At a conference last week I was intrigued to hear the secrets of a successful venture capitalist. Now when I say successful he says he’s been successful about as many times as he’s been unsuccessful. And perhaps therein lies the biggest secret, his ability to distil truth from fiction and practical tip from time wasting tactic. It may have taken time to learn many of the items outlined but they present some excellent advice for anyone looking for success.
1. Hire people smarter than you – if you only hire people who are as good you as the success of your business in essence has a ceiling. Hire people who are smarter than you and you instantly improve your ability to grow the ideas and performance of your business.
2. Be a pain killer not a vitamin – when you’re a vitamin you may improve the health and well-being of the user over time…you also may not. If you’re a painkiller you go straight to the heart of the problem with a solution and therein provide your benefit.
3. Solve big problems – look for the biggest problem for a customer and then solve it, simple right.
4. Being different, be a specialist, be outstanding – very good is average today and average is bad.
5. Know your client/customer intimately – know what they do and when they do it – to know them at this level of detail will enhance your ability to solve their problems and deliver solutions.
6. Provide exemplary service – people are used to rubbish service so go above and beyond and do it consistently.
7. Fail fast and learn faster – perfect solutions or products never win, release or deliver something and then continuously improve it.
So now that I have your attention, I assume you are probably trying to figure out what C-word I am actually referring to? It could be a number of words; Consolidation, Cost-Cutting, Cloud, Communications, Career, Coffee, Change or even Citrix.
Focusing on the Brisbane technology market I am finding that ‘Cloud’ and ‘Citrix’ are particularly hot topics amongst clients at the moment. With mobility and the evolution of technology heading to the Cloud, a technology aiding this transition quoted in the December 2011 VMblog.com, covers the end to end solutions in the infrastructure space leading to Citrix.
It is also worth considering the below points:
•Mobile devices and tablets become primary endpoints
In 2011, smartphones did in fact outsell PC’s, furthermore, it is highly likely Tablets will outsell PC’s in their own right in the latter of 2012 and continue into 2013 with the flow-on effect passing to infrastructure managers to cater for adequately. Connectivity concerns around Security, WiFi, 3G/4G and access anywhere are all hot topics now, with Citrix a clear leader in the mobility/virtualisation space. Read more…
One of my clients remarked this week, “Is it pushing the barrow to say Happy New Year in February, or should I ask what you’re doing for Easter?” Well whichever greeting you choose you can be sure that the year has begun in earnest now that Christmas and school holidays have all but been erased from memory. And don’t get me started on the summer that never was!
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According to an article by Ruti Polachek the solution to unemployment is to code your way out. I was left a bit unconvinced that you can code your way out of a GFC, but this article did touch on some points that my colleagues and I have discussed. The premise of his argument is that there are jobs waiting to be filled in the IT sector and that if you trained more people these jobs would be easily filled.
“Technology will be advanced in 10, 20 or 100 years, in ways we cannot even imagine. We are not moving backward, so let’s move forward, faster. We are getting closer to the point where everyone will not only need to know how to use an iPad, but also how to write some of its programs”
I do agree that there are jobs waiting to be filled. Software companies/vendors are continuing to invest in their product despite difficult market conditions. Financial backers are spurred on by the Mark Zuckerberg’s who have proved that getting there first is everything in this sector and investing in a product you believe in has huge rewards.
However there is already a queue of highly qualified candidates applying for these roles. Pioneering companies aren’t looking for qualifications but for true technologist who can understand the underlying concepts and principles far beyond someone who is simply trained in a vocation. The days of a mid-level developer who sits, codes moves on to the next piece of work handed down to him are fast diminishing. IT roles are becoming more specialised. Simple processes are now automated and developers need to be able to add more value.
The key to filling these jobs is to identify and nurture top talent, not an IT development for all approach.
What are your thoughts on these arguments? How do you think employers can differentiate between ‘highly qualified candidates’ and ‘true technologists’?
