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Star Trek and the risk business of IT

By | September 8, 2011, 12:36pm PDT

Summary: Where are the Kirks and Star Treks of this generation? Maybe this speech provides inspiration

As the conference season swings into action once again, I wonder how many of the enterprise vendors out there will be reminded of Captain James T Kirk’s stirring speech?

I can think of a few that have morphed from once being genuine pioneers bringing fundamental change to that of addict, sucking relentlessly on the teat of maintenance revenue; hoping against hope that their giant size keeps them immune from landscape change.

But to continue with stellar metaphors, astro physicists tell us that red giants eventually burn out.

For me, that conference season starts Monday with SAP TechEd…just sayin’

Inspiration courtesy of Derya Unutmaz - an academic at NYU School of Medicine and found on Google Plus. As he says:

where are the Kirks and Star Treks of this generation?

Name yours in talkback

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Dennis Howlett has been providing comment and analysis on enterprise software since 1991.

Disclosure

Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett is committed to maintaining the independent and opinionated stance that his writings are well known for and does not enter into contracts that would limit his freedom of expression in any way. However it is important in the interests of full disclosure to inform readers of those relationships so they can form their own judgment. This page therefore lists all Dennis Howlett’s current business relationships.

Dennis’s consulting arrangements occasionally bring him into direct or indirect business relationships with some of the companies about which he writes, and/or their competitors. Where such a relationship exists, it is disclosed at the end of any article that references the company concerned.

Dennis owns AccMan, an independently produced blog covering the professional services market, primarily focused on Europe. It is currently sponsored by selected TextLink Ads and named sponsors in the ‘Sponsored Content’ block.

He is a member of Enterprise Advocates, a loose association of consultants, and analysts who are concerned with the buyer side of the buy-sell enterprise relationship.

He is a paid contributor to IT Counts, a site dedicated to discussing technology issues as they related to ICAEW members. He also advises ICAEW on certain aspects of its member outreach programs.

He is an SAP Mentor and participates in SAP Mentor webinars. He has recently produced a guide for SAP resellers wishing to record customer videos. Other than as disclosed here, Dennis maintains no business relationship with SAP and is not financially rewarded for his role as a Mentor.

Dennis maintains relationships with a range of end user organizations and in all cases is subject to non-disclosure agreement. He has no current ‘paid for’ relationships with ITC vendors except as disclosed above although certain vendors comp travel and expenses claims. For the benefit of doubt, T&E reimbursement is a common practice among European based writers. It is often the only way we can attend important events. Even so it doesn’t impact our analysis of what vendors have to say. If you believe otherwise then feel free to ignore what is written here.

Except as mentioned above, Dennis has no other investments in any tech industry participants. This page last updated 23rd February, 2010.

Biography

Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett has been providing comment and analysis on enterprise software since 1991 in a variety of European trade and professional journals including CFO Magazine, The Economist and Information Week. Today, apart from being a full time blogger on innovation for professional services organisations, he is a founding member of Enterprise Irregulars and an investor in a European start-up. Prior to, Dennis was technology and tax partner in a British firm of Chartered Accountants for 10 years. Prior to that held various senior finance roles across a broad range of industries.

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RE: Star Trek and the risk business of IT
mschafer555 9th Sep
Dennis: StarTrek and Kirk? C'mon, how old is the ZDNet demographic? Is there nothing more current, like Katy Perry?

happy
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He was wrong though. The first Apollo mission didn't make it to the moon. It was never intended to.
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Contributr
Heh - maybe we could rewrite IT history in similar terms?
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Star Trek was socialist (the great irony of a well loved US show). Money didn't exist and motivation was improving yourself and setting new challenges.

Kirk was trained in an academy, as were all the crew and passed numerous tests to get to that post. He also had the backing of the Federation behind him.

Contrast this to "entrepreneurs" using other people's money with other people's work and ideas to feather their own nest. Or looking to advertising and packaging companies to make a great leap forward.

Thanks heaven we have MS. because there's bugger all intelligent life outside it wink
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@tonymcs@...

The whole "there's no money, everything's either available from government stores or via replicator technology" didn't show up until ST:TNG & later episodes. ST:TOS, on the other hand, had episodes that showed financial transactions, most likely involving money. Specifically, check out: #6 (Mudd's Women) & #76 (The Cloud Minders), for examples of Kirk negotiating to obtain materials, as opposed to simply appropriating them via his authority as a Federation agent; #42 (The Trouble With Tribbles), where a free trader & a bartender discuss repayment of a bar tab; & #49 (A Piece of the Action), where Kirk specifically sets up a situation where the Federation will collect a percentage of cash annually, invest the money in a trust fund, & use it to help educate the planet's population to move it away from its "gangster" template.
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I'm not sure who or where the Kirks (or Pickards) are, but some of us are trying to train the next generation of them. See http://business.samford.edu/news.aspx?id=21474838173
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Sorry...that should have been "Picards"
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Dennis: StarTrek and Kirk? C'mon, how old is the ZDNet demographic? Is there nothing more current, like Katy Perry?

happy

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