Chapter 17: Intelligent Enterprises Everywhere


Arun Gollapudi

Technology: The Ultimate Means to an End

About a decade ago I read a book that had a profound influence on my thinking and how business could be revolutionized by strategy and technology - it was called The Goal. Eliyahu Goldratt's book describes the journey of a plant manager who turns his company around through a series of steps that all aim at finding and removing bottlenecks within the company. When I set out to create my company, I looked at technology as a tool one could leverage to help businesses solve their problems. I envisioned that automation and information used productively would lead to businesses achieving greater and greater efficiencies, adding more value to the marketplace and what they can offer to their customer base.

When pioneering decision support systems were created 10 years back, I focused my energies on these systems, as they had provided insights into businesses and supported intelligent decision-making. My company has focused on and specialized in business intelligence from the very beginning, because we have known the potential benefits to the business from business intelligence solutions.

Tom Peters has been another big influence on my thinking. I believe he captures a unique, entrepreneurial vision in his lectures and writings. His idea of a network of "consultants" working together and relying on each other for specific expertise is something I have always believed in. In fact, the result of my MBA thesis project at UCLA was the initial cornerstone of Systech. We were tasked with blueprinting a successful entrepreneurial company, and without knowing it at the time, many of Peters's hallmarks for a dynamic business were in there. When my partner and I cofounded Systech in 1993, we drew from many ideas. We knew from our own business experiences that democracy often encourages innovation in a way that strict hierarchy cannot.




The CTO Handbook. The Indispensable Technology Leadership Resource for Chief Technology Officers
The CTO Handbook/Job Manual: A Wealth of Reference Material and Thought Leadership on What Every Manager Needs to Know to Lead Their Technology Team
ISBN: 1587623676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 213

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net