Web wizard praises the benefits of risk

Technology managers should plan less and risk more to feed practical technology to "hungry wolves", said Mike Lynch at GigaWorld.

Last year's richest UK internet entrepreneur and chief executive of software company Autonomy, Lynch said the biggest mistake IT managers could make was to spend too much time planning for new technology, rather than just rolling it out and learning about its benefits and pitfalls over time.

"Compare it to the helicopter on the US embassy roof in Saigon for last-minute Vietnam War evacuations. Do you think the pilot stuck to a seating plan? It is more likely he got passengers quickly on board and bothered about appropriate weight distribution after take-off."

"People are like hungry wolves. If they are hungry now, you need to feed them today and not in four weeks' time. Don't waste time on long-term problems, solve them when you get there," he said.

Many visionary technologies, such as XML, still have problems that leave network managers to find practical workarounds.

But if companies accepted a little bit of risk, they would progress faster because they would learn from the faults they came across, said Lynch.

Controversially, he urged IT managers to strip projects from staff who lack enthusiasm.

"Pessimism is like graphite in a reactor - you need only a little to stop the engine," he said.