My first memory of IT at school was an old beaten up BBC Computer, all green screen, dusty key board and floppy discs.
At home, my brothers and I would bust out computer games on cassettes through our Atari ‘games console’ at a speed slower than it would take a frog to flash its way across a busy intersection.
I am Generation X and it was the mid 1980’s. Computer games were boarder-line cool and computers were almost certainly not cool.
Time progressed. Schools in the UK replaced BBC with Nimbus. I remember my dad joyousness upgrading from a 386 to a 486. Over the moon that we could now play Wolfenstein 3D in 16-bit technicolour with our state of the art VGA graphics card, two megabytes of RAM and joy stick.
Information Technology was merely an idea, a potential. It was certainly not life changing. Faxes and microfiche, pagers, Walkmans and Speak and Spells. The advances were slow and each new step forward was a slight nudge compared to the exponential bounds that we see in today’s world.
Then Personal Technology started to make an impact. It was the early 1990’s and email was beginning to appear. In the workplace, you could actually send someone a message from your keyboard, without getting up out of your chair and it would arrive at the sender almost instantly. The mobile phone. You could make plans on the move, keep track of one another, be connected and more spontaneous. Discmans meant that you could carry around your music on something smaller than a brick and skip through tracks at will. The internet was just around the corner. People began to get actual games consoles at home, with games so fast that you no longer needed to get up and have a real game of football down the park with your friends, while you were waiting for your football computer game to load on screen. Read more…
Over the past twelve months, our Business Engagement team have noticed a clear distinction in relation to demand for resources within different industry sectors. Whilst the strains on the European Financial Market continue to deepen, the larger banking organisations especially those with a significant international presence are sitting tight, reticent to commit to large projects in 2012 until the true impact of the current financial storm are realised. On the other hand, there are a number of local financial services companies especially those in the insurance, mortgages and commercial finance industries, who are optimistic and are pushing ahead with core system replacement projects and ecommerce transformations to catch up with their peers in the banking industry. For many the opportunity cost of not having strong online presence and the lack of investment in newer technology platforms far outweighs the initial outlay for modernisation projects which will ultimately result in increased efficiency and greater opportunity for revenue generation.
Our Commerce and Industry clients in contrast have seen clear spikes in recruitment over the past twelve months with further large scale projects scheduled for next year. The trends in this sector are still very much in the pattern of acquisition and consolidation as some of Australia’s largest players come together with the likes of the acquisition of Franklins by MetCash and a number of conglomerates looking to consolidate their IT environments. Mining, Engineering and Energy companies are still hiring at a senior level, alongside construction and property companies. All indicators are that it will be a big year within the Telco space for large scale transformational projects across customer service and life-cycle management with analytics. Again in this sector trends are around mergers such as VHA and 3 Mobile which is driving consolidation of their platforms, upgrades and migration projects, alongside the ongoing NBN programme of work which continues to suck up resources. Project sizes within this space are ranging from $20M to $400M and anticipate to get underway in Q1 2012.
What Next?
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Salaries within the Infrastructure space continue to be stable rather than spectacular. Nervousness surrounding economic conditions in Europe is tempered by China’s continued rise to prominence and our own resources boom, creating somewhat of an impasse in permanent salaries especially. Contract rates are more open to fluctuation and are increasingly influenced by client and industry sector.
In contrast to the Applications market we are seeing an increasingly popular trend of on-shoring/insourcing of local customer facing IT support functions. Subsequently and more-so in a contract context this is somewhat inflating rates at the lower end of the market as companies scramble for the limited number of available talent. It will be no surprise to see that as a consequence of this lower end elevation there may well be some fluctuation in rates in the coming 12 months at the higher echelons. Read more…
The application development & support market has remained in a positive position throughout this year with only the upcoming holiday period stalling the slow but steady momentum. We have seen demand in the usual areas predominantly led by .Net & Java but we are seeing most demand and probably the shortest supply in tier one ERP skills (mainly SAP & Oracle), Microsoft SharePoint, Front End Web and Mobile Development. With that in mind the demand for contractors skilled in Agile development methodology continues to rise, as companies move away from large scale in house software development programs in favour of quicker rapid deployment of products and services. When companies do commit to large scale software programs they are looking to utilise a combination of in house resources, contractors, local specialist service providers as well as global outsourcers. This creates greater spread of risk on key deliverables, flexibility with resources but major challenges in vendor management, accountability, communication and ultimately decision making.
