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In this world of ubiquitious online access I was stunned to come across some small business managers who were dogmatically convinced they had to use their mobile phone as a modem for their laptop, to dial an ISP, in order to pull e-mail.

That’s probably not uncommon, but when I offered alternatives which were both faster and cheaper they strongly argued that BlackBerry was a “gimmick” and that the real key to e-mail anywhere was Bluetooth – their explanation being their laptop could use their mobile phone as a modem via a Bluetooth connection.

It gets sadder; they smiled at me sagely, this obvious knowledge they possessed arising because they “can’t be without e-mail” and because they are such “heavy” e-mail users. (Although, I noted some irony that they could only read an e-mail if they first printed it, and then usually didn’t reply because the hardcopy just had the sender’s display name, not e-mail address.)

Now, I can appreciate people have different understandings of technology and different levels of tech-savviness. What shocks and surprises me though is when we talk about management. These are people I presume surely must have business acumen, people who surely must be sharp minded, and not the least people who would want information at the speed of thought. I guess not. And that’s the thing which I have the hardest time comprehending.