It means that most successful companies have learned how to manage information effectively using computer technology. We no longer expect to gain a significant advantrage over our competitiors by deploying SAP or Oracle or any other software or hardware package. The Information Systems department is no longer in charge of economic growth.

Wealth in this new economy will not be created by the deployment of things or the implementation of cookie-cutter programs. Wealth will be created through the creative discoveries of people.

Successful companies in the 21st century will treat all facets of their operation as creative projects. Any company that intends to be a major player in its industry must be prepared to do things in a way that is fundamentally different and better than its competitors. This means that companies must create corporate environments that foster the creation of what I call Eureka! moments.

Eureka! moments don't just happen. They are generated by the intersection of diverse ideas and cultures. There is a reason graduate schools like to admit students from other undergraduate programs. They realize that creative discovery, the basis of graduate study, is hard to find among a group of people who all learned their trade in the same place. In essence, graduate schools are demonstrating that good research requires diversity of academic culture.

It is not much different in the corporate sector. A trip to the patent office will show that a disproportionate number of the most revolutionary inventions of the past 150 years were created by minorities -- for example, electric lighting (the lead engineer on Edison's light project, who also holds the patent on the filament that made electric lighting commercially viable, was African-American), the traffic signal, self-lubricating journal bearings (the Real McCoy), the ventilator and the Walkie-Talkie. Even today, more than half of the patents on IBM's new copper semi-conductor technology are held by a single African-American.

Are minorities that much more creative than non-minorities? I tend to think not. People who have completely different life experiences usually have fundamentally different views of the world. When such people intereact,they are forced to view things from multiple perspectives and re-examine the basic presumptions of their own world views. These skills foster creativity. Inasmuch as minorities in corporate America are nearly always surrounded by people with different life experiences, their presence actually creates an environment that fosters creativity. In a sense, minorities are walking Eureka! momentent catalysts.

The Information Technology industry suffers from a lack of ethnic diversity. This is part of the reason Bill Gates is committing so much money to help introduce minority youth to advanced technology. He sees them as a vast untapped market for Microsoft products and as a huge pool of prospective Microsoft employees.

As the St. Louis area seeks to re-establish itself as a major economic center, it makes sense to examine the future of information technology and how that will affect our businesses, our schools and our communities.

Black Data Processing Associates has recently held a series of town hall meetings on information technology and the minority community called the "St. Louis Summit." We talked about developing solutions to problems that face St. Louis, including training the St. Louis workforce to be prepared for IT jobs. But, at its most basic, these sessions are about bringing in new talent so this area can share Eureka! moments with other areas of the country.