The eWorld Radar

Skills for the New Industrial Revolution

I recently facilitated a forum entitled the Skills for the New Industrial Revolution as part of the European Commission’s Mission Growth conference in Brussels. I was fortunate to have senior representatives from industry, government and academe along with a sample of Europe’s future workforce.

It is already apparent that the compassionate European skills agenda in place since the seventies, whereby the focus is on the disadvantaged rather than the ‘A team’ has not been successful. So whilst we must continue to focus on ensuring for example that our unemployed do not become unemployable, we must devote more attention to being world class if we want to remain part of the global value chain.

Whilst the aforementioned point focuses on the skill s of the individual, all such initiatives will come to nothing unless we have strong management in place. Management and equally importantly leadership skills acquisition must not be left to chance.  Allocating management roles to staff based solely on their experience is a recipe for disaster.

And neither of the aforementioned points will amount to anything if the skills policies are not in place at a national and trading block level. In fact the politicians must only be allowed to take up their positions if they have the skills needed to devise sensible policy.

Given that know the experiment to skill the nation from the ground up has failed, we can focus our attention on driving change from the top down.

Tech Sector Review - May 2012

Logica takeover

After years of wandering in the no man’s land between outsourcing and technology consulting services, UK IT firm Logica is being scooped up by Canadian outfit CGI. Logica’s board are happy with the $1.7bn offer. This is all a natural part of the consolidating tech market. Logica has never really understood how to position itself in the market in a manner that made it relevant in the boardroom. Certainly this is not an issue for CGI, looking at its website.

(g)Rim news

Blackberry maker Rim saw its share price fall to a 12 month low despite the appointment of a new CEO earlier this year. It feels like RIM missed the ‘app’ boat and is now so far behind Apple and Google that it almost feels as if they are wasting their time. Rim thinks it is in a four horse race, when in fact it is really a 2 horse race, because RIM didn’t turn up for the start, and Microsoft is not necessarily heading in the right direction. Maybe it’s time to dismantle the company and focus on handset design with a view to running Apple iOS or Google Android?

Sap’s clouded vision

Very few names that were the talk of the town during the dotcom era are still around today. e-Commerce specialist Ariba is one of the few. Their focus on e-procurement was in my view a little ahead of its time, but is increasingly relevant today. And software giant Sap has acknowledged that by acquiring the US company for $4.3bn. Sap’s jigsaw strategy is starting to look interesting.

Yahoo – Lifelike history

Yahoo’s Chief Executive Scott Thompson has had to step down after it transpired that his CV detailed an imbalance between the number of qualifications he claims to have against the reality. Interestingly Mr Thompson apparently accused the recruitment firm that placed him of falsifying the qualification. This takes the CEO body count at Yahoo to three in the last year.

Facebook sinks

Dotcomesque euphoria gripped the recent flotation of Facebook. The offer price of $38 per share has retrospectively appeared too high with the price now at $28 two weeks later. Founder Mark Zuckerberg is unlikely to have to radically adjust his lifestyle on this news. Lead underwriter Morgan Stanley is facing pressure as some accuse it of mis-marketing the shares. Even beyond this there is a growing perception that the post-industrial digital economy is a myth and that it is impossible to make money from companies that in essence solely deal in bytes. There is also the concern that Facebook’s revenue earning opportunities are not suited for the small screens of the growing mobile market. Such sceptics are obviously unfamiliar with the growing tablet market.

Geo-political cyber warfare

Iran is the recent recipient of malware designed to steal sensitive information related to the country’s energy interests. Leading security companies are suggesting that the quality of the malware software is such that was likely developed by a nation state and not some bored teenagers killing time during an ICT lesson. This seems like a logical extension of warfare in the 21st century. However today it is stealing records, tomorrow it could be unauthorised remote control of the nuclear cooling rods.