Dr. Tony Vercillo

Link: http://www.ifmc-consultants.com/shop

I've said it many times before; there are many ways in which the world can be viewed as a very small place. It feels big, but technology has made it so that what happens in someone's back yard fifteen thousand miles away can be felt in yours.

...

I can remember a time when making a long distance telephone call was a rather big deal. It still can be expensive to call another country, but then we have Skype. If I know I’m going to be talking to a friend of colleague that’s on the other side of the world, I may just hop on email or Skype to have that conversation. No need to rack up a large bill. And it’s that sort of technological thinking that puts news on the wire and fast.

It was considered such a big deal to be able to watch the Vietnam War on television. For those that remember that those that studied the war, it’s no coincidence that our rose-colored view of war changed to one of cynicism once we could actually see what was going on as it was happening. Technology has made that even more prevalent today. News is up to the second and the effects of what is happening – whether that be from war, natural disasters, or business-as-usual – are felt instantaneously.

But decisions are also made just as fast and that’s the beauty of it. The recent flooding in Thailand caused Honda to temporarily cut production at six plants in the U.S now. It has also caused the launch of the 2012 CR-V crossover to be pushed back by several weeks. In the past, large decisions like that would have taken months to make just waiting for intel. The opportunity costs lost would be substantial. Push back the date of an entire car just before launch? Unheard of. A decision made that fast would not have been possible without the technologies we have today. We know immediately what materials we have a shortage of and where to divert the supply chain for just such an issue.

If you remember, I wrote a similar blog several months back in regards to the earthquake in Japan and its effect on the Apple product line. What you may not have noticed was that you didn’t notice a change. Apple was able to get the information needed immediately, change their production schedule, and the iPad 2, new iPhone 4S, and the iPod Nano were both launched on time.

So what modern technology has affected you in some way? Order a product that came faster than expected? Donate to a cause almost as it was actually happening? Also, what technologies do you believe we should have?

Personally, we need an earthquake detector. That’s our punishment for sunny weather. We get the natural disaster you can’t see coming.