Analysing the merits of the global business environment, Prof James Brian Quinn displays a rare knack for making his pet subject comprehensible to all.
So when the bow-tie wearing American business guru talks about the global economy he uses adjectives such as "weird" and "exciting". "The opportunities are higher than ever before in history." It is just a question of "whether we mess them up or not".
According to the award-winning author and Professor of Management, the prognosis is good. He has spent a life-time analysing, ruminating, debating and advising on every business topic imaginable. He carries with him a font of knowledge that he shared last week at a management conference in Dublin City University.
His latest book Innovation Explosion tackles the challenges that exist for managers in an environment where information technology is a vital component. He views his mission as helping people take their first, second and even third steps in what he calls "this knowledge and innovation society". To do that, he maintains, it is worth looking at how this world has evolved.
"In the past, wealth was generated by real physical product. We were short of cars, we were short of other physical things. Now we have an over-capacity of products and product industry prices are crashing. "The real value is created in the services - most of the world's richest, the Gates's, the Murdochs, are in the services industry," he says.
This shift in how we produce wealth has changed the very nature of competition. Companies no longer aim to be the best at all aspects of their business, but now "target being best at something important to the customer".
He uses Dell as an example and talks about how it and other multinationals are breaking their activities into units and sourcing those in the best places in the world. The value chain shrinks as the company concentrates on its special talent - knowing more about their customer than anyone else. "They don't have to invest in all those plants, in all that R&D, in the distribution channels . . . the investment goes down and the customer gets better value," he says. In terms of technology, he believes it is imperative that everyone boards the IT express train. Those who do not use this technology "will not die but they will be at a great disadvantage. Does this mean we will all have to be computer programmers? No.
"But use the technology to gain competitive advantage," he advises.
He goes on to discuss how well the benefits of technology actually translate into recognised wealth. "A telephone company that lowers its prices because of new technology allows the customer do things they could never do before and at a lower cost.
"We have a weird economy which values this kind of activity enormously but does not reflect it in GNP statistics. This changes the whole nature of the way we think about growth in an economic sense," he says.
He has three simple tips for businesses coming to grips with this innovation explosion. Firstly, size isn't everything; "Remember it is possible to be very big and be small by becoming a specialist in something that will have you sought out all around the world," he says.
Secondly, he says, "keep on innovating to be best". Thirdly, he maintains it is important to keep the channels of communication open. "Make sure you can be accessed properly by both customers and providers so that you can get maximum value from the intelligence that is out there," he says.
He pauses, smiles and returns to his initial assessment of the times we live in: "It's a most exciting time in history, as long as we don't muck it up. And I don't think we will."
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