Living with the Myth of Unattainable Technology

Abstract

In the hype following the new economy in the last years of the 1990s, ‘the new technology’ was introduced (once more!) as a force that would profoundly change the world. Almost everyone, at least according to media reports, believed in the promises it offered. The new technology would lead to a globalized prosperity; it would change the very foundations of people’s lives; and it would change beyond recognition the ways in which business was done (Howcroft, 2001). Even if this appeal was not the first of its kind in the history, no one would risk ignoring it. In the descriptions of late modern societies furnished by sociologists Ulrich Beck (1986) and Anthony Giddens (1999), technology and technological changes are an inevitable part of contemporary life. It has been a common belief since the Enlightenment that science and technological inventions are the rational tools that will provide a better life for people and society. Answering to the tune of our times, Jacques Nasser, CEO of Ford Motor Company between January 1999 and October 2001, assigned consultants from McKinsey to investigate which of the new technologies could be used within Ford. After 90 days, the consultants furnished the answer: e-business for purchase procedures! Thus Jac Nasser decided that e-business would place Ford in a good position within the new economy. However, promises of the e-business system turned out to be a myth rather than a description of actual purchasing in the real world of buying car parts.