What do California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Technologies’ chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan have in common?
At first blush, the answer would seem to be, “nothing.” As a 7-time world bodybuilding champion, action movie star, and now chief executive of the most populous state in the U.S., Arnold is one of the world’s most recognizable celebrities, famous for big muscles, big ticket sales, and big political positions.
On the other hand, if you passed Gopalakrishnan, known as Kris, in the street, in an airport, or even sat next to him at an adjacent table in a restaurant, it is highly unlikely you would know that this short, ordinary-looking man runs a $4 billion company with more than 105,000 employees worldwide.
But as became clear last week at OpenWorld, Oracle’s huge annual user conference held in San Francisco, the two men do share something important: a belief that the road to the future is paved with advanced technology.
In a speech on Wednesday at OpenWorld, Schwarzenegger talked about how technology was a key factor in advancing his careers in both bodybuilding and the movies. When he came to the U.S. in the 1960s, he said, the bodybuilding equipment he found here was far more advanced than what he had been using in his native Austria. And when he went into acting, digital technology enabled much of the success of his Terminator movies.
Schwarzenegger went on to detail the myriad innovations coming from California-based companies — he couldn’t resist, of course, plugging two obvious native sons, Oracle and Sun (Oracle is in the process of acquiring Sun) — that will help drive California into the future.
Gopalakrishnan, in a speech entitled, “Seven Game-Changing Trends,” told OpenWorld attendees that IT-led innovation is the path to a brighter future. He said that such trends as architecting adaptive organizations, sustainability, pervasive computing, shifting from value chains to value webs, and creating smarter organizations through collaborative learning are all reshaping our world.
He urged his listeners to create what he called “single digital nervous systems” in their companies and organizations in order to progress. “IT-led innovation will deliver the next generation of growth, profitability, and asset utilization,” he said.
Two very different men from two different worlds with a common vision of the future. Makes you feel pretty good, doesn’t it? Maybe we might just get there.
Strange Bedfellows: Arnold and Infosys
What do California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Indian outsourcing giant Infosys Technologies’ chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan have in common?
At first blush, the answer would seem to be, “nothing.” As a 7-time world bodybuilding champion, action movie star, and now chief executive of the most populous state in the U.S., Arnold is one of the world’s most recognizable celebrities, famous for big muscles, big ticket sales, and big political positions.
On the other hand, if you passed Gopalakrishnan, known as Kris, in the street, in an airport, or even sat next to him at an adjacent table in a restaurant, it is highly unlikely you would know that this short, ordinary-looking man runs a $4 billion company with more than 105,000 employees worldwide.
But as became clear last week at OpenWorld, Oracle’s huge annual user conference held in San Francisco, the two men do share something important: a belief that the road to the future is paved with advanced technology.
In a speech on Wednesday at OpenWorld, Schwarzenegger talked about how technology was a key factor in advancing his careers in both bodybuilding and the movies. When he came to the U.S. in the 1960s, he said, the bodybuilding equipment he found here was far more advanced than what he had been using in his native Austria. And when he went into acting, digital technology enabled much of the success of his Terminator movies.
Schwarzenegger went on to detail the myriad innovations coming from California-based companies — he couldn’t resist, of course, plugging two obvious native sons, Oracle and Sun (Oracle is in the process of acquiring Sun) — that will help drive California into the future.
Gopalakrishnan, in a speech entitled, “Seven Game-Changing Trends,” told OpenWorld attendees that IT-led innovation is the path to a brighter future. He said that such trends as architecting adaptive organizations, sustainability, pervasive computing, shifting from value chains to value webs, and creating smarter organizations through collaborative learning are all reshaping our world.
He urged his listeners to create what he called “single digital nervous systems” in their companies and organizations in order to progress. “IT-led innovation will deliver the next generation of growth, profitability, and asset utilization,” he said.
Two very different men from two different worlds with a common vision of the future. Makes you feel pretty good, doesn’t it? Maybe we might just get there.