Where is the future?

The latest CES show in Vegas promises more integration between devices in your hand, home, stores, cars, hotels etc. etc. which makes me think - Wasn't the basic promise from the IT land to have "ease of information" and NOT "overflow of information"

I see this happening not only at CES but all over the world. We want more information in order to have a better control. As executives, we push the need to have more information readily available in order to not have a reactive action but a proactive action. Guess what, and I am sure you all have felt it - whatever business processes (and associated IT systems) you designed and implemented for a proactive mode was outdated by the time it was installed.

So how do you design something for the future? If there was a simple answer then we would never have a "reactive" mode for anything. I read in some book a while ago - our ancient ancestors planned their meals by putting their ear on the ground and trying to hear the animals coming their way. This enabled them to be prepared to hunt the the animals down. It was true then, it is true today. Don't sit in your ivory towers. Meet the people on the ground and in the fields. They know your business. Your customers and yes your competitors. The folks in the trenches will help you plan for the future and yes you might live through the information overload.

So the next time around there is a new speech by Mr.. Gates talking about integration between your cell phone and the cars of the future, are you going to go look at that or you are going to look in the rear-view mirror since the future happened yesterday? Think about it !