Peter Cochrane: The moribund management thinking outed by Covid

Modern networking technology has revolutionised everything – not that you’d know it

Empty pockets - the new norm

As a road warrior of over 35 years, my mode of operation has been moulded by successive technology advances in clothing, luggage and online services such as bookings and e-tickets. I've always travelled with just two pieces of lightweight luggage containing all my on-the-road needs, from the hi-tech to a toothbrush. But, then came Covid and everything changed overnight.

No more my morning ritual of loading a wallet of credit cards into my left rear trouser pocket, cash to the right rear, keys to the left front and handkerchief to right front, followed by pen, comb and passport to shirt pocket, travel documents and loyalty card collection to jacket right inside pocket and mobile to the left, with business cards stowed in a small inside lower left pocket; and finally, a 2TB virtual cloud SSD in my outer right pocket.

‘Covid life' has turned out to be much sleeker: no money, passport, travel documents, loyalty cards, and only two credit cards. No virtual cloud SSD or specialised clothing and luggage. Casual dress and a small computer case - that's about it!

Apart from no international travel and very few local meetings, the biggest moves have been the virtualisation of almost everything from meetings to education and events. All shopping, including food supplies, is now online too and somehow integrated into my working day to allow greater productivity, with an estimated 30 - 50 per cent more energy expended compared to the pre-Covid days.

How come? The technical incapability of some people, along with their companies, is one big factor that is holding us back. Some are so far behind what I see as the norm it beggars belief. The good news? They are all having to change and get up to speed really fast in order to survive.

Also on the upside, decades of retarded management thinking and practice are being swept away, including a ridiculous dependence on paper documents and the 9-till-5 on-site mode.

But there is no proven business case…

However, this rapid virtualisation has laid bare decades of underinvestment in the national mobile and broadband infrastructures and revealed some serious shortcomings. Most appear to have been created by that wonderfully exuberant display of management ignorance so often recited at critical meetings as if it had been handed down on stone tablets from some management deity: But there is no proven business case."

Apart from our personal online experiences with poor connections and slow and unreliable services, the media currently need to bring people into the studio from home. Worse still is the crazy habit of conducting interviews at the side of the M6 in the pouring rain, or outside a London hospital, the MoD on Whitehall or Number 10. The pixelation errors, poor sound quality and connection dropouts do not enhance the 6 O'Clock News for sure. International connection efforts do not fare too well either!

Farewell copper mindset

This worsening situation appears to be fuelled by some key management misconceptions that go back some 100 years: "Bandwidth is expensive and should be conserved; distance is critical; and the wireless spectrum is limited and in a crisis of supply…"

This may have been true 50 years ago, but is certainly no longer the case. We can afford to waste bandwidth and spectrum as modern technology effectively renders it all infinite.

Another parliamentary enquiry or royal commission is not going to fix this any time soon, but it could be resolved by an educated regulator and educated investment, plus new entries into the network market that finally force out the copper mindset of a long-gone telco world.

Peter Cochrane OBE is professor of sentient systems at the University of Suffolk, UK