A few days ago, Bob Hayward wrote: "Productivity figures for developed economies in recent years clearly show that IT investment is failing to contribute as much as it used to. The easy stuff has been automated and made more efficient; now we're down to the really hard gains."

I bet that the next big wave is automation that changes the way managers, not frontline employees, work. McKinsey has written recently about the imminent arrival of "scientific management." I appreciate that the topic goes back to the beginning of the 20th century, but there is certainly big untapped potential for IT to change how executives run the show.