Intel CEO keynote leave some listeners wondering

Craig Barrett, Intel CEO, took his turn at bat on Tuesday afternoon at the Oracle World conference in San Francisco. Barrett is part of a star-studded show that also includes keynotes by Dell’s Michael Dell, Sun’s Scott McNealy, and Hewlett Packard’s Carly Fiorina

Barrett’s address to a huge audience of Oracle customers had two distinct messages, with only a thin thread tying them together.

Message one from Barrett was that the United States lacks a “coherent plan” for the digitization of business. And failing that, the United States and Europe will lose its competitive edge to Asia, particularly India and China.

If the audience, consisting of Oracle customers from around the world, were in anyway disturbed by that message there was no way to tell.

Barrett ticked off the four components for success in the world economy: an IT infrastructure, big R&D budgets, creativity, and an educated work force.

Barrett then went on to say that in each of those four areas China and India are making huge strides. He said that if Taiwan with only a population of 25 million on a small island had a huge impact on the world economy, imagine what will happen when China and India start to make gains in educating its population, building a brand new IT infrastructure, and rewarding creativity. At the same time, Barrett noted that the governments of these countries are behind a growing budget for research and development.

Barrett concluded this portion of his speech by saying that with the economy in the doldrums IT will have to do more with less or “suffer the consequences” of world competition.

The second message left some in the audience scratching their heads. The theme of the message was “IT counts.” Barrett juxtaposed the argument for his message against the recent Harvard Business Review article that said IT does not count.

Barrett went on for about a half hour telling the audience consisting of IT experts why IT counts. One audience member was heard distinctly by those around him when he moaned and said, “next he’s going to tell us why water counts.”

And indeed, the message seemed unusual in the setting of a major high tech conference.

Linking these two messages was the thought that if the United States and Europe behave as if IT doesn’t count the rest of the world will have their way with us.

Perhaps there was a hidden message, however. Barrett never said technology counts, or high tech counts, he stayed strictly with the phrase IT counts. The message to the faithful was possibly that IT must play a key role in the process of developing business strategies for their companies–not a particularly new message– and IT should not be delegated to the backroom along with the HVAC units.

If this was indeed the message it would have been better delivered in a more direct manner, in this reporter’s opinion.