'C' Changes

Unfortunately, most CEOs and CFOs don't get out of bed thinking about technology. The person who gets them thinking about the potential of technology is usually a solution provider with whom they have a relationship, or a CIO, who is in effect the surrogate decision-maker on behalf of the CEO.

The rest of the IT personnel in the equation, frankly, have little to do with new technology adoption. In fact, more often than not, it is in their strategic and personal interests to slow or even block the adoption of new technology. That's because new technology is a threat to the demand for their job skills.

The almost universal response on the part of IT managers when confronted with a new challenge is an argument that existing IT assets can be customized and extended to handle the problem. The end result is that products get contorted to handle jobs for which they were never designed, the cost of maintaining those products goes up because people are now needed to maintain the systems, and end users usually are left with a vague feeling of being manipulated into using something that is not the least bit intuitive.

In essence, the vast majority of IT people are maintenance workers who don't want to see the need for their core skills around a particular application or platform eliminated.

The result of all these shenanigans is that the executive over time loses faith in his or her own IT staffs. Shortly after that, he's out looking for a solution provider to augment his organization's technology skills. That solution provider more often than not is the primary person who introduces that business executive and his or her company to new, innovative technologies.

At the end of the day, the shortest path between a vendor and a C-level executive at an end-user organization is through a solution provider. Because when you get right down to it, they are the only two people in the equation who really drive change. And for vendors and solution providers alike, change equals opportunity.

Are you operating at C-level? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].