Where Would We Be Without It?

There’s a great deal about my parents’ generation of which I still don’t understand how they did it.

For example, knowing just how to adjust the rabbit ears on the TV antenna as to focus on a clear picture.

My father was a master at this, knowing precisely what angle to tilt one of the arms in order for us to catch the latest episodes of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” or “Get Smart.”

Or, having to frequently change the records on the stereo system once the album sides were completed. If only they could have hung on for another 40 years until the advent of playlists.

And I won’t even go into having to use a rotary dial. Imagine having a phone that didn’t tell you who was on the other end and you took your chances. One evening, it was my 7^th grade math teacher wanting to speak to my parents about my less-than-stellar grades, but that’s fodder for a future column.

But nostalgia aside, what was the greatest product introduction of the past 20 years?

If you speak to a veteran CPA, they’ll convince you that the PC was the product that helped revolutionize back-office accounting. And there’s little doubt about its effect on firms across the country in the early 1980s. Today, accountants often work on as many as three screens at a time – something that was unthinkable as recently as 15 years ago.

E-mail? Social media platforms? The Tesla?

For my money it’s the GPS. Period.

How my parents navigated long trips via a Rand McNally map or writing down directions and somehow arriving at said destination is something that I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around. Even when online navigation tools such as MapQuest began to appear, you were still forced to print out the directions and if you were driving solo somehow you had to occasionally steal a glance to ensure you weren’t headed toward Mexico.

Case in point. Last week I embarked on a trip to Boston to visit several of our clients. During my three-day sojourn I stopped in 8 towns and in total drove nearly 600 miles. Needless to say I needed the services of my chiropractor and acupuncturist afterward, but if I did not have the assistance of my GPS and a voice directing me thought the often-confusing thoroughfares of the Massachusetts Commonwealth I most likely would have ended up on a pier in Cape Cod.

So next time someone wants to begin a discussion about innovation I will always thank G.O.D. for the G.P.S.