Approximately 150 years ago the railway was the equivalent of today’s internet as a means of communication.
Then came the telephone and then electricity. Some companies even had a director of electricity to try and work out the impact that electricity would have on their business.
The internet is probably the most recent technical revolution in business communication although mobile networks linking phones and devices to it is a contender. The fact is they are connected.
However, as Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has said, we now take all these developments for granted. But in their time they transformed the way businesses operated and in turn this impacted on the organisation and structure of the wider society.
It doesn’t take long before what once seemed revolutionary becomes the “normal” way of doing business.
The question is “what development will be the next game changer?” Google glasses? Robotics? Smart Apps? The Apple Watch? Arguably all of these are just incremental product developments following on from the cellphone and the tablet as portable technology.
Perhaps the next real breakthrough will come from advances in biosciences or biotechnology? What do you think?
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