ATE OF THE ART OF U.S. BUSINESS LEADERSHIP THINKING
As luck would have it, and as business-luck generally does not have it, in mid-analysis of these questions a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author has very recently placed in a single paragraph the answers to all those questions and implied--strongly enough to reveal--their very nearly singular answer. Belton published an interview with Daniel Yergin who has recently coauthored a book on global economics, and in the interview Yergin states flatly that "The final thing that ties it all together is technology." He is speaking here of the thing that has made Markets "triumph" over Government; and Belton, in her questioning, forced Yergin to address not only the success of market forces but the morality of markets and what impels them, today, to be moral. And his reply--in five parts--answers the questions posed above: "There are five signposts or tests out there [about the morality of a market]. No. 1: Does it deliver the goods in terms of growth and employment and rising standards of living? [2] . . . fairness and equity. Certainly none of the industrial countries [is] going to eliminate [its] social safety nets . . . [3] . . . to be a part of this global economy, what does that mean to my national identity? [4] . . . the environment, and [5] demographics [of] [t]he aging population."
But the key is technology, and technology is useful--relevant even--because it can and does and forever more shall, control INFORMATION. So, the biggest challenge facing USA business leadership today is: simultaneously trusting and controlling (leading) the link between information and the technology that permits information to flow toward and from the business in real time. Here, as a shorthand, let us say THE problem is: I/T.
A distinction is made here explicitly, however, that the problem is not, simply, information technology, or I-T. The problem is not merely computer science or library s...