The Meaning of a Retail CEO's Comments on RFID

I am often asked when radio frequency identification technology will take off, and I have replied, only half-jokingly, that it will happen when financial analysts begin asking CEOs about their RFID deployments during conference calls to discuss quarterly or year-end results. "CEOs suddenly gain an understanding of the value of new technologies when Wall Street is expecting them to be using it," I would explain. I saw this when I covered Internet technologies for Information Week and The Industry Standard. CEOs who were quoted as saying the Internet was hyped and had no business value one week would suddenly be throwing money at Internet projects after analysts pressed them to explain their Internet strategy.