Nautis Project

The larger the company the less agile they become. This is a basic truism of business that I doubt anyone would argue with. In fact, companies often spend millions of dollars trying to improve processes, streamline workflows, and reduce unnecessary staff - all with the aim of becoming more agile, more competitive. Smaller companies can react more quickly to market changes and in fact, sometimes include the peddlers of cool, themselves. What is the tipping point though? There are plenty of large companies doing very well. In fact, some companies are reporting earnings completely off the charts. These sorts of earnings can evoke disgusted reactions from even the greediest of greedy. So, what is the secret?

I’ve had the great opportunity to work in companies ranging from the very small to the very large. It’s given me a somewhat unique perspective that comes from seeing all sorts of business models in action. The one thing all businesses large and small have in common is people. People are the same no matter where you go. The differences emerge in the sort of policies a company has toward how they treat people. A company that has low turnover may be a very happy place to work but may not have the most productive staff. Another company may have a high employee turnover but be a market leader. It’s hard to pin down. In the “new” economy there does seem to be a way to differentiate the successful from the not so - at least in my experience. Successful companies, no matter how dysfunctional they may be (and all are), differentiate themselves by how successful their strategy for the future is. In the post-mainframe world, this strategy is intimately tied to an information technology (IT) strategy that is in line with a company’s overall market strategy. If these two are not in line with one another you will find a company consistently working on solving yesterday’s problems while ignoring the future.

Some people love what they do - most don’t. For those who do, this can be a frustrating experience. How do you know if you are at an organization that has lost it’s strategic way? Well, the stock price is usually a good indicator. Big investors do their homework and unless they are infected with “irrational exuberance” this will usually be a good indication of how well a company is executing its strategy.

A successful company will have little or no technology consultants or contractors. Consultants are like lawyers. If you started working for a pharmaceutical company and on your first day you saw more lawyers running around than employees, you may get alarmed that something strange was going on. Well, the same is true with consultants. It’s like rats abandoning ship. If you backtrack the rats you will find yourself being led into a room jam packed full of IT contractors. They are sinking the ship by bleeding the company of precious resources that would be better spent on their own people. Of course, as I’ve mentioned previously, there is a time and place for consultants just as there is for lawyers. However, keeping them on your payroll permanently gets expensive and makes it hard to evaluate full-time employees and their performance.

I recommend spending money usually reserved for consultants to hire some well qualified full-time employees to remain focused on the companies market and IT strategy. This will allow the company to remain focused on implementing tactical initiatives and maintaining the current business while other remain focused on the vision and new ideas. Obviously, this is easier said than done. I can say with certainty that they companies I have seen this in action remain some of the most successful in the marketplace. To use a baseball metaphor: to be truly great takes more than just hitting the ball - even a lucky home run. You have to be like Babe Ruth, able to point to grandstands and know where the ball will go before you even take the swing.