We were recently directed to Text, Tweet, or Talk: Communication for Today, a newly launched blog written by Michele Davis, an undergraduate student and friend of Cutter. Michele is exploring trends in interpersonal communication and what effects these trends have on society. She’s specifically looking at the impact of the movement away from face-to-face/voice communication towards digital, text-based, online communication.

Michele’s way of communicating wasn’t an option when I was an undergrad, but now, even though I spend a significant portion of my time communicating online for business as well as with my friends and family, the really meaningful conversations in my life are always by phone. By contrast, Michele, who is in the 18-24 age bracket writes,

It is hard to imagine my life without the trifecta having some presence in Read more …

Last December, we asked the Cutter Business Technology Council to provide some advice for surviving the recession. Since there are now some signs that things are beginning to turn around, we thought it would be interesting to see what the Council thinks will be different as we emerge from the recession. The consensus: Post-recovery ≠ Pre-crash.

Here are a few impressions of the future:

Tom DeMarco predicts: “In organizations whose decision makers are fear-crazed and vision-free, new IT expenditures will have to be justified largely on offset maintenance cost. Companies that pursue this course will be the best takeover targets in the coming years. Companies that are best at resisting this course will be the ones doing the taking over.”

According to Lou Mazzucchelli, “What looks to some like a revolution is really only the logical result of changes in Read more …

So long to the gorilla dust at GM. That’s what billionaire entrepreneur founder of EDS and ex-General Motors executive Ross Perot called the annual optimistic projections of GM executives during the 1980s, as it continued to lose market share. “When gorillas fight, they throw dust in the air to distract one another,” Perot said.

Gorilla dust wasn’t just thrown only by Chairman and CEO Roger Smith throughout the 1980s, as GM’s US market share dropped from 46% to 36%, but also by his successors Robert Stempel and Jack Smith throughout the 1990s and Richard Wagoner into the 2000s as well. GM’s current US market share is under 18% — that was, before the bankruptcy announcement on June 1, showing it owing creditors US $173 billion against assets of only $82 billion.

So, a company that was for decades the largest Read more …