Ebusiness Despatches: René Carayol on diversity in business

The connected e-world of the 21st century presents us all with an unprecedented opportunity. Such a sentence, such an opening to an article is usually a preface to a barely-disguised advert for some ground-breaking technology, or an uncannily 'comprehensive methodology'.

In other words, the 21st century has begun in the same pornographic flush of excitement as we ended the 20th, and 'unprecedented opportunity' means one thing: money. How much and how quickly can we all make some e-money?

But what if there was something else to the internet beyond money? What if this conjunction of technical possibility with human imagination and ingenuity was happening for some other reason than simply to give us all alternative routes of trade and sources of revenue?

I recognise an opportunity for the business world to embrace basic human values such as equity and fairness. There is a way to by-pass the often clumsy attempts by which organisations attempted to 'manage diversity' in such formal schemes as equal opportunities and positive discrimination.

The web has no geographical barriers: We're used to making that point nowadays so it's become a bit blasé, but it's truly earth-shattering for a world constructed around physical and political space.

The death of distance may also be the death of barriers. On the internet nobody knows whether you are black, white, male, female, gay, straight - we have the opportunity to build the secular society, we have the opportunity to involve everyone.

How many times have I wanted to buy goods from South Africa, the United States, Australia and had to wait for a holiday? Now I can surf the net and someone in, say, Botswana can connect with me. That's good for me, of course, but it's also amazing for them. Everybody has the opportunity today to communicate; everybody has the opportunity to be someone. There are no 'isms'.

Take the Gambia, where my mother lives and I have recently visited, ISPs and internet cafés are replacing the archaic phone system. In a country where the post is definitely snail mail and some houses don't even have addresses, the internet has exploded. All over the West Coast of Africa people are communicating with each other in this way. It's fantastic."

One of the biggest issues and challenges with the internet is the danger that it is limited to those who have the wealth. You don't need to own a PC to get on the internet but you do need to have the financial ability to buy access. So social exclusion is a danger. All governments should make 'access for all' a priority. Just in UK plc there are many people who are excluded from e-business. These tend to be immigrants, the working class, or those who are less educated. Putting computers into schools is a critically important first step, of course. That builds awareness of the virtual world. But the advent of internet cafés and giving low or no cost entry will build communities, which has real, positive benefits for the physical world.

In commerce today we have the opportunity to be part of something amazing. I believe passionately that the digital economy will change the whole landscape - let's not exclude anyone.

At one end of the scale there are the 'silver surfers', those with large disposable income and lots of leisure time - for them the internet is a great way of satisfying curiosity for learning, accessing new experiences and, of course, shopping! At the other end of the scale are the children born into 'the word of the mouse', growing up with a mouse in their hand. I can already see the difference between my 21-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. The 21-year-old's learning is supported by help screens, which is just an extrapolation of our generation's experience: 'read the manual!' But at 10 years old, kids are intuitive; they learn as they go.

In the past, managing diversity has meant 'how do we create a diverse society that has more equal access to education?' The internet has upped the stakes. As a boy growing up in London, I belonged to a football team and we went on a trip to France. Three quarters of our team had never left London. Now those boys leave via the internet. They travel the Global Village via the internet. I had a pen friend in South Yarra and it took three weeks to exchange letters; my 10-year-old daughter has 'click friends' all over the world and the exchange is instant. Her 'click friends' could be black, white, male, female, young, and old - who knows? It doesn't matter. By being able to communicate in a way that makes those distinctions irrelevant, they are allowed to do what we are all trying to do: connect with those who share a common interest.

I will encourage my children to have friends from all over the world, breaking down cultural barriers, age barriers. Common interest is no longer religious, no longer geographical, and no longer about what social grouping you belong to. It's about what passion and ideas you can share with other human beings.

It would be a real crime to allow any peoples to miss out on this opportunity for real inclusion. In economic terms, it really is the more the merrier!

Surely there are down sides? Blips? Bubbles that burst?

We are at the outset of the electronic revolution and we need to remember that when we were at the outset of the industrial revolution machines broke down. There was scepticism, failure and despondency. It took 30 years to come into its own. The internet is five years old and getting better by the day. Yesterday's leading edge is today's obsolescence. Life is moving at an extraordinary pace now.

There is a healthy need for impatience, we cannot sit back and just allow the haves to have alone. We are moving away from UK Plc to Global Village Plc. Who can argue with that as a successful strategy for mankind?

This is absolutely the most exciting time to be in the technology industry. But all of a sudden we are not just delivering technology, we are changing lives. We are transforming businesses. We are breaking down barriers. How important does that make us? We have never had that opportunity before to create something so positive and enriching. "I used to do financial systems and now I do the world". What can be next?