By: mikestop

mikestop — Sat, 28 May 2005 11:09:28 +0000

I currently work in the earthmoving industry – a pretty backward industry at the best of times (up to 30% of the clients I call on do not use computers – believe it or not). However, I am lucky to be in a company that is consciously trying to effect change, to be cutting edge, and to hopefully have a positive impact on the industry in that way.We ’ve gone to great lengths to encourage our head office and branches to communicate electronically. Our staff compliment of 60 is boomer-dominated, but, thankfully, generally open-minded and technology embracing. We are always striving to learn more about the seemingly ever-expanding wave of new technological advances coming our way. Your opening few paragraphs rang true for me – ideas around reverse mentoring, the assumption that technology is learned “instinctively “. Not only are generational divides expanded, but billions are wasted in the misappropriation of funds towards the idea of keeping up with the technological Jones ’.We ’re therefore in a pretty unique position – our industry, and general market, is leaps and bounds behind us when it comes to digital advances. However, this counts for very little competitive advantage (in my opinion), because right now all we ’re doing is improving internal communication. Stone age suppliers and manufacturers (our competitors) are still making money with Cardex systems, microfiche, and the like. (I consider that a soecial gift – I am 24 and can operate a microfiche).It poses some interesting questions. Can you over-advance? Can you develop naturally, constantly aligning yourself with world trends but simultaneously build a wall between you, your suppliers and your customers? Do we have a responsibility to drag our industry along with us? Will they ever catch up? The way I see it – catching up with technology is challenging enough for any business. But is it possible to keep up with technology and stay relevant to your market (or our market, specifically), at the same time?Another interesting statistic – I was only able to collect 700 email addresses from a database of just under 4000 customers recently (bear in mind that a customer like Murray and Roberts will have multiple contacts, and those contacts will most likely have mail addresses – so my number of 700 does not necessarily show that 700/4000 customers use email – it ’s even less than that).Eish.

By: graeme

graeme — Mon, 23 May 2005 13:03:22 +0000

Check out these quite good rules from [URL=http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/issues/technology/communications/got_email_manners_see_these_dos_and_donts.mspx]Microsoft ’s do ’s and don ’ts of email[/URL]

By: graeme

graeme — Mon, 23 May 2005 13:02:38 +0000

Check out these quite good rules at [URL=http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/issues/technology/communications/got_email_manners_see_these_dos_and_donts.mspx]Microsoft ’s site[/URL].

Comments on: Developing virtual teams

By: mikestop

By: graeme

By: graeme