help us accomplish our goals, or will the guaranteed accident that comes with it be life threatening?  Will arming angry and troubled youth with military style weapons, a social media account and large quantities of disinformation help our society achieve its desired peaceful and safe end-state, or will the guaranteed accidents lead to routine mass shootings?  

Our society's decisions, consciously or unconsciously, guarantee the accidents we face today and tomorrow.  

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Kevin Benedict

Partner | Futurist at TCS

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Speed, Accidents and Pandemics

The value of distance has been lost to speed.  Throughout history distance meant a level of security and safety.  Invading armies of marching foot soldiers could cover about 20 miles per day on Roman roads.  A thousand miles distance between a town and an invading army equated to at least 50 days of security and time for the townspeople to either prepare a defense or flee. Historically distance was not only a protection against invading armies, but pandemics, epidemics and plagues as well.  Some diseases started on one continent and took years to reach another.  Speed, however, has removed this protection.  It has made us all continuously contagious neighbors.

Today the world is divided into GPS coordinates surveyed by invisible drones and satellites.  These and other technologies support the ability to deliver people, cargo, munition and disease anywhere in the world within minutes or even seconds.  The value of distance has nearly disappeared.

Professor Paul Virilio, a sage futurist, wrote every innovation comes with  a guaranteed accident.  For example, you cannot create a Tesla without a Tesla crashing.  Innovations and accidents are inseparable.  You cannot have one without the other. The technologies that support globalization, global supply chains and air travel guarantee pandemics.  You cannot have one without the other.  The world has faced over 70 epidemics since 1957 and 8 pandemics.  That averages one or more every year.

The data tells us that epidemics and pandemics are now guaranteed and common.  We cannot move blindly forward in a global network of people, economies, supply chains and connected technologies without paying the piper.  We must set-up the processes, plans, and government and economic levers necessary to live and thrive under the continuous exposure of pandemics.  It is no longer acceptable to be surprised and unprepared.

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Kevin Benedict

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital Technologies and the Compression of Time and Distance

Professor Paul Virilio, a philosopher of speed, urbanist and cultural theorist, wrote at length about the impact of speed on society.  He wrote that speed compresses both time and distance. Where once it took a letter 6 months to get to the other side of the world, an email can now arrive in seconds.  Today's near real-time communications has changed how nations are governed, markets operate and commerce is conducted.  The distance and time involved in communications has been compressed into seconds.

Commanders of Roman armies could once estimate the day and time of battle based upon their soldiers ability to march 20 miles per day on purpose built stone roads.  Today, however, a ballistic missile can be launched and reach the other side of the earth in minutes.   As a result, nations and their military commanders must now prepare to make critical decisions in mere seconds rather than taking days, weeks or months to deliberate.  That's a big deal.  In the past, an army could retreat and give up distance for time.  In the example of the roman army, an opponent could retreat and separate themselves by 100 miles to give them the security of 5 days of time.  Today 100 miles means only a matter of seconds.  The distance and time of military conflicts today has been compressed to milliseconds.

Speed, Agility, Enterprise Mobility and Better Thinking

Dromology - the science (or logic) of speed.  This is the definition developed by Urbanist and Professor Dr. Paul Virilio's.  He believed that, "a thing that acts with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower."  I highlighted this statement in his paper when I read, Speed and Politics recently.  I have observed this phenomena when analyzing businesses and their digital transformation efforts.

In today's business world speed and agility, or the lack thereof, can mean the difference between success and failure.  IT systems of yesteryear are today's anchors dragging down companies.  Business strategies and ways of thinking that brought successes in the past, today prolong their inevitable demise. It is not just the investments of the past that weigh down a business, but old thinking.

Agility is not just a programming and project management methodology, but a business requirement.  I recently attended a talk by Todd Lutwak, a Partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.  He said the cost of forming and running a startup company is down 100Xs that which it once cost.  Why?  It is due to things like open source technologies, cloud computing, SaaS business models, globalization and LinkedIn.  LinkedIn?  Indeed! He said LinkedIn enables startups to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively find the experts they need in ways never before possible.

All of the innovations and efficiencies Lutwak identified as helping startups, contribute to efficiencies, speed and agility.  No longer does a startup need to invest much of their investor funds into business systems just to start operating.  They can subscribe to SaaS solutions and be operating in 24 hours without significant upfront investments.  This speed enables the startup to focus on the innovative products and services, getting them to market, solving customer problems and making money.  Their focus can be on that which makes the business successful.

I believe the trend in enterprise mobility away from expensive on-premise MADP (mobile application development platforms) to MbaaS (mobile backend as a service) business models and solutions align with Lutwak's observations.  Companies don't want to make massive budget, time and resource commitments to platforms that may restrict their future agility and speed to market.

Many companies today believe the only way they can be successful in the future is to buy startups, or spin-off their own startups and build up from there.  They have concluded that the fossilized thinking, processes and systems of the traditional business are not conducive to future success.  That is sad, but often an all too accurate conclusion.