Companies are increasingly looking at consolidated ERP systems with Oracle and SAP taking a majority market share but we have also seen a number of companies committing more capital expenditure to JDE, PeopleSoft and Seibel upgrades as in most cases they offer a much more cost effective solution rather than the larger investment needed to implement Oracle or SAP. You will see from our salary review that SAP Basis & Oracle Database Administrators have experienced the largest rate & salary increases due to high demand and increasingly low supply. We have also seen a similar trend in demand for HR/Payroll consulting skills across most of the major ERP products. Due to the shortage of available skills in this area we have seen companies bringing resources from overseas to meet demand on critical projects. As with any technology skills shortage there has been a large push from candidates looking to enter the contracting market in order to take advantage of higher daily rates, this in turn has led to a large number of permanent positions being left open for 6-12 months.
What Next?
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With 2011 drawing to a close it’s now a great time to reflect on those early year predictions to see just how right or wrong we got it. There is often a sense of market strength or weakness that permeates business confidence way before the figures and analysis come about to prove or disprove.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) earlier this month cited wages as one reason why it cut interest rates by a quarter point to 4.25%, the first easing in over two years. This was supported by comments on the marked slowdown of employment growth where market caution has seen the jobless rate climb up to 5.2%, from a low of 4.9% back in April.
Already the predictions for 2012 are coming thick and fast with the usual swing of opinion; from optimistic growth on the back of sustained demand from China for our resources, to pessimistic claims of decreased consumer spending, a failing housing market and ongoing effects of the European economic financial crisis. Read more…
In the past week alone I’ve been approached online by no less than 30 or so different connections who want to connect to me and my network.
So in the words of Derrick Zoolander, I must be really, really ridiculously popular right?
Well I suspect I’m not as popular as I’d like to think; so why are these professionals reaching out to connect with me and my network?
The answer lies in the as yet, largely un-fathomable Return on Investment (ROI) that everyone believes they can achieve through growing their social and business networks. Surely the more people I know the more likely I am of selling my product, getting that new job or building my client list. But the reality is far from that simple with perhaps only the most astute recognising that the key to working any network, online or off, is to connect with people from whom you can deride a benefit and importantly who may also deride a benefit from you.
‘Influence’ appropriate to your desired outcome in growing a network is the key to a successful network, more so than the number of connections and tenuous friends that you can lay claim to.
As the year comes to a close now is the time to re-assess your goals and objectives for the year ahead; what type of people would be useful for you to know and how can you assist those people? The deluge of social media driven connection opportunities that have grown in the past year alone are staggering and there are no signs of it relenting. At the risk of having to hire an assistant to manage my ‘friends and connections’ I’m going back to the old adage of ‘quality over quantity’. Don’t be offended if I don’t accept your LinkedIn invitation, If I’m doing my job correctly I’m probably saving us both some time if our mutual interests aren’t similar. On the flip side, if you see a connection I don’t see, spell out your intentions clearly and I’m likely to look more favourably on the approach.
At the end of the day it may not be; ‘what you know, but who you know’ but it’s also now “why you know them’.
At a conference last week I was intrigued to hear the secrets of a successful venture capitalist. Now when I say successful he says he’s been successful about as many times as he’s been unsuccessful. And perhaps therein lies the biggest secret, his ability to distil truth from fiction and practical tip from time wasting tactic. It may have taken time to learn many of the items outlined but they present some excellent advice for anyone looking for success.
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