Marketing Channel Systems – Meaning and Important Concepts
Introduction The last two decades have changed the way business is getting conducted. Some businesses are still using traditional channel systems but advent of the Internet has revolutionized distribution channels. Companies are changing business models to leverage Internet advantage. With open proliferation of information, customer expectations are reaching new heights. Companies need to figure out […]
How Sports Became Big Business and Its Implications for All Stakeholders
How Sports Became Big Business Nowadays, sports mean big bucks for all stakeholders. Whether they are sportspersons, corporates, advertisers, or the sports bodies tasked with administering the game, all of them stand to gain from the infusion of Million Dollar deals that have become the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, the move to make […]
Do Farm Loan Waivers and Bank Bailouts Make for Sound Economic and Fiscal Policies?
Farm Loan Waivers, Bank Bailouts, and Moral Hazards Farm Loan Waivers are the Flavor of the Season as Indian States take turns indulging in a game of who waives the maximum loans taken by the farmers. Indeed, with elections approaching, a form of Competitive Populism has begun wherein each political party is trying to outdo […]
Non Random Patterns – Part 2
Shift in the Process: A shift in the process is defined as a pattern in which seven consecutive data points appear on only one side of the mean. Statistical studies have shown that if the number of points on one side of the mean is less than 7 then it is not a non-random pattern […]
Warehouse Design Concepts
Supply chain efficiencies depend upon the efficiency of logistics including transportation and warehousing operations. Warehouse efficiencies depend upon a combination of warehouse design, layout, infrastructure, systems, process and people. In cases where one can design a warehouse and implement the complete project from ground zero, gives the SCM Project Manager a good scope to create […]
The urge to create a perfect world has been there throughout the ages. However, whereas earlier attempts at doing so were guided by people with hands on effort and intimate contact with the on the ground realities, the present move towards using technology is often misplaced as it focuses on using tools like social media without actually getting down to the nuts and bolts of on the ground action.
In other words, the problems being faced by the world need concerted action that is bottom up and which involves action from those working directly with the victims instead of top down approaches using social media that are out of tune with the ground realities. Of course, this does not mean to say that technology cannot solve any problem, as there are many examples of using technology as a means of spreading awareness and knowledge.
The point here is that technology requires human action in concert with each other and not necessarily one without the other.
The other aspect of trying to solve all problems using technology is that the internet can do only that much and not more. This means that while the internet is good for bringing together people and as can be seen in the positive impact that it had on building better lives for many, it is indeed an agent of change. However, the urge to fix everything using the internet alone must be resisted solely because it has its limitations in that geographical considerations and the need to have on the ground presence are factors that the internet cannot solve. Further, there is the added aspect of the digital divide, which means that the majority of the citizens in the world do not have access to the internet, and hence, the limits to what technology can accomplish are made plainly evident here.
The third aspect is that the proponents of the lets fix everything using technology aspire for a utopian situation that resembles absolute perfectionism. What these well meaning advocates forget is that complexity and ambiguity as well as opacity and imperfection are built into the world and hence, aspiring to social good must take into account all these factors.
In other words, the human condition can be improved only through sustained and concerted effort that takes time and not the kind of instant solution based model that is proposed. Apart from this, the fact that technology is value neutral means that it can be used for good as well as for bad. Hence, the temptation to advance technological solutions for all problems might backfire because of the same technology falling into the wrong hands to create havoc.
Finally, we must make it clear that this article is not a pessimistic one which dismisses technology altogether. Just that we would like to make it clear that striving to use technology to solve all problems must be based on realistic assumptions and as the subsequent articles detail, the internet can indeed be used to deliver infinite progress provided some of the conditions discussed here are met.
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Continuous Improvement and Business Process Re-Engineering
February 12, 2025