Let's just make sure that we build the next phase of our businesses with speed, agility, innovation and creative thinking at the core.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Editor

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation, EBA, Center for the Future of Work Cognizant

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Role Big Data Plays with the Real-Time Enterprise, Mobile Strategies and Field Services

Time-Space Compression

I have been engaged in a lot of research and writing of late on business transformation made possible by the advent of the real-time enterprise, Big Data, mobile strategies and field services.  I could have added social and cloud as well, but you have to stop somewhere.  I find these subjects fascinating, because we can see their impact on both our personal lives and our businesses daily.

On Tuesday, December 18th at 11 AM EST I will be sharing this research in a live webinar along with Mike Karlskind, VP of Service Optimization Strategies at ClickSoftware.  I invite you to join us! Registration information can be found here - http://go.clicksoftware.com/role-big-data-plays-with-real-time-enterprise-mobile-strategies-and-field-services.html?utm_source=December18thWebinarKB.

The topics I will be covering are:

Business transformation

Real-time enterprises and Big Data

Data driven decision making

Location based services

Predictive analytics

Time-space compression

Dromology (the science and logic of speed in field services)

Chronostrategies - time strategies in field service

Revolution in Commercial Affairs - collecting data, analyzing data and communicating data

The value of infonomics

I believe we are seeing an intriguing transformation today in business.  Time-space compression enabled by mobility, social networking and real-time business analytics have forever changed the way business will be conducted.  I look forward to exploring this subject with you on December 18th.

  
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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Speed, Mobility and Online Sales

I read an article in the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) today titled, Big-Box Stores Wrestle E-Commerce Gorilla.  Here is an interesting excerpt, "Amazon sells many of the same products as big-box stores but can undercut them on prices due to lower overhead.  It also uses computer algorithms to adjust prices in real time.  Traditional retailers often can't move as rapidly because online prices must match those in stores."  I would like to also point out that an increasing amount of Amazon's sales are coming from mobile devices.  That means Amazon stands to benefit from the show-rooming trend where customers search online for deals while in big-box stores.

Note the mention of "real-time" and "rapidly" in the excerpt.  Amazon is beating big-box retailers on speed, real-time analytics, business strategies and dynamic responses.  Yesterday, I wrote an article titled, Time-Space Compression and Enterprise Mobility.  In this article I discussed dromology, the science of speed, and chronostrategies, time based strategies.  Amazon is using dromology and chronostrategies to achieve a real competitive advantage.

The technology platform that Amazon uses was not mentioned in the article.  It was their business model and business strategies that were the focus.  Amazon's technology platform, however, enables Amazon to implement a business model, with a speed and expense advantage, that provides it with a competitive advantage.

I am going to hammer on this drum for a few days.  Technology supports Amazon's online, speed and low-cost business model.  The strategy, however, is not the technology but the business model supported by a speed and time advantage.

Enterprise mobility is a technology that should support your business strategy.  Is your strategy based on accomplishing speed, time, visibility and analytics advantages or a unique business model?  If so, enterprise mobility has the potential of making that possible.

The task of developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy is always identified as one of the biggest challenges around mobility.  The reason, I believe, is that the business must recognize the potential impact of mobility, and then develop a business model that will take advantage of it.  How can the IT department develop an enterprise-wide mobility strategy without first having the business strategy and business model defined for the IT organization to support?

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Time-Space Compression and Enterprise Mobility

There is a time to recognize sea change and to take action.  That time is now for developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy and to start implementing enterprise mobility.  I think companies in the past couple of years have not been sure the role mobility would play in their specific company, markets and industries, however it should be clearer now.  It is time to act and be bold.

I propose that mobility is just the beginning.  Mobility is part of a historic time-space compression shift that is impacting all people and industries.  It is important for us to understand the impact this shift will have on each of our companies.

Paul Virilio wrote a great deal about time and speed, and time-space compression.  He calls the science of speed dromology, and strategies around time chronostrategy.  He proposed that the speed at which something happens may change its essential nature.  His argument is - that which moves with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower.  The bottom line, is companies that can see faster, analyze faster, communicate faster, produce faster, decide faster and act faster will have enormous competitive advantages.  Mobility is an essential element of all of this.

Time-space compression often occurs as a result of technologies that seem to accelerate speed and reduce distances.  These technologies today include the Internet, Skype, mobile communications, SMS, sensors, satellites etc.  In transportation they are things like trains, jets, rockets, overnight delivery systems etc.  In business, they are ultra-fast market trading systems, globalization, online sales, currency markets, faster production cycles, mobile banking and payments, etc.  

All of these components play a role in compressing time and space.  I can operate a global business, across all time zones from my Boise, Idaho backyard patio.  Speed changes things as Virilio proposed.  The very nature of a business or industry is transformed as time-space compression happens.

Is your company researching this topic?  Should it be?  Virilio suggests that there is a shift toward the emergence and dominance of chronostrategies (time strategies).  We can see this reflected in just-in-time manufacturing, overnight shipping, e-Readers, streaming video, mobile marketing, location based services, social networking sites etc.  All of these are about time and space compression.

I see chronostrategies as a key focus in the field services space.  Companies are constantly seeking ways to improve and optimize their scheduling to be more productive.  They are using their knowledge of location to reduce travel times and optimize routing.

The bottom line is the world is changing and so are your industries and markets.  Mobility is a supporting technology that will enable your company to compress time and space.  The debate should shift from whether mobility has value for your company, to whether your company can transform itself to keep up with the time-space compression that is happening all around it.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.