ABSTRACT
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after twenty-six years, the world had changed dramatically. In the dozen years since Mandela’s release the rate of change has, if anything, increased further. Consumers purchase goods with credit cards swiped through automated card readers. Purchase information is recorded and transmitted so that retail stocks can be replenished. Banks close their branches as customers withdraw cash through automated telling machines. Computers send out automatic letters to customers exceeding their overdrafts. Loyalty cards enable retailers to collect customer information from which detailed profiles can be drawn, electronically of course. Personal banking was superseded by telephone banking, itself now being chased by PC and internet banking. Indeed, personal banking is now being reintroduced as a ‘value added service’. With a plethora of goods from which to choose, customers have become more demanding, less tolerant of sloppy service or of delays. As the change occurs incrementally we hardly notice it, but for Nelson Mandela the changes must have been immense. In his autobiography he describes how on his release a television crew ‘thrust a long, dark and furry object at me. I recoiled slightly, wondering if it were a new fangled weapon developed while I was in prison. Winnie informed me that it was a microphone’ (Mandela, 1994: 673). Change, fuelled by new information and communication technology (ICT) may be seen as a constant. Greater reliance on technology and on fellow members of the organizational supply chain has increased the potential for interruptions. The need to ensure business continuity has never been greater.
