Talking Talent

In an editorial written for BBC News late last year, Bill Gates argued that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker.

“That’s true for everyone from the retail store worker who uses a handheld scanner to track inventory to the chief executive who uses business intelligence software to analyse critical market trends,” he said.

This underscores a modern-day truism: a solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career.

Gates also reminds us that a career in IT is not one where you are locked away in a dark room by yourself all day.  People skills are vital.

As Gates says “Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.”

Perhaps the most telling thing about Gates’ article on the BBC website is the feedback from readers, who hailed from everywhere from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, and from Germany to New Delhi.  They universally applauded digital technology from every corner of the globe.