Instead it will take many people within the company to understand what the customers are thinking. And how well they do that will be the great differentiator. Customers are a bit like fruit flies: They are evolving very, very quickly. And they are always looking for new products. A.G. Lafley is the CEO of Procter and Gamble. When he took over Procter and Gamble in 2002 I think. He asked the question how many engineers do we have at Procter and Gamble? They said: “We have 3.000 engineers”. He said: “How many new products do they develop?” And they gave him the number and he said: “It is not gonna work”. Because he has a billion customers and he knows how fast they change. So what he does, is to reach out to companies all over the world to partner with. Who has products that he can then bring into Procter and Gamble, transform them and then bring them to the customers. He saw the fast change in the customers.

What do you think about the opinion that it is less and less necessary to actually travel due to all the modern devices we use today to keep informed?

Colony: That is a very important issue in the United States today. Because people are shocked by the development of energy prices. Gas was four dollars a gallon that is half of what it is in Europe. But IT is doing quite well in the U.S. because IT helps to an extend to save energy. A good example for that is Cisco’s TelePresence. This is very close to actually meeting people in person. I have such a meeting next week. The person I am talking to is using this technology extensively. He claims that he is travelling half as much and is seeing twice as many people since using TelePresence. I mean with your PDA or Smartphone you probably need a human touch to begin a relationship but the technology can be very valuable to continue a relationship. So I believe that this kind of technology can help on the side of energy consumption.

What is also interesting about our use of technology is that it changes social interaction. In the future everyone will know everything about anyone. That will be unavoidable, no matter how strict privacy rules will become. I recently went to a party and I met a friend I hadn’t seen in years. So I wanted to find out her address and guess what the first thing was that came up when I googled her? A court record. I did find her address but the first thing was the court record. Today’s kids understand that. That’s why they publish so freely on social networks such as Facebook. There is just no reason not to.