Six Lessons Learned Six Months In
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
It's hard to believe how quickly the past six months have flown since I took the helm here at WebLayers. While the experts say this economic downturn is one of the worst, I'm reluctant to subscribe to a wait and see attitude because everywhere I look I see tremendous opportunities.
As I recently reconnected with former IBM colleagues at the IMPACT and Rational Software conferences and as we gear up for this week's HP Software Universe, I'm reminded that there are still a lot of interested and interesting companies that continue to invest in technology.
Of course, more questions are being asked of everybody in this industry. Not to mention longer evaluation cycles and more extensive proof of concepts. For those companies that aren't afraid to have a prospect go deeper under the hood, these can be good times indeed. Especially for smaller organizations that may have been previously overlooked due to a more hasty evaluation process and a short list based on brand recognition more so than niche yet critical capabilities.
While I won't even try to predict how the rest of the year will shake out for the tech industry, I'm reminded of some valuable lessons that have been driven home during the past six months that may also strike a chord with you.
1. Remind your marketing team that cool acronyms and jumping on the buzzword bandwagon to be part of the latest trend shouldn't supersede or undercut the essence of what your technology actually does.
2. Don't underestimate the power of the developer as this audience is critical to ensuring the quality of your products. And with the declining number of computer science majors and the increasing need for mainframe expertise, it won't be long before we're dealing with a full-scale revenge of the nerds if we don't properly prepare and accommodate their needs now.
3. Offshore represents new - not lost - opportunities. Like any business model, you leverage lower cost resources to execute lower priority tasks. If you keep an eye on the way you manage the entire software development life cycle, you'll have greater control over the end product whether it's created onsite or offshore.
4. Don't fear the bear market. Recessions make us more aware and more engaged with regard to the quality of products and services we're delivering.
5. Technology is only one of many industries that will lead us out of the recession. Sure, technology historically been the one industry that led us out of all previous recessions but this time, innovation across all industries will prevail in creating new opportunities.
6. Managing small companies is not unlike leading huge global corporations - focus on the customer, don't compromise quality, and know when to get out of the way.
If you'd like to share any of your lessons learned from this latest downturn, please share your comments and drop me a line.
-Jeff
As I recently reconnected with former IBM colleagues at the IMPACT and Rational Software conferences and as we gear up for this week's HP Software Universe, I'm reminded that there are still a lot of interested and interesting companies that continue to invest in technology.
Of course, more questions are being asked of everybody in this industry. Not to mention longer evaluation cycles and more extensive proof of concepts. For those companies that aren't afraid to have a prospect go deeper under the hood, these can be good times indeed. Especially for smaller organizations that may have been previously overlooked due to a more hasty evaluation process and a short list based on brand recognition more so than niche yet critical capabilities.
While I won't even try to predict how the rest of the year will shake out for the tech industry, I'm reminded of some valuable lessons that have been driven home during the past six months that may also strike a chord with you.
1. Remind your marketing team that cool acronyms and jumping on the buzzword bandwagon to be part of the latest trend shouldn't supersede or undercut the essence of what your technology actually does.
2. Don't underestimate the power of the developer as this audience is critical to ensuring the quality of your products. And with the declining number of computer science majors and the increasing need for mainframe expertise, it won't be long before we're dealing with a full-scale revenge of the nerds if we don't properly prepare and accommodate their needs now.
3. Offshore represents new - not lost - opportunities. Like any business model, you leverage lower cost resources to execute lower priority tasks. If you keep an eye on the way you manage the entire software development life cycle, you'll have greater control over the end product whether it's created onsite or offshore.
4. Don't fear the bear market. Recessions make us more aware and more engaged with regard to the quality of products and services we're delivering.
5. Technology is only one of many industries that will lead us out of the recession. Sure, technology historically been the one industry that led us out of all previous recessions but this time, innovation across all industries will prevail in creating new opportunities.
6. Managing small companies is not unlike leading huge global corporations - focus on the customer, don't compromise quality, and know when to get out of the way.
If you'd like to share any of your lessons learned from this latest downturn, please share your comments and drop me a line.
-Jeff
Labels: SOA Governance
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