Welcome! We are honored that you came…
We are Prometheus Endeavor, a group of seasoned executives, technologists, and advisors aspiring to bring our knowledge and experience to the thorniest of problems – the continued rapid advance of computer-based technologies and the turbulence they create in society and commerce.
As is too well known, technology is a two-edged sword:
- The marvel of having the world’s knowledge in our purse or pocket is diminished by factions who create disinformation that appears to originate from the most credible sources.
- The concept of Creative Destruction is celebrated in some quarters, but the human cost is enormous and painful. In the 1980s personable retailers in quaint downtowns were punished by “Big Box” chains that leveraged superior logistics and the ability to outsource to the lowest cost providers. These, in turn, have been eclipsed by eCommerce juggernauts such as Amazon that have driven prices down another notch while providing an endless aisle of choice but leaving empty storefronts and mall closures in their wake.
- Software advances continue and now routinely incorporate artificial intelligence, which permits much more timely, subtle, and accurate decision making. This rapid progress, however, does not prevent spectacular project failures that might burn up $1 billion, or worse, cause 346 fatalities as in the two Boeing 737 Max crashes.
Issues such as the Digital Divide – now seen as those who have broadband and those who don’t – continue to bedevil now that the Corona virus has suddenly plunged students and teachers into remote learning. Microsoft estimates that up to half the homes in America lack adequate network access for educational purposes at a time when schools are facing budget cuts.
Today organizations of all types struggle with the expanded and more critical scope of Digital and Information Technologies. It is our goal to provide perspectives and insights to organizations and a society wrestling with the deployment and management of those technologies.
What We Intend to Do
We are not here to admire the problem or indulge in hand-wringing. We will use our hard-won experience and knowledge to guide in areas such as:
- How to navigate the effect of technology disruption, capturing the many benefits and avoiding the painful downsides
- How specific sectors such as education and workforce might anticipate and better cope with technological change
- What types of infrastructure does the country need for this century
- What are the management models and practices do organizations need to put in place to ensure good returns on their investments as well as reliable and secure operations.
- How to mitigate and adjust to the lasting changes wrought by the Corona virus.
We will accomplish this through research reports and more timely blog posts. We will also provide podcasts and streaming broadcast discussions. We are anxious to enter into a conversation with you and to receive your comments. To that end, we may ask you to participate in surveys and data collection vehicles to create a shared knowledge base.
We look forward to having a very productive relationship.
Thank you,
The Prometheus Endeavor Team
I love your ideas. The only thing that I would add is a way to insure safety and quality of business technology. I believe bad quality is as large of a problem as safety.
Jihn,
Thank you for your comment. I am reminded of the recent disaster that befell the passengers of Boeing SuperMax flights, when the AI programs caused two fatal crashes resulting in hundreds of lives lost. It was the intersection of bad quality and safety. Normally we in IT can cause annoying outages or leave apps vulnerable to hacking, which happens frequently enough, but it is rare that we cause fatal injuries. But as IT permeates more and more fields such as the Internet of Things, safety will become even more important.
Best Regards,
Bill
Not often do we see organizations understanding how the business is all inter-connected and the impacts of changes. The legecies that have been built over decades hide what the real business is all about. The management of benefits is often left to no one.
Pierre,
I appreciate two aspects to your comments: first the difficulties in wrestling with legacy systems which frequently hamstring enterprises particularly when competitors are well funded start-ups. Ouch! Secondly, the “harvesting of benefits” which is often the reduction of workers is not done in good times but is clearly a focus when times turn bad. The covid crisis is likely to cause an on-going reduction in force, particularly as government relief fades.
Thanks,
Bill