With the economic/financial tsunami that continues to build in both the U.S. and global markets, the real-world impacts of those dynamics are becoming more profound for individuals, families, businesses, corporations and industries. Far be it for me to proselytize on macroeconomic theory/practice and financial management, but blogs that I rely on daily (The Big Picture, Calculated Risk, Minyanville) to keep me informed and educated are painting a very troubling picture of the next five to ten years
Those of us who have operated in the broad technology product and services marketplaces of the past several decades have had to constantly balance our enthusiasm for the pure whiz-bang sexiness of the next great technology with the practical application opportunities offered by the technology. How does it make lives, business, industries and communities better off? What is the real value proposition, at both the micro and macro level?
The current U.S. economic environment requires every enterprise of size to consider the application of technology as a hedge against challenges to their successful operational and financial performance. Those challenges manifest themselves at different levels of the business - the overall cost of labor, the cost of sourcing services and materials, and the cost of capital. They also impact the employees that work in a centralized office as average commute times have grown in both time and distance over the past decade.
Where possible, enterprises need to consider or reconsider the viability of the telecommuting workforce. By doing so they relieve their rank and file of the increasingly onerous burden of filling their gasoline tank, in some cases, every other day. Beyond on that, there is substantial research that has shown that telecommuters are more productive while working longer hours than their office-based counterparts. The employees benefit, the company benefits and society benefits with fewer automobiles on the road.
Enterprises should aggressively engage the many technologies that exist to reduce their costs, streamline their operations, enhance their reputation and support their employees during the difficult times ahead.
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