Rarely has it been written that a financial institution has to be hip to succeed.
Even less common is the idea that all a business needs to get hip is a little perspective.
Yet, in any business category — finance, media, construction, retail, whatever – it can be difficult to assess what's going on outside the walls of your operation. When you are inside, it is hard to get a complete picture of the market.
"Those dweebs in IT don't understand our business area."
- Executive handling a major line of business at a mid-sized bank
"Yeah, but those starched shirts don't understand technology."
- Response from the information technology manager
Those aren't actual quotes -- but they are representative of comments Scott Sommer, the president and CEO of Cornerstone Advisors, says he hears from many financial institutions these days.
Sommer blogged about these attitudes yesterday on Cornerstone's Gonzo Banker blog. In the post, he pointed out a fundamental divide between executives running various lines of business and the IT group that ostensibly supports their efforts to modernize.
A great football coach is many things: Organized. Driven. Cool under pressure. Willing and able to help each team member reach his full potential, on and off the gridiron.
The qualities that make a coach a winner often are useful in other lines of work, too – that's why so many coaches write business leadership books.
But, as smart and effective as so many football coaches are, they would make poor technology partners.
Admittedly, this hypothetical situation is outlandish – it's unlikely Bill Belichick will be looking for work in the tech sector after he's done with the Patriots — but in case any of your prospective tech vendors have football coaching in their resume, here's what to look for – and avoid.
Dropbox grew from 2,000 to more than 40,000,000 users in three years. To most of its customers, the service is just a convenient way to save and retrieve their digital "stuff" in a virtual "cloud."
They don't know how much time and effort goes into making sure it works. They don't care. As long as it works. Which it does.
But from the perspective of a startup which suddenly explodes, handling that much growth without crashing (with an IT staff of 1 to 3 people) is a small miracle. This is especially true considering that their entire business depends upon a robust, smooth-operating IT infrastructure and bulletproof software – all of which had to be expanded at an absolutely blistering pace. Dropbox's approach to planning and growing its IT infrastructure contains important lessons for any business contemplating IT expansion or technology changes of any kind.
It may be that no one can figure out how to save newspapers.
But if it's possible, I believe Jeff Bezos will do it.
The Amazon CEO and founder, of course, bought the Washington Post for $250 million two weeks ago. Having watched Bezos' management of Amazon for years, I expect to see dramatic change at the Post. And as a Post subscriber I have a stake (though smaller than Bezos') in the paper's future. The local news, national news, world news, sports coverage and culture that the Post delivers each day is important to me.
The hard truth is that, like most newspapers, the Post has run a ruinously conservative game plan even as their industry implodes.
The average person spends hours a day processing their inboxes, studies show, often letting non-essential messages get in the way of productivity. For some people, clearing that inbox is a productivity obsession.
And then there's the spam.
But email isn't going away, despite what occasional "Email Is Dead" articles and blog posts might predict. Instead, this workhorse of electronic productivity is constantly adapting. And, like email, many older software systems have likewise learned to adapt as well
So, is your aging core system, or that outdated piece of software on the chopping block? Just as with email, the printing press and snail mail, think twice before pronouncing it dead.
The A's also led the league in player salaries. But in the mid-90s, that changed.
A new ownership group took over in 1995 and slashed payroll. The superstars all left, leaving the team's leadership with some tough choices:
"What will we do without X?" and "How can we compete?"
As big banks spend millions on customer-facing computing software, gobble up online customers and continue to shift customer expectations, many credit union execs may feel the same way when considering their software options.
How does that develop between vendors and clients? It starts with the vendors themselves – and more often than not, the vendors that have the best relationships inside their own organization end up with the best relationships with outside clients.
The highly anticipated new version of the classic PC game had a new feature: It required gamers to be connected to the internet to play. EA's servers quickly were overloaded, frustrating hundreds of thousands of players who had paid $60 or more for the game – but couldn't play it.
The answer isn't a clear-cut "yes."
It's not "no," either.
It's "maybe," with an addendum: Whatever you decide, make sure you've carefully considered all of your options. There are more than you may think.
That sounds obvious. But, as I wrote about in a prior post, there's fierce debate and often a surprising amount of emotional involvement amongst the IT professionals you depend upon to advise you. Understanding your options and their relative value to your business can get very tricky.
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