Types of Business People In Technology

Below is an excerpt from the fascinating book Less Is More by Jason Jennings on types of people you run into in the IT business.

“When it comes to technology there are several distinct groups of businesspeople. There are those who naively believe in a magical technological solution for leading their business to increased productivity. They’re quickly placed on an IT company’s sucker list that’s labeled, They’ll buy anything.

“Then there are those who are genuinely interested in doing the right thing. But some of these have unwittingly surrounded themselves with IT hotshots who are interested in having the opportunity to play with the latest technology and brag to their friends about how IT-cool they are. These brilliant nerds would willingly bankrupt their company in order to have the latest, greatest, best and most cutting-edge technology.

“Finally, there are the businesspeople […] who are prepared to embrace and invest in technology as a tool when they understand exactly how they’ll be repaid in lower costs and/or increased productivity.”

Let me share a personal experience. This one time, at band camp… I mean, at my previous job I got into a discussion with a sales guy who used to sell Oracle. He let me in on a little “secret”. They would work their way from the geeks, not the upper management, by swinging a carrot from the end of a stick and promising them higher salaries, better job security, latest technology, and other shiny stuff. I guess it worked on some businesses because this guy was making good money.

After the bubble, many of them couldn’t afford to pull the Oracle weight and ended up on the street. If you’ve ever dealt with Oracle licensing, you’ll know what I mean.

This is so true. There is that crowd that rides the front edge of every new technology/gadget there is. I had a boss who had to have everything the day it came out. His business is not bankrupt, but he keeps it on the edge.

In my current position we are just now beginning the migration to .NET 1.1 from asp w/ vbscript. It will probably be at least a year before we begin thinking about .NET 2.0 seriously. The theory is to let all the early adopters find the bugs and show proof that the technology will still be around in a couple of years. Not that I wouldn't want to be an early adopter...sometimes it's fun to have the "latest and greatest" but doesn't usually make good business sense.