Dear Learners,
" It's the economy, stupid."
In December 2000 people were saying, "-it was like they had hit a brick
wall, or the switch had been turned off." John Chambers CEO Cisco.
In January David Peterschmidt Chairman and CEO Inktomi explains;-) " We
expected the company to set new records for the December quarter, But, as
the finance team totted up year-end revenues, it became apparent that
something at the end of December had gone very wrong..." -" It was sudden,
a collective loss of confidence."
Mmmm.
Carly Fiorini CEO Hewlett Packard explains for his part in the "stupidity"
that " -Earlier assumptions were based on the assumption of a soft
landing. Uncertain economic conditions and the slowdown in IT spending
have forced us to revise our guidance."
Does anyone see a stable door, a confused horse that appears but may not
actually be looking for a cowboy?
Investment in all aspects of IT and IS at 60% lower levels for the
projected year over last year.
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OUCH!
30% of business polled have not predicted or accounted for economic
slowdown.
"The destruction of value in the valley has been astonishing." FT 25/01/01
Yahoo! Minus 90% of peak value from $159 billion to $14.4
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Arghhh!
"We have seen some sectors of the market fall more than in the Great
Depression." Merryll Lynch
"Share options that would have bought employees a nice house will now buy
a nice piece of furniture." Paul Abrahams
The US electricity grid is stretched to capacity and is all but bankrupt
on the western seaboard and a few weeks ago the fourth largest US bank in
the world froze.
Mr. Larry Ellison of Oracle puts it succinctly enough...There's no doubt
that corporate clients have been disappointed by the results of technology
investments."
Mmmmm.
Tarssei tous antropous ou ta prachmata, alla ta peri ton prachmaton
dochmata.
Remember the falling leaves of autumn?
Is there anyone on this list or even anyone in America who has any
constructive advice for those leading here? Peter Senge once wrote that
you could take the top fifty corporations in the US and substitute the CEO
and board for chimpanzees and it would take five years for anyone to
notice the difference to the "economy, stupid."
Does anyone know how much America has invested in what At de Lange and
others here might call or understand as 'authentic learning'?
Well, let's hope these people get to find out what those strange Greek
words above mean before the **** hits the ***.
Best wishes,
Andrew Campbell
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