The Agenda Setters: Technology changes balance of power

Computers are fuelling the transformation of the modern business culture and in doing so are altering the positioning of power.

That's the opinion of Paul Strassmann, an industry guru who has spent nearly half a century working with technology.

Featured as this week's Agenda Setter, he said: "Computers today are the beginning of a totally new civilisation, a new shift of wealth. The end of wealth based on capital and shifting to wealth based on knowledge is being paced by technology."

But Strassmann warned changes in business could create problems in the future. He said: "History teaches us to be very careful about major transitions because it means power shifts in society - and whenever power shifts occur there is always counter-reaction, strife and conflict and that is yet to come."

After serving in a guerrilla combat unit in Czechoslovakia in the Second World War, Strassmann began his career in technology in 1954 when he designed a method for scheduling toll collection personnel on the basis of punch-card toll receipts.

During his career, he has worked as an advisor to the US Deputy Secretary of Defence. He now works as a consultant with organisations such as AT&T, IBM and Shell. Strassman's research into IT spend is the subject of silicon.com's monthly column 'The Value Proposition'.

You can watch the full interview with Paul Strassmann in the Knowledge Management Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a37681 ).