Most organisations implement technology systems and computers, in the hope of creating an advantage. Unfortunately, according to Jonar Nader, most organisations are unable to create that advantage. Why is this the case?
Below is a transcript of the audio file.
Jonar Nader: What is the function of technology? For me the whole function of technology is to create an advantage. You actually must have something created. Now an advantage is now in business. We call it the competitive advantage. But often, business people stop thinking beyond that revelation. They say okay well now I have a computer at the ABC and therefore now I am competing with every other station. Well, no, because beyond creating the advantage there is a thing called law of annihilation, you hire and MBA, I’ll hire and MBA. You buy a gizmo computer, I’ll buy a gizmo computer. So the window of opportunity is what we have to focus on. So when you bring a technology into a company you only have a small window of opportunity if you expect it to be an advantage. Most businesses cannot create that advantage so therefore they use computers to reduce costs. So we ask, are we implementing a computer to reduce a cost?
Host: Is it actually reducing costs?
Jonar Nader: Well, if it is engineered properly the answer is yes, and many companies do. But most companies don’t, because they somehow forget the training factor. It is a bit like when parents buy a computer and don’t buy a modem or they buy a computer and don’t buy software. Remember the good old days when software didn’t necessarily come automatically. They would just buy the computer and then say to the kid, ‘go on then, get an ‘A’ mark’. Like as if that was it. Now I often say that the technology itself for it to create an advantage has to be absolutely exclusive, powerful and definite. And I ask you to pause for a moment and think, which technology in this world today is exclusive, powerful and definite? And I can’t think of one beyond the atomic bomb. So therefore everything else has a process of annihilation and it is up to managers to work within the window of opportunity which in this industry slams very quickly.
Host: Wow. You have said enough to sit back on my heels and start thinking. Now lets listen to some music and I want to come back to another aspect of this conversation. Now Vervaldi is your next choice, does this just fall into that style of music or is there a specific reason?
Jonar Nader: Well partly because we are playing obo concerto in C, adargio. I studied the obo when I was a kid and when I actually realised I was breaking the reed all too frequently, it was $10 a pop and I couldn’t afford that all too often. And I also realised that anyone who plays the obo apparently dies early because it has such a strain on the brain, so I gave that up and took up the violin.
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