Page 236 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

keeping up with the phoneses � 215

mashup networks (look up what these are—as part of your own learning
organization process—if you don’t already know) that supply a com-
bination of high-speed online software that lets us access information
anywhere the mobile worker will spend the hours of his or her day?
We are required to have the right metadata skills, those necessary to
navigate through the computerized technology jungle, to understand
the basic components of how to log in to the network, search for data,
pass data, sync data, and build data. Mobile workers, as independent
as they often are, need these skills to get by when their IT professional
is 2,000 miles away. Innovation, renewal, and transformation enable
organizations to keep up.

` metAskIll three: CollABorAtIon

Finding executives who can tell their stories regarding designing, us-
ing, selling, and producing innovative technology has been a reward-
ing experience for us and those on our team. Throughout this book
project we were able to interview executives who have made a signifi-
cant contribution to the mobile industry on the technology side and
the process of the mobile enterprise.
One of these, Steve Lamont, who we mentioned above, is a well-
respected business leader in the space of mobility, broadband, and cel-
lular communications. He follows technology and, as the president
and CEO of Wifi.com, he knows how the mobile workforce and the
average consumer is living her or his days connected into a wireless
world. “I believe that the next big breakthrough is going to be in the
area of collaboration,” he told us. “Not only do we have dispersed
and mobile workforces, but we have the need to solve problems with
people that perhaps cross-function within a company, perhaps inter-
national, perhaps a mix of customers, vendors, and suppliers. Collabo-
ration is going to be the next big breakthrough.”
The collaborative tools, Steve feels, are going to get even more
important, but so will the people skills. “We’ve got to bring the people