Source: ‘People’s Daily’ June 20, 2007

The 4th MIT CIO (Chief Information Officer) Symposium was recently held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA. It attracted more than 500 CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and other senior executives from companies all over the world. Along with MIT professors, scholars, and government officials, there were representatives from investment banks. Discussions about major projects and trends in the IT industry in recent times were on the agenda. This year’s theme was entitled “A Social Web Influences Competitive Strength: Personnel, Partner, Process.” It was noted that the participants were aware that a social web has begun to play an important role in daily life and indeed, in commercial activities. As participants took part in 8 Symposiums, they made every effort to network and establish future business relationships. Many companies took the opportunity to display their new products and technologies. Some users were introduced to the latest IT strategies, business models and new products in a variety of fields by direct communication. Investment banks also had the opportunity to seek out new and potential investments.

“We have entered the on-demand and self-service era, which will bring us both rewards and risks. Consequently, a successful entrepreneur is supposed to realize and quickly adapt to the impacts these changes will make on strategic agendas, business models and individuals.” Charlie Feld, the EDS Vice President in charge of portfolio management, pointed out in his address. Erik Brynjolfsson was the first researcher and founded the theory that there was a Relationship between IT and Production Efficiency. He is also the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business and a renowned IT Economics Professor. He demonstrated how to make full use of social networks to improve efficiency in the production of both company and information staff. Jill Padwa, President and co-Founder of RevCat, told participants that business leaders are studying how to enhance company competitiveness through a social web network. She said, “Enterprises need certain support and organizations to enhance information and knowledge sharing. In this way, social webs are expected to greatly promote the Production Efficiency”. The CIO of GE Plastics, introduced GE’s information exchange center which was set up to cultivate its own field experts, and promote an internal social web and information exchange combined with desirable remuneration.

Another feature of this conference is the references to China from leaders of the enterprises when they talk about IT development strategy. The representatives above each noted the continuous rapid development of China’s economy. Landi Zaga, a representative of MIT’s media lab talked about the application of moving communication technology in the enterprises, “There are far more cell phones in China than computers. How will this affect the decision-making and next steps of CEOs?”

David Teten, the author of Shaking Hands on the Internet, and a Web 2.0 expert, is also the CEO of the Nitron Circle of Experts, said, “more and more people are using mobile phones instead of surfing on the internet. Cell phones, as the communication method most widely used in China, will show distinct advantages in a future web 3.0 wave. How to take advantage of these networks of mobile phones to build a social network is worth consideration by enterprises, CIO’s and related departments. When enterprises reach a certain stage of development, traditional management will be unable to meet the needs of the actual situation. How to apply information technology to achieve management standardization and improve operating efficiency will become a major new issue. If an enterprise is not prepared for the establishment of a management information system, it will be difficult to achieve success in this era of increasingly fierce competition. I hope to see more Chinese entrepreneurs attending similar international summits: to exchange their views in the world’s first-class seminars; to build relationships with global enterprise leaders and academics from diverse countries; to participate in social networks; to obtain the latest information; to learn from experiences that already exist; and to put these experiences into practice in their domestic companies; to promote the internal production efficiency of their companies; and to improve their international competitiveness.”