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Information Technology and the Pandemic

Posted By Dave Marquard, MBA, OPM (HBS)
July 28, 2020 Category: COVID 19, COVID, Coronavirus, Pandemic, IT, Information Technology

By Dave Marquard, WEMCO Tech Chair “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… five minutes.”                        ----- ALBERT EINSTEIN, DECEMBER 19,1917     Much has changed over the past century since Einstein made this observation. But one fact has not changed: how well you define a problem determines how well you solve it. I have had the distinct honor and privilege of writing this column for several years now and none of them have been more important to me than this one. This is because none of us have ever faced a personal and business crisis in our lifetimes like COVID-19. I was a cop in Ohio before I started my businesses and I thought I had seen everything too horrible to mention. But this disease is different.  It has touched the lives and businesses of everyone on this planet in a way that challenges and frightens on a scale I never imagined possible.  So how do we best manage our welding businesses in the COVID-19 era? It’s tricky because the virus is new and we have to make decisions in such a potentially lethal environment. Using today’s Information technology (IT) to make wise decisions is an obvious “Go To” strategy to employ. IT has enabled the w