Super exposure

Tu Tangata, Issue 3, 1 November 1981, Page 24

Super exposure

TAKE/Business

Kawhia-born Mana Forbes has become New Zealand’s Mr Office of the Future. The Burroughs marketing executive has now visited every centre of any size with his message. Mana Forbes’ “roadshow” in fact has just played in front of more than 1200 office management specialists representing over 700 different companies. The specially organised roadshow which took in all New Zealand cities was a special demonstration by Burroughs to take its futuristic message to every corner of the nation.

A primary school teacher until 1976 Mana Forbes went into computing because he wanted to escape what he describes as the “protected area”, meaning Government service. “I wanted to get out there into the hurly burly of the commercial world,” he notes. Yet in his new role he found the discipline learned during his primary school days to have been “essential”. In his industry marketing assignment, Mana Forbes specialises in a systems approach to office management. He sells what he describes as a “total solution”. He also concentrates on the extremely complex aspect of computing that deals with software the tapes and discs that give the computers its instructions. The Office of the Future road-

show presentations involved an outline of Burroughs in New Zealand the company has been established here for 50 years. The company in New Zealand moved to the forefront of international technology earlier this year with its locally-developed LINC automatic programming system. It is Mana Forbes’ job to keep up to date with the fast-moving computer technology scene and to try and forecast what is going to happen, so that his clients can be prepared. In the roadshow presentations, Mana Forbes gave his audience a glimpse into the paperless office of the future. It is an office that will be powered by a closely-linked system of computers, word processors, and facsimile devices, he asserts.