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Technology & Innovation —

Can Any Business Go Virtual?

Small companies can now deploy technology that was previously reserved for large organizations so that nearly any employee can now work from anywhere.
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Businesses that lend themselves to going virtual are those where people are the key commodity. For example, consultancies and creative companies, such as marketing and PR agencies, can provide the same service to their clients regardless of where they are located. Armed with a laptop or smartphone and an Internet connection, PR and marketing consultants can still produce campaign ideas, copy and collateral, and organize meetings with journalists and analysts. Search for “virtual PR agency” and you’ll find a wealth of organizations from all over the globe.

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Guest Thinkers
Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
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