One of the key aspects of executive travel is the ability to not only travel to important appointments, meetings and conferences in a comfort that ensures business leaders are sharp and ready to perform but enables the ability to complete vital work on the way.
There are countless electronic tools and gadgets that are ideal for the working executive, but most of them can be traced back to the first successful portable computer that was light enough to be carried as hand luggage on a plane.
The Osborne 1, first released in 1981 by Adam Osborne and the Osborne Computer Corporation, was highly successful in no small part thanks to the bundled software it came with.
Despite an initial projection of 10,000 sales across the entire computer’s lifetime, OCC managed to sell 11,000 units in just eight months, with 50,000 more orders to fill.
However, for many business leaders, especially in the technology sector, the Osborne name is not known as a pioneering success but instead, as a cautionary tale known colloquially as the Osborne effect.
Soon after the Osborne 1 started to sell in considerable numbers, competition came thick and fast from companies such as IBM, Kaypro and Apple.
Feeling the pressure, Adam Osborne showed the follow-up Osborne Executive to journalists as a distant preview of what was to come.
Unfortunately, word quickly spread and dealers simply cancelled their orders for the Osborne 1 waiting for the new computer, bankrupting OCC in the process in 1983.
Whilst there is some significant debate about whether this showing was the only decision that ultimately ended OCC, the Osborne effect has become two words of warning about not promising what you can deliver soon enough.
That business lesson aside, the Osbourne did inspire a lot of incredibly useful modern technology that is widely used by executives and business leaders today.
The luggable quickly became the more portable, lighter and much more practical laptop, and many bosses have taken the concept a step further and use tablet PCs as a tool that can do anything from serve as a workstation, to being a quick and advanced way to take notes.
It also highlighted the fact that the technology is less important than the tools and software you can use with it, which has led to the rise of cloud storage and software apps that can be used not only on a computer, but a smartphone, tablet or even a smart watch.
The next step for the future of efficient business leadership could perhaps be seen in the rise of artificial intelligence, with AI assistants allowing for a lot of productivity tasks to be automated, streamlined and simplified.