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Tech Trap No. 3 —
There is No Reason to Change
Editor’s Note: Following is the third of our ten part series called “Technology Traps
and Mishaps,” by Fred Ode, CEO, chairman and founder of Foundation Software.
The book, Younger Next Year,
by Chris Crowley and Henry
Lodge M.D., is based on the
premise that by the time
you reach age fifty, you have
two choices about how your body will
age: through growth or decay. You can
choose to lead a healthy, proactive
lifestyle that promotes growth, or
you can become sedentary and allow
yourself to decay.
I believe the same concept applies
to business. If you are not proactively
working to grow your business,
then it is only a matter of time until
the business contracts. Compare the
success of Wal-Mart to the deterioration
of Kmart in recent years, and you
have just one example of how a static
“hold-the-line” business philosophy
can lead to decline and decay.
Technology is just one type of
change that requires our constant
attention. The only way a company
can grow and thrive is to embrace
technology and use these new tools to
its advantage. The organization that
is neither able nor willing to adapt to
emerging technologies is simply on
the accelerated path to failure.
From my experience, there are five
top reasons why technological change
doesn’t happen within a company:
1. Status quo thinking: Managers
and owners don’t see the benefit or
appreciate the need to make technology
changes. “Let’s just do things the
way we’ve always done them” is the
mantra. And since “the way we’ve
always done it” once worked really
well, the temptation to keep things
status quo is clearly present.
In order to avoid complacency and
grow your company, it takes a constant
willingness to ask, “Can this be
done in a better/cost-effective/more
efficient way?” In construction, for
example, a contractor may still be
using spreadsheets for estimating,
job costing and financial reporting.
Unaware that current technologies
can instantaneously produce these
same reports in a fraction of the time
they now spend, this company is probably
spending more money and more
resources than it needs to, thereby
putting itself at a real competitive
disadvantage.
2. Saboteur in the ranks: We all
know this person. He is the person
who is very comfortable in the job.
He knows exactly how to use Brand X
software and sees no reason to change.
He regards new technology tools as a
threat to his position. Consciously or
not, employees like this can poison
the company’s efforts to adapt and
survive.
No one ever said managing technology
change (including employees’
attitudes about new technology)
would be easy. Involving employees in
the process, creating a message about
the positive outcomes of change and
listening to feedback are all ways that
companies can initiate successful
change. If, however, employees still
cannot get “on board” with new technology
initiatives, sometimes there
is no choice but to cut these people
loose. After all, no company initiative
can be successful without the full
cooperation of employees.
3. Cost or time barriers: Executives
and business managers often
complain that they have neither the
time nor money to initiate new technology
changes. This says that the
company tends to take a pragmatic,
yet shortsighted, approach to change.
Consider, for example, the contractor
who manually estimates all
excavating jobs for bidding. Having
to spend four or five hours preparing
each site estimate leaves little
time in his busy day to investigate
the “cut and fill” software technology
that could significantly reduce his
workload and win more jobs for the
company. Contractors that complain
about not having money to spend
on a job cost accounting system, for
example, might also be surprised to
learn that their entry-level system is
actually costing more to run through
inefficient duplicate data entry tasks,
payroll fees and other associated costs.
But when you look at technology as a tool for boosting productivity and
profitability, it often becomes time
and money well spent to help meet
long-range company goals.
4. The fear factor: Franklin D.
Roosevelt could very well have been
talking about emerging technology
when he said, “The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself.” Fear of
change, no matter how unfounded, is
a very real emotion that can immobilize
even the greatest of leaders. And
when it comes to changes in technology,
fear plus intimidation of what
we don’t understand can often lead to
outright paralysis.
To conquer that fear, take a deep
breath, take a step back and initiate
a thoughtful approach. In a recently
published article on just this topic, I
wrote about the steps that business
owners can take to select and implement
technologies right for their
business. It involves three phases
for selecting technologies that will
act as accelerators of your company’s
strengths. The key is to take the first
step. Start reading books and articles
on subjects of interest and ask industry
peers, consultants and association
contacts for their opinions. Remember,
companies that don’t adapt to change
are the ones most likely to fail. Now
that’s something to really fear!
5. Success breeds failure: Did you
know that the average life of a corporation
is only fourteen years, and
it’s growing shorter? Successful companies
usually emerge because they
are in the right place at the right time
and have found their niche. But there
is the overriding tendency of successful
companies to become arrogant and
complacent, alienate their customers
and become almost impervious to
learning new methods and changing
markets.
So, what’s a successful company to
do? Believe it or not, the best time to
pursue new technology solutions is
when business is good and profits are
steady. Proactive decisions tend to
be goal-oriented and produce better
results than those made in times
of crisis. In any event, companies
should view technological changes
not as a series of "programs,” but as
an ongoing “philosophy."
Still think there is no reason to
implement new technology? Just
as the “over-fifty” set can “grow
younger” with a proactive plan for
living, you can also kick-start your
company on the path to success.
Fred Ode is the CEO/chairman of
Foundation Software, developer of construction
job cost accounting software
called FOUNDATION for Windows. For
further information on FOUNDATION
for Windows, visit www.foundationsoft.com.
Fred Ode can be reached directly
by phone at 800.246.0800 or e-mail
fred@foundationsoft.com.
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