The concept of a distributed workforce and remote work is firmly entrenched in the psyche and practices of U.S. corporations and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. The number of people working virtually is expected to rise during the next 12 months, according to a new 2010 online poll conducted by Right Management. Right Management polled 330 U.S. employers in September on what change they anticipated in the number of virtual workers in their organization. The survey found that three out of four organizations already have people who work remotely, and of those employers nearly half expect their number to increase or significantly increase during the year ahead.

 

In Monday's Financial Times, guest columnists John Hagel III and John Seely Brown of the Deloitte Center for the Edge wrote of IT as a "double-edged sword." They describe IT's paradox as at once eroding profitability and providing unprecedented opportunities for value creation. By this thesis, whether a CIO can maximize the latter and avoid the former is ultimately the measure of an IT chief.