“What will make or break companies in the coming years ahead will be how quickly organisations adapt to a world where work can be done anywhere (and anytime too).”

Kashminder Singh

I saw a funny corporate video a long while ago. The video went back into time when cars were replacing horse carriages. It showed a successful businessman laughing off the newly invented car as a gimmick and continuing to rely on horse carriages instead.

You know what happened to that company.

That was a long time ago but the same thing has happened each time major technological shifts occurred. It happened when the PC turned up. It happened when LCD projectors sent overhead projectors (remember those things?) to the museums. Companies that did not embrace the superior technology faced extinction.

And you had to do it wholly or sink. Half measures didn’t work. I still remember many companies back in my IT business days that tried to survive as ‘single PC companies’ where everyone shared one computer.

Much later, those that had somehow survived did acquire more PCs. But then, along came the Internet and it was the same thing again. Big companies with just a single email address, no website and Internet access for only the bosses and key staff.

Thankfully most companies have moved past that stage but there’s a new challenge ahead for organisations now.

Mobility is changing the way things get done. What will make or break companies in the coming years ahead will be how quickly organisations adapt to a world where work can be done anywhere (and anytime too). Failure to respond could be fatal.

Just what is this change all about? Mobility encompasses a variety of rapidly growing technologies and services. There’s handphones and PDAs, there’s Wifi and 3G as well as a whole bunch of applications designed to keep mobile workers connected and armed. At the very least, some things that should be a given these days.

Email, for instance. The ‘out of office’ autoreply email is so past its time. I am amazed that even employees of mobile companies have taken so long to adapting to receiving email on their mobile devices. As recently as last week, I got an ‘Autoreply’ to an email I sent to a senior executive of handphone company A.

Contrast that to Nokia execs I work with (this one, I can name ). The Nokia team in Malaysia is headquartered in Cyberjaya. Their sales and marketing people do a lot of work in KL and have adapted very well to a mobile work lifestyle. They are out of the office the whole day but have no problems receiving and replying their emails and carrying out their work without a desktop PC. You want to harbour a guess as to which brand will do better?

Email is so easy to get on mobile these days. Even lesser phone models can get your email for you. My colleague Charles Moreira wrote an article about this in the June 2006 issue. Then there’s instant messaging, mobile word processing and customised mobile applications for various industries. Organisations should also look beyond handphones when aiming to ‘mobilise’ their workforces. I think every mobile worker should carry a digital camera and voice recorder at the very least.

The important thing is to not make the same mistake that occurred during the early days of the PC and Internet.

Don’t treat mobile devices as a privilege given only as status symbols. Treat mobile devices and applications as essential tools. Learn to make full use of these devices and applications. Always keep exploring ways to get more things done directly by staff on their mobile devices.
Think radically. National Semiconductors, the IC manufacturing company, is giving all 8500 of its employees 30GB video iPods. Their CEO, Brian Halla said, “We’re looking for new and more effective ways to communicate with our employees.”
I suggest you do the same.

Kash has many desktop PCs (and even desks) for sale. If you are still into those, drop him a line at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it