But the company's leaders knew he was interested in using Internet technology to improve health care.
And Sister Rachel is far from being the only one using internet technology to revive a tradition that started in a 3rd-century desert cave.
Some companies, like I.B.M., Oracle and General Electric, have made big savings in small places, using Internet technology to streamline routine transactions -- from buying spare parts to approving expense-account claims -- that used to be handled on paper or over the phone.
The agency's chairman, Mr. Powell, has said that his instinct is to subject telephone calls made using Internet technology to only minimal regulation in order to avoid costs and bureaucracy that he says would slow innovation and competition.
Moving people's data online, where individuals can control it, he said, would be vital to using Internet technology to improve health care — and only big companies like Google and Microsoft can do that.
Mr. Hambrecht, who founded the Hambrecht & Quist investment bank in San Francisco -- now owned by J. P. Morgan Chase -- has been preaching the virtues of using Internet technology to auction initial offerings and other stocks.
Three initiatives—"e-buy"; "e-sell"; and "e-make"—are digitising the main functions of running the conglomerate, saving money, reaching customers faster and using Internet technology to extend the focus on quality that was the driving-force of Mr Welch's previous passion, six-sigma manufacturing.The greatest hurdle has been not technology but culture.
Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, attributes much of the company's tremendous success to using Internet technology to run its own business; online sales now account for 90% of total revenue.
Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers attributes much of the company's tremendous success to using Internet technology to run its own business; online sales now account for 90% of total revenue.
In this sixth annual profile of tech trendsetters, we spotlight six in pursuit of the next big idea: using Internet technology to genuinely connect people and things, and deliver precisely what we want, when and where we want it.
