Back to the Future...

By Oliver Marks


The fascinating history of the automobile is remarkably similar to how personal computing appears to be evolving. Less than 100 years ago there were no standards with experimental contraptions controlled by levers, pedals, handlebars, wheels and a variety of power sources. Henry Ford succeeded in rolling up the best ideas of the day and developed early mass production techniques to standardize around the Model T. There was no value associated with aesthestic design or usability in early Ford products and a close lineage to horse carriage design.

‘Micro’ soft popularized the concept of personal computers powered by green screen DOS instead of macro mainframe behemoths in a similar fashion - just as Ford standardized the wheel, pedals and dashboard early micro computing users standardized around typewriter functionality.

While the modern individual can purchase sophisticated devices and interact with sophisticated services with instant credit card transactions, most businesses are stuck in a dour, bureaucratic digital grey filing cabinet world that lacks transparency or vitality when it comes to equipping employees. The result has been the employee expectation that work environments are gray, foggy cubicle worlds to the multicolor outside world.

Today Ford and General Motors are completely different global companies compared to fifty years ago, extracting astonishing performance from vehicles which most consumers never lift the hoods of, such is the efficiency of their usability and product design. In comparison today’s average business computer user is likely to be accessing layers of elderly enterprise applications via a five year old pc equipped with a previous generation internet browser. Collaboration is principally by email, frequently with attached Microsoft Office documents.

The motor industry standardized around use models and conventions after a few decades of fragmentation, resulting for example in the ability of London Transport to standardize around a single bus body style and matching chassis and drivetrain and drive after WWII. This meant they were able to freely mix and match mechanicals with bodies as required to move vast numbers of people around each day, while vehicle exceptions for special needs were also catered for.

A similar kind of overarching collaboration planning pays huge dividends in driving business efficiency and performance at enterprise scale, while not paying attention results in chronic inefficiency, fragmentation migraines and ever more complex IT gordian knots to support.

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