RehanKhan.com

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 3^rd January 2011.

Information technology often brings together innovative hobbyists seeking “to do some good”. Over a period of time their labours of love create new industry elements the rest of us consume. The technology migrates from accessible free channels created by entrepreneurs to tightly controlled ones managed by a few corporations for which the pursuit of profit is the driving force. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 20^th December 2010.

Anyone who has read of the adventures of Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, can only have been left with a sense of wonderment as to the mysteries of the deep. The journey to an incredible underwater forest, a visit to the lost city of Atlantis and a ferocious fight with a giant squid are all memorable sequences in the novel. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 15^th November 2010.

One of the pleasures of dealing with a small entrepreneurial business is the energy and enthusiasm that one encounters, particularly from its founders. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 8^th November 2010.

It is often said small organisations are more innovative. Yet to bring about significant change, large organisations must also innovate. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 1^st November 2010.

If you are an aficionado of Apple computers, then is this a great time or what? Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 18^th October 2010.

The lore of Star Trek postulates the existence in space of an Alpha quadrant, home to the United Federation of Planets – called simply “the Federation”.  There is also, among three others, a Delta quadrant dominated by villainous cybernetic humanoid drones, the Borg, whose raison d’etre is to acquire new species and assimilate them into the Borg collective. Prior to acquisition, the target species are candidly told “resistance is futile”.

These two fictional quadrants are an extremely accurate pop-culture metaphor for the telecommunications industry – the Alpha quadrant – and the IT industry – the Delta quadrant. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 20^th September 2010.

Stand in any public thoroughfare and you will notice at least half the business people present are surfing online. They are with you in body but not in mind.  Plugged into their mobile phone and smart devices, they are uploading a post on a social networking site, chatting with friends in forums, responding to e-mails and, on the rare occasion, doing some work for their organisations. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 16^th August 2010.

The seventh commandment of Animalism, the laws put in place by the animals after they’d overthrown the humans and taken control in George Orwell’s political satire Animal Farm, was: “All animals are equal.” But once the pigs became corrupted with power and greed they added “… but some animals are more equal than others”. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 9^th August 2010.

I can guarantee you this. Whether you like it or not, you’ve done it. You’ve completed one. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 2^nd August 2010.

The British game show host Bruce Forsyth was known for asking his audience on Play Your Cards Right, “What do points make?”, to which they would shout back in unison, “Prizes!” Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 5^th July 2010.

There is a company that generates 97 per cent of its revenue from a single source. Some say it is persuasive, others call it manipulative. It permeates almost every aspect of our lives and many of us fear that it holds too much sway over the minds of our children. The company is Google and the source of the revenue is advertising. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 17^th May 2010.

Technology is converging all around us. Where is it headed? Nobody knows. What does it mean to our lives? Nobody knows. But its allure is beguiling. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 1^st March 2010.

Case, the flawed anti-hero of William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, is desperate to link his brain through a computer interface back into cyberspace. If executives attending last month’s Mobile World Congress have their way, we’ll all end up like Case, craving to be hooked up to smart devices. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 27^th December 2009.

Power to the people has been a rallying cry for many a movement, but sometimes people power can seriously backfire, as Toyota Australia found out last week. The venerable mid-market, safety-first, value-for-money car maker had what can only be described as a blowback in its tailpipe. Read more »

By Rehan Khan. Published in The National www.thenational.ae on 2nd December 2009.

Is it too far fetched to imagine that in the near future a ratings agency will come up with a ranking system for business professionals? Read more »