Technology Observations by Peter Coffee
I stumbled on an interview with Peter Coffee, VP of salesforce.com, and was intrigued with his observations on technology innovations and their impact on human
behavior and collaboration. Here are a few videos of his where I quoted some his more fascinating statements. The video marks that follow the video are where he made these statements and are marked for
context.
Videos
Mark 4:02 - (5:15) - 7:45 : When talking about the future of software development and speaking as if he was talking to a developer he says, "Your job here is to craft an experience and an outcome...maybe you'll write some code once in a while."
Mark 0:24-0:54 : At this point the real challenge and" opportunity, are at least as much, probably much more, in the realm of organizational behavior and culture and the way we engage with the people we serve rather instead of thinking that the solution is going to be in the deployment of new technology."
Mark 5:50 : While talking with a company whose company's slogan was "People for process automation", Peter advised, "Automating a process use to be an accomplishment. But unless today you're for 'people for process improvement', 'people for process performance', 'people for process intelligence', then you are really aiming at where the puck use to be. You need to be asking yourself "how do I make things smarter and not just bigger."
Mark 3:25 : Peter re-quotes an observation about the determinants of power, citing first generation power was muscle-based, second-generation power was army-based, third was factory-based, but now fourth-generation power is network-based. He then goes on to ask the rhetorical question: "How big and rich is [your] network?" Peter quickly follows with an observation "All those people's brains have become part of yours," and concludes that any other kind of business plan that does not acknowledge and leverage this reality just "doesn't make sense."
Mark 28:25 : "I don't want ease-of-use in my employees where everything I tell them to do they do.... I want employees who understand the goal and take appropriate action. [And], I want devices that do the same."
