The government has to grow up and learn that the e-fairy
cannot solve all the problems of small business, says Simon
Moores.
"Seventy thousand small businesses to fold" was the banner
headline in the business section of a leading Sunday newspaper. A
little further on, an article devoted to the work of e-trade
promotion group InterForum tells us that e-business is transforming
our "nation of shopkeepers", while a column reveals that playing
company paintball isn’t always the best way of building a good
management team.
There are times when I wonder if the lunatics are running the
asylum. On the one hand, we’re being fed the message that spending
money and effort on "e"’ is having a transformative effect on the
UK economy, while on the other hand the evidence suggests that red
tape, globalisation, high costs, taxes and insurance are crippling
our smaller businesses whether they are web-enabled or not.
I suspect that in fact e-businesses are failing as fast or even
faster than any other kind of business.
A well-meaning government has fallen short of its target of
having most businesses online. By this I mean truly online, not
simply going through the motions or just using the telephone, which
can, if the statistics demand it, be a grey area, rather like
patients in the NHS. Being classified as an e-business just isn’t
enough, because the "e" that we’re really talking about isn’t a
thing - it’s a risky, expensive, time consuming, educational
process which can distract and cripple any small company that isn’t
prepared for it.
This argument is all about the management of expectations and
costs. Business is a fine example of evolutionary Darwinism at its
best. You evolve too fast and you’re toast. You evolve too slowly
and you’re somebody else’s toast. Statistically, fortune favours
not the brave but companies that take technology’s promises with a
pinch of salt; one very good reason for the downturn in the IT
sector over the past two years. Since 2000, business has learned
that a more cautious approach to technology results in a better
return on investment but government continues to believe in
fairies, which is why it appoints tsars, to keep them under
control.
I’m a firm believer in what technology can do for businesses of
all sizes but at the same time, I’m reluctant to accept the
argument that a company course of "e", broadband and an enterprise
server licence might offer failing companies protection from the
colder economic realities of 2003.
What do you think?
Does the IT profession talk up the transformational power of IT
too much?
Tell us in an e-mail >> CW360.com
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ZentelligenceSetting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of the futurist writer, broadcaster and Computer Weekly
columnist Simon Moores.