Dear Tech Leader,

As you know, businesses are being disrupted at an alarming rate. As we have seen, the companies that thrive are the ones in the best position to explore and seize new opportunities while operating their core business in a cost effective manner. COVID-19 accelerated the trend of enterprises pursuing digital transformation as a survival mechanism.

Most of these digital transformations require the right combination of vision, technology investment, change management, and upskilling for both our front line associates as well as our technologists as we are looking for enduring competitive advantage within our industry. McKinsey likes to tell me that “every company is a software company”. I don’t subscribe to this vision and I would reframe this as every company needs to understand how technology can accelerate their business results (and hurt their business results).

In some cases, yes, we should write our own software, in other cases we might use a SaaS or public cloud. Regardless, we need you and your team to apply your experience to match the right technology to the right problems at the right time. We simply cannot afford to squander our resources on poorly conceived science projects.

As I reflect on some of our past technology conversations we often end up discussing the complexities of a given technology when I really need to understand how we can improve our business results with technology. I love your passion for the “feeds and speeds” and since I’ll never be the technical expert you are, I think we need to change our conversations about technology.

I’d like to challenge you and your team to cultivate both curiosity and the skills to think about our business from the perspective of the CEO or CFO. Two questions you can encourage your technologists of all levels to ask are: “Is this valuable?” and “How do we know?”. Your capabilities and experience are critical for our company to continue to thrive.

Let’s figure out how to create the best technology enabled company together.

XOXO,

Your CEO and CFO

From the Team

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