The Speed Society and Its Enemies
Abstract
There was a time when computers were too slow to do more than bookkeeping and other
back office chores. Without machines to interfere in their interactions, people performed office
work like a ritual. There were set hours, dress codes, rigid hierarchies, predictable tasks and
very little emphasis on change from year to year. Nothing moved very quickly. Good companies
were stable and planned thoroughly. That was then. As computers slowly became more useful,
necessity and market forces applied them to increasingly more mission-critical tasks. By the
90's, Total Quality Management, Process Reengineering and headcount reductions driven by
the brutal pressure of corporate raiders forced organizations to look at the efficiencies that
could be gained by streamlining business processes. After almost two decades of tireless
cost-cutting and pursuit of efficiency, the relaxed and personal office life depicted on television
in the Sixties was gone forever. BI 2.0.
Download