Publisher’s Note: In 2019, Ardent Partners is celebrating 10 years of delivering “Research with Results” to Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) and other readers of this site, including published reports, eBooks, presentations, insights, articles and events. To commemorate the occasion, we are going to reflect on the firm’s first decade by presenting this weekly “throwback” series that will include a blend of top articles from our earlier days on this site. Despite procurement’s recent advances, we believe these articles are as topical and relevant as the day they were published. Enjoy!
Take a second and think about a bridge, any bridge, your favorite bridge if you have one (do people have favorite bridges?).
Although I’ve spent a fair amount of time near Pont Neuf (where Jason Bourne set a rendezvous in the “Identity”) and the other 36 bridges that cross the Seine, I guess my favorite bridge is the Charles Bridge in Prague, although I was only there briefly a long time ago, it was/is very memorable to me.
Driving the Northeast corridor on I-95, may get you thinking about the “GW” Bridge, while fans of the B’s & C’s see the Tobin Bridge in their dreams. Neither of those US bridges is as famous as the Golden Gate; the Brooklyn Bridge is so interesting that Ken Burns made a documentary about it. I wonder if Italians argue about the Rialto and the Ponte Vecchio and which is better. But whether you like the Sio se Pol, the DaZhi, or the covered one by a nearby lake, it is a safe bet that we are all comfortable using bridges.
Bridges are not something we would normally think of as technology. Yes, there are design and engineering requirements, but we accept bridges as simple structures that enable passage and think of them as transportation infrastructure. This was not always the case. Thousands of years ago, bridges were cutting edge technology and many people died before bridge builders began understanding and then perfecting their craft/science.
Maybe bridge usage and adoption is not a perfect analogy with software because bridges can be somewhat complex (using stairs or chairs, however, would not have provided an opportunity for the visual links above); but, the point is, that when things exist from the start (or your start), using them (or adopting them) is just normal. Things that are introduced early in your career/life are more intriguing, in part, because you are open to new ideas. At some point, however, new things become more disturbing and since they require real “change,” we take our time learning or adopting them…. at least until we’re very sure that they are here to stay.
Think about email. When did you get your first personal account? your first corporate account? Did you use email in high school or college? Where you were in your life (literally and figuratively) when email was first introduced to you and what forms of communication you were using at the time are probably two big determinants in how you use email today. For example, some universities no longer issue email accounts to incoming students. (Life without email?!?)
Where were you in your life in 2000 – 2005 (literally and figuratively) when the supply management solutions started gaining steam within Global 2000 companies and how were you managing your part of the Source-to-Settle process at that time? How long had you been working in supply management when you became aware of these solutions? Were they intriguing or disturbing? What do you think about them today? Are you older or younger than forty years old? than fifty? under thirty? Do you think there is a correlation between your answers?
Are we dealing with a technology gap or a generational gap? How do we bridge it?
This article originally published on CPO Rising on July 28, 2011.
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