ABSTRACT
Adventures of a Consultant in the British Computing Jungle
Dr. Hartley Millar, Management Partners, Wimbledon
Business consultancy used to be a comparatively easy job before the arrival
of computing and information technology in commercial organisations. But
in the words of one manager, this change of the landscape has put an
immovable monkey on the back of commercial consultancy. While some consultants
have not yet fully appreciated the ways in which computing has changed and is
continuing to change the business environment, there are more recent arrivals
whose backgrounds have emphasised information technology to the point where the
realities of commercial operations are misunderstood or even ignored.
The seminar will present general lessons on how to find a sensible mean and
avoid these extremes, by proceeding from particular stories and examples
(sometimes with names suppressed to protect both the innocent and the guilty).
These will be drawn from a period of experience that covers most of the
lifetime of commercial computing and information technology in Britain.
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