Happily Sad

"I am sorry if this SMS disturbed you while you were

sleeping, or driving, or in an important meeting, or at a dinner. This is just

to wish you a very Happy New Year"

Out of the scores of Happy New Year 2007 SMSs that I got, this

one set me wondering. As 2007 sets in, is mobility becoming all pervasive? Is

this going to be the year of mobility?

I am very sure, that it will be. Actually, not just 2007, but

2008, and then 2009 and most probably, the next few years after that will also

be about mobility. The number of people you will see with cell phones, laptops,

PDAs, smart phones, pen-drives, iPods ....the list is endless, is will go up

like nobody's business.

However, I am happy as well as worried with this mobility buzz.

As I see the big benefits from mobility reaching out to more and more people, I

also cannot miss the problems emanating from mobile computing and

communications. I am happy because we will see more new technologies coming into

the country and getting adopted. And therefore the overall size of the industry

will expand, and there will be more opportunities for buying and selling.

Mobility will not just equip CEOs better to win deals, it will improve earnings

of electricians, vegetable vendors and taxi drivers.

What scares me, unfortunately, is the dark side of mobility.

Thanks to mobility, today credit card companies and banks can call anybody,

anywhere, anytime (at his or her expense) and literally trick him into accepting

credit cards and car loans on terms and conditions that are often misleading. As

of now there is no law or policy to protect citizens from these types of brazen

fraud. At the moment nobody, including policy and lawmakers, seems to be

bothered.

The biggest threat from mobility, however, is its impact on the

work life balance, which in many cases seems to be going for a complete toss.

Especially for those whose office pays for their mobile phone bills, and have

also provided them with a laptop. These executives are more efficient now,

taking faster and better decisions, and almost always available to superiors,

colleagues, and customers. But their availability to their family and friends

has gone down.

One possible reason for this is that we still have this

historical mindset about being "physically" present at a particular

place to take decisions. For instance, I was trying get my printer manufacturer's

help in getting my printer serviced. All I needed was the address of their

service center and the phone numbers of the service center manager. All this was

possible over the phone, but this friend of mine kept insisting that "I am

in Kolkata, and let me get back and I will fix everything". The result was

that my job kept getting delayed, and I kept calling this friend, building

unnecessary pressure. If there has to be a meeting, our first attempt is always

to get everyone together in a room, which is mostly a challenge. We have not

started doing conference calls.

What I am complaining about is not impossible to address. I

remember very well that on a visit to Israel a few years back, I wanted to call

up a few local contacts on a Friday evening. And almost no one picked up my

call. Some of them called back next day, and explained to me that on Sabbath

days they do not do any office work. Not even take office related calls. I had a

similar experience on a recent visit to Australia. I am sure, managers and

executives in Israel and Australia also have business targets the way we have

them here. The difference I see is that they and other more mature mobility

users have learnt to leverage mobility.

The biggest challenge before us, therefore, will be to change our mindset

drastically if we really want to leverage mobility and also not get bogged down

by its anywhere, anytime reach.