Heather Clancy: Survival of the fittest – and how to be one

I never really pondered what Charles Darwin meant by the word “fit” until this week at the CompTIA Breakaway conference.

Certainly it doesn’t refer to “fit” in the sense that we use the term now — all buffed-up from sessions at the gym.

Darwin wasn’t talking about the smartest among us either.

No, these are the folks who are all about fitting into their environment even as it is changing around them.

Certainly this is a skill in abundance for Unicom, a VAR from Woonsocket, R.I., that is on its third generation of management by the Davis family.

More than 70 years old, the company was one of the founders of ABCD (the Association for Better Computer Dealers), the precursor to CompTIA.

Mark Davis, now chairman was recognized Wednesday night with the organization’s Silver Jubilee Award (essentially one for lifetime achievement).

Listening to the world around you like Mark Davis has done certainly is one way to help guarantee longevity. Futurist James Canton also suggests honing the following qualities if you want to improve your business solutions fitness:

1. Agility and speed to act

2. Your sensitivity to innovation

3. A sense of what constitutes competitive advantage

4. An understanding of IT’s place in the larger competitive picture

5. Your own future readiness when it comes to technology adoption. (Do you walk the talk?)

Business journalist Heather Clancy has been covering the high-tech channel got close to 18 years. She can be reached at hccollins@mac.com.