莲类4将发多大号 高级商务英语阅读 through these sort of great leaps forward.They are always a combination of a new technology that has incredibly broad applicability and the development of a business model that can exploit that new technology.There have been only three or four of these things in the last 200 years.The first was the industrial revolution,which was based on steam power and a shift to factory production. The second was at the turn of the 20th century,which was based on electric power and the development of the mass production model by Henry Ford.And now we have this information-technology revolution were seeing today. SM:You also point to Wal-Mart(WMT)as a model new-economy company. RA:Right,they were one of the pioneers in adapting information technologies to make their business more efficient.They also redesigned their whole distribution system.They built these massive stores,and to service groups of them they had their own distribution centers.They took over the supply function basically,and coordinated with the most advanced information systems. They were pioneers with all the information scanners.Now they're moving on to the radio-frequency tracking system,which I guess is the next big thing.And that's sort of the fundamental point.It's their use of technology-the technology is an enabling device SM:You argue that only during the last few years have we seen the information-technology revolution adding to productivity.To quote one of your chapter headings,"Why did it take so long?" RA:When you look at the gestation period with the development and utilization of electricity,it was very long,just as it was in our case.The transistor was invented in 1947,and we didn't get personal computers until the early 1980s.And we didn't learn how to use them effectively until the mid-'90s.That's when it started showing up in the data.There's a very interesting analogy between the phase in of electric power and the phase in of microelectronics.The first electricity generating plant was in Manhattan,which was set up in 1882.But productivity didn't begin to surge until after World War I.The reasons for that were similar to the reason why it took so long for computers to have a big impact on the economy.It took time for electric power to be widely distributed,and companies had to bring electric power into their factories,which had been built to utilize steam 第4页共13页高级商务英语阅读 through these sort of great leaps forward. They are always a combination of a new technology that has incredibly broad applicability and the development of a business model that can exploit that new technology. There have been only three or four of these things in the last 200 years. The first was the industrial revolution, which was based on steam power and a shift to factory production. The second was at the turn of the 20th century, which was based on electric power and the development of the mass production model by Henry Ford. And now we have this information-technology revolution were seeing today. SM: You also point to Wal-Mart (WMT) as a model new-economy company. RA: Right, they were one of the pioneers in adapting information technologies to make their business more efficient. They also redesigned their whole distribution system. They built these massive stores, and to service groups of them they had their own distribution centers. They took over the supply function basically, and coordinated with the most advanced information systems. They were pioneers with all the information scanners. Now they're moving on to the radio-frequency tracking system, which I guess is the next big thing. And that's sort of the fundamental point. It's their use of technology — the technology is an enabling device. SM: You argue that only during the last few years have we seen the information-technology revolution adding to productivity. To quote one of your chapter headings, "Why did it take so long?" RA: When you look at the gestation period with the development and utilization of electricity, it was very long, just as it was in our case. The transistor was invented in 1947, and we didn't get personal computers until the early 1980s. And we didn't learn how to use them effectively until the mid-'90s. That's when it started showing up in the data. There's a very interesting analogy between the phase in of electric power and the phase in of microelectronics. The first electricity generating plant was in Manhattan, which was set up in 1882. But productivity didn't begin to surge until after World War I. The reasons for that were similar to the reason why it took so long for computers to have a big impact on the economy. It took time for electric power to be widely distributed, and companies had to bring electric power into their factories, which had been built to utilize steam 第 4 页 共 13 页