Global CIO: Apple's iPad, Electric Cars, And Runaway CEOsGlobal CIO: Apple's iPad, Electric Cars, And Runaway CEOs

Hewlett-Packard says its new data-center technology offers twice the density and half the power consumption of Cisco's competitive products. So why shouldn't HP CEO Mark Hurd—and, for that matter, Cisco CEO John Chambers—begin "negotiating with the U.S. government to make sure we have a reasonable return on our investments and continue to develop the technology" behind products that keep data centers from boiling the oceans?

The future is not written; it is ours to make. And as we continue forward with that creative process, we should bear in mind that every generation feels supremely confident that it will not fall prey to the blunders of the past. Because I'm an inveterate optimist, I believe the technology business has the potential to avoid repeating the mistakes of history; however, because I'm also a realist, I know that such potential does not translate automatically into actual achievement.

So this crazy computer business, which has been unmatched in human history in its ability to "develop the technology" while also realizing "a reasonable return on our investments," must resist in every conceivable fashion the deadly temptation to begin "negotiating with the U.S. government to make sure we have a reasonable return on our investments and continue to develop the technology" of tomorrow.

Just look at what such an approach has done to the automobile industry.

RECOMMENDED READING: Global CIO: Calling Oracle And IBM Outdated, Tibco Launches Enterprise 3.0 Global CIO: Hewlett-Packard Attacks Innovation Gridlock That's Killing CIOs Global CIO: SAP's Hasso Plattner On Databases And Oracle's Larry Ellison Global CIO: Wal-Mart Picks SuccessFactors For Largest Enterprise Deal Ever Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010 Bob Evans is senior VP and director of information's Global CIO unit.

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