Kewney: Alone after all this time

Our celebrated pundit looks back to how he became the solitary voice of the back page

As IT Week is celebrating its 10th birthday this week, I’ve been having a look back at my very first column from the launch issue. I chose to write about the topic of IT and business alignment, and the column highlighted how some IT directors were getting the sack for not meeting the business objectives of their employer.

According to my words of wisdom at the time, this was because “many IT directors know a fair bit about the latest technology, but very little indeed about which corporate functions are in need of automation”.

Fortunately things have moved on a bit over the past decade, and many IT chiefs are now embracing business objectives and non-technical skills.

Looking back to my first column also made me remember the slightly strange way my weekly slot came about. I never meant to write a regular column for IT Week, you know. When I heard about the launch of a new magazine aimed at the IT professional, I informed the publisher that my job as editorial fellow at the company meant he could call on my services, if he liked.

“Oh. Well, we might use you once in a while, thanks,” he mumbled. But as the launch date loomed, it became clear that the format for the final editorial page wasn’t really working. The publisher decided that what was needed was a rotating back-page column. “We’ll have four contributors, and each will do one slot a month,” he said.

Then, with the launch just days away, I got a call: “Look, do you mind doing issue number one?” I said I’d be happy to, not realising quite what I was letting myself in for. Gradually it dawned on me that the publisher hadn’t found three other writers to share the slot. Fair enough, I thought, I’ll carry on solo until the right people surface.

In the end, the decision not to appoint any more back-page writers never quite became a “decision”. As is often the case, some of the most successful plans are things that “just happen” while the great schemes – like Compaq taki ng over DEC or Year 2000 disasters – fizzle away. And as with much in this industry, things don’t change as much as you think.