Who inspired you to become what you are today?

There can’t be many IT managers who would quote some shining IT leader who made you sit back and say: ‘I want to be like him.’

Sport, of course, is full of heroes – many of whom were themselves driven to succeed by their own heroes.

Perhaps if you were a senior retail executive, it would be the Sainsbury family, or maybe today it would be Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy.

In finance, you might look to global investor Warren Buffett; in the oil industry, John D Rockefeller; in manufacturing, the Lever Brothers.

Most people would now say: ‘In IT, Bill Gates.’ But Gates is no role model for a career in the IT profession.

If you are a technology innovator or entrepreneur, looking to become a dominant figure in IT supply, Bill is your man. But not for the IT profession – people such as you who work in IT departments, not IT vendors.

Doctors, lawyers, even accountants have professional role models. Yet a career that employs one million people in the UK alone has nobody.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent IT leaders in this country – many of whom you read about in Computing every week. If you work in IT, you will probably be able to name a few. But there is nobody who has entered the public consciousness in the way they have in other influential careers.

In which case, who is inspiring the youth of today to become the IT leaders of tomorrow?

For all the positive steps being taken by government and industry to encourage pupils to study engineering and technology, and to persuade students to work in these fields, are there any genuine role models? Any exceptional individuals who negate the popular image of a geeky profession?

If the government wonders why science studies have become a turn-off, it is because there are no famous faces with which to identify.

For me, a turning point in the demise of science and technology learning was the BBC scrapping Tomorrow’s World. Where are the popular television shows for children to learn the fascination and wonder that these subjects can provide? Certainly not on The Gadget Show.

So if there are no national IT role models, we have to start on a smaller scale. Today’s IT leaders should develop local relations with schools and colleges, and talk to students about the potential and the opportunity of being at the forefront of the knowledge economy.

Just think, you could be someone’s inspiration.

* Read my blog at: editor.computing.co.uk