Robert Reich: The Economics of People - ' What if an IT '

But what would you say to a 50-year-old IT professional with two children whose job was just offshored?

Well, ideally that person would have continued to upgrade and change his or her skills, so that he or she would not have outmoded skills, or obsolete skills, or skills that are now going abroad. The truth of the matter is that IT is one of the most dynamic sectors in the economy. That is both an opportunity and a challenge for any IT professional. IT professionals have got to be on the lookout for continuous changes in globalization and technology, and adapt accordingly.

You are a professor. How do you convince younger people to want to take on a job that the popular press says is risky?

Well, basically I don't tell any young person what to do. But I do tell them, or suggest to them, that they assess their own personalities. Some people are risk averse by nature. They just want a steady job and a steady income; they don't necessarily want very much excitement in their lives. Other people want excitement. They want challenges. They want to learn new things. They're willing to accept some degree of risk. It's those people for whom IT provides a terrific set of possibilities.

Where do you see IT most improving productivity in the next three years?

Mostly in the area that I call "relational capital": the relationships inside a company between managers, executives, engineers and people who have certain specialized domains of knowledge. I'm talking about the capacity of groups of people to learn about their mutual skills and to build upon the insights of the group. The relationships among people take on value: Individuals know who they can go to for a particular source of wisdom. They can build on the skills of their colleagues. Certain individuals know which suppliers they can rely on. Customers can rely on certain technicians and salespeople inside the organization because they've had prior experience with those people, and have built up trust. Relational capital is one of the most important and yet most neglected areas of capital formation. Companies need to utilize IT so that everyone in an organization can take maximum advantage of everybody else. It used to be called knowledge management. It's more complicated than that, as we've all discovered. But because all other entry barriers are dropping so fast, we need IT systems that rapidly connect the right people to each other so that there are real synergies.

Blogs, wikis and social-networking software seem to be a way to build relational capital. But IT executives often worry that these technologies can cause security problems. Are they too worried?

In general, IT executives worry a little bit too much about security and not enough about creativity. Creativity, new insights about emerging problems and solutions, is more important than security because that is where the value is generated. An obsession with security looks backwards at the past, at value that's already been created. It doesn't emphasize the value in the future that creativity generates. An executive obsessed with security can completely miss the boat.

Where are IT investments most needed to achieve growth while sharing its benefits throughout society?

The healthcare industry desperately needs IT. None of the different pieces of the industry—providers, insurers, hospitals, and customers, clients, patients—are getting the right information in a timely way. For example, I just moved to California. Can my new doctor or dentist get easy access my medical records? No. Everyone's reinventing the wheel. How many times do you, as a patient, have to reenter all your basic information in hospital information systems? That's absurd. There is so much need for new efficiency in the hospital sector. I would also say that we need a lot of IT innovation in improving supply chains. A lot of attention has been given to supply chains, but basically the company of the future is going to be nothing but a supply chain. And those supply chains have to be highly functional.

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