Total Recall - C. Gordon Bell [38]
I like to think about how Total Recall might have impacted my father’s business, Bell Electric. Dad started the company in 1933, and ran it until he had a heart attack in 1985. Bell Electric sold, installed, and repaired electrical appliances and equipment. A large NCR cash register printed a record of all the transactions that went through it. The main ledger tracked purchases, sales, electrical installations, and repairs. Bills were sent out monthly. Every year, he would close the shop for a day to take inventory.
An e-memory for Bell Electric would subsume Dad’s ledgers and various record books. All of his personal knowledge of his customers would be in customer-relations management tools. Instead of flipping through the W. W. Grainger catalog of electrical equipment, and dealing with paper orders, invoices, and receipts, Dad would order from their Web site and save all the transactions electronically. Having to order a weird replacement part for a pump would be much easier the second time around because he would instantly recall the first order. Inventory would be known continuously, and the complete history of a certain customer could be recalled in a moment. The flow of customers to the store would be analyzed to recommend the best hours to keep and when to take holidays with a minimum impact on the bottom line. Dad would know his profit by employee, by customer, and by type of job. When one employee followed up on the work of another, he’d have the former’s e-memories, and know there was a second circuit panel in the family room, that the wires had nonstandard colors in the kitchen, and not to call the customer after nine P.M. Dad would learn to manage his own time better, based on his lifelog.
The center of every organization, large or small, will be its institutional e-memory. E-memory will be the heart of customer service, human resource management, strategic planning, inventory, shipping, finance, payroll—everything. And with data mining, every aspect of operations can be analyzed and improvements formulated.
The only thing in the way of an institution’s e-memory is their legal department, who often mandate the deletion of records such as e-mail to limit liability. It remains to be seen whether lawsuit settlements can continue their mind-boggling rise to stay ahead of the value of corporate e-memory in the Total Recall era. After all, these records will also include things like alibis against some charges, and proof of an idea formed prior to a competitor’s patent. Furthermore, there is usually someone, somewhere, who has kept a copy and thwarted the lawyers’ intentions. It never pays to take lawsuits lightly, but I don’t see how corporate e-memory destruction policies can continue.
THE FAMILY ENTERPRISE
Everything I’ve said about increased productivity at work could also be applied to your personal life. You might get a lot out of understanding how you spend your leisure time, and of course wonder, “Who the hell is that?” at home just as much in the office. I know I need a cyber assistant for my personal life because I already need Vicki’s help as a personal assistant with things like travel plans for my family vacation.
And while the impact of Total Recall on your professional life will be far-reaching, the home office is where you will feel the personal payoff. The family is an enterprise, much like any business, with financial and legal matters, schedules and plans, and records to maintain. You need to keep track of family members and property such as cars, homes, and investments.
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