Long before the birth of Christ the Greek philosophers were addressing a fundamental question; how should men live? Even then the world was unstable through wars and the perpetual fight for survival. Today the same philosophers would see their question only partially answered against a backdrop of even greater instability engendered by exponentially advancing technology. They might thus be moved to ask a new question; how should companies operate?

Whilst all companies have a responsibility to their shareholders, customers, employees and collaborators, they are also beholden to the society they ultimately serve. Even the capitalist system can be reduced to tokens (money and work) related in a manner to create a sustainable environment for civilisation. More than ever these responsibilities and relationships constitute the soul of an operation. The most successful enterprises exhibit a caring response to society and contribute by invoking positive change. But this is not by products and services alone, there are other covert mechanisms at work.

In the present maelstrom of business a fully trained and educated workforce is a prerequisite for survival and prosperity. A company attitude of; "we will train no one and rely on the market place supplying our needs," coupled with; "I went to university and I am now educated for life," are a recipe for disaster. Continual training and education are now the hallmark of the successful along with team work and a dedication to quality.

The most successful companies spend around 10 per cent of their resources on people training and education. This most likely involves a time commitment at home and at work for employees. For professionals the trend is towards a series of specialist (MSc/MBA) degrees and modular short courses to augment and top up their first degree. For many in science and engineering much of their university education now has a half life of less than seven years as technology accelerates away from them. They can also expect to see an increasing need to be competent in new and sometimes unusual areas - electronics and system engineers needing to know something of genetics and biological systems for example.

In some cases it is both convenient and possible to get to a university to attend suitable courses that are already available. However, the time and place restriction is a serious limitation, and an obvious trend is for courses to be customised to meet the needs of the company and be delivered at the place of work. One solution is to have courses delivered direct to the screen - the virtual university. All of the technology exists, a few companies now use this approach, and their source of academic input comes from across the planet. IT and networks increasingly allow them to access and deliver the best of the best from a range of institutions. Higher degrees, or individual modules are made available to everyone in the company irrespective of location, but the time constraint remains.

Ultimately we can envisage education on demand that allows busy people the choice of both where and when. The next generation of CDs will have some 7Gbytes of capacity - enough for a high level of adaptive interaction. Lectures on demand with a full Q&A session orchestrated by an artificial intelligence system. And if that cannot cope with or satisfy the individual, then get to the live expert on line. This might seem like some fanciful dream, but watch children on interactive CD education packages with only 630Mbytes of capacity. They learn 50 per cent faster and retain 80 per cent more than the conventional sage-on-the-stage (teacher - class) approach.

For the more practically orientated topics telepresence technology offers a guide at the side, or even inside. Head mounted cameras and displays, virtual reality, and simulators offer yet more educational richness by direct experience . Why read when you can observe? Why observe when you can do?