Techno-dream v. human touch?

Special Report: Entrepreneurs Forum

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This week's Entrepreneurs Forum debated the question: How can new media and technology support entrepreneurial businesses?

Entrepreneur Tom Hughes was guest speaker at the forum. Tom established Milkround Online - a graduate recruitment website - in 1996. The site allows university students who subscribe to keep up-to-date with jobs being offered by graduate recruiters.

Tom made a number of interesting comments, his key argument to the group being:

"Whatever the IT development is - faxes, blackberry, i-Phone - it is simply about improving communications and productivity."

"We are in an industry where communication and relationships are what we aim to develop, but often technology gets in the way rather than empowering. Yes, it helps with communication to a point, but it can create barriers and misunderstandings. I have had situations where I could have given access to results and making changes, but didn't to increase the relationship side. My argument would be: don't go down the techno-dream route and automate everything out of existence. People pay a premium for the human touch."

The forum's discussion raised a number of questions:

"You can't not use IT, but I do find that the more you do the more you have to do. Whether it is writing a specification or developing the software you always need to take it to the next level. How do you manage that?"

"Should IT be insourced or outsourced?"

"How do you innovate?"

"Has the recession been a catalyst for change in terms of your approach to technology?"

"I'm an entrepreneur, not an IT person. So it is quite difficult to do when you know little about it - how do you find that link?"

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