Productivity

Managing in an ever changing technical world

*** I first posted this article almost 2 years ago***
In my daily work, I am faced with the same question everyday, what next? Interaction with my staff, our clients, and reading the news, lead me to ask more questions. What new technology that I have to watch for? What skills my staff will need to develop over the next few months in order for them to remain technically competitive? How long the demand for our current skill set will will last?

As a manager, I must always be prepared for the next big technical trend and shift in demand. From my daily observation, I can see which skills will be in demand for few years to come and which skills will be in low demand.

Networking skills will be in high demand for few years to come, demands will include:

1-Network engineers of various skill levels from home networking to large corporate networks
2- Network equipments of various size and functionality from small routers which support few computers to fiber optic cables that span the globe.

Data back up will be in high demand too. I have seen the disasters that were caused by date lose; I have seen it at small firms as well as big corporations. The demand will be more noticeable with small businesses. Since much of the world is going digital, the traditional archiving using paper folders and steel cabinets is giving way to the more convenient digital archiving. Many small business need to be educated on the advantages of having their data backed up digitally, since sooner or later most of their business transactions will be done online 100%

I believe most small business owners will good potential clients for data backup technology if:

1- They were presented with easy to use and understand back up solutions
2- The solution is within their budget, which is possible since the price for backup equipment is dropping rapidly

VOIP is growing rapidly and eventually all phone communication will be done using Voice over IP technology. VOIP will lower the cost of long distance calls to almost nothing. Worrying about your long distance phone bill will be a thing of the past.

In my daily work, I have noticed the momentum the above three technologies is gaining, of course there are many other technical advances that are being achieved in other areas which also worth observing.

As I notice technologies that are gaining momentum, I see the demand is dropping or will soon drop for other technologies or equipments.

The prices of desktops dropped scientifically over the past two to three years. Today you could find a used brand name P4 computer in very good working condition with less than $100. These drops in prices will very soon lead to a drop in demands for desktop PC technicians. It will be cheaper for a customer to buy a new Desktop PC than to repair the not functioning one.

I haven’t used any official statistics in this article; I only reported my daily observations and my feeling about the future in my field.

Break in Communications can cost business a fortune

I called the airlines to make my flight reservation, the agent made my return date on sept 27th instead of sept2th as I requested, either I didn’t speak clearly or he didn’t listen carefully, but it costs me and my company time and money. Another example, I called my secretary to check on a reservation for me, but she didn’t only check the reservation but she actually made the reservation, another costly mistake.

A client of our company was suppose to bring some timely sensitive business documents, but she didn’t, she thought it was our job to remind her and our secretary thought it was the client responsibility to bring the documents on time.

These small communications break down cost our company close to $2000 in fees and late charges and about 4 days of lost work, which could have been easily avoided.

Break in Communications cannot be totally eliminated but it can be greatly reduced.
In my company, I made it a priority for everyone (employees and clients) to communicate via e-mails and not to rely on verbal communications.

This policy doesn’t always work and some communications take place over the phone, it’s the responsibility of all parties involved that the message was understood. Think of the communications that take place between pilots and air traffic controller; both parties have to read back to each other to make sure the message was delivered.

Basic IT solutions are still needed in many places

I am a subscriber to many IT and business newsletters, most of these letters focus on the latest advancement in technology and business solutions, which is great, but they don’t address a large population that still lack the basic IT services such as (access to high-speed internet or access to professional online services.)

Working in US and in other parts of the world, I saw first hand that not everyone is familiar with the latest IT technology or even heard about it, many people, including businesses, are still ignorant of what IT solutions are available for them.

I have visited many businesses, including some IT related businesses, who still don’t have a business website or have a professional business e-mail or have simple backup solution or have adequate hardware and software.

Web 2.0, Could Computing, Social websites, mobile internet is the road ahead, but millions of people are still in need for the basic IT services.

US maintains its leading role in IT Industry, Sept 2009

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual study, sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), reveals that countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe are taking deliberate steps to improve their technology environments, although the U.S. remains the
Leader in providing the most competitive conditions for the information
technology (IT) industry.

Some interesting finding of the study:

Despite economic slow down, the IT industry remains strong in the US and around the world and broadband networks availability is a critical part of IT industry success. (I have always believed that having high-speed internet access is a necessity rather than added advantage in today’s work environment.)

India, China and Brazil are still far behind in broadband penetration and the growth rate still not adequate to support IT growth (this is disappointing finding considering the ambitious IT industries these countries have.)

The ever persisting problem of labor movement, especially to the US, IT is a global industry and growth could be hindered by restrictions on labor movements. (the US has lost thousands of IT workers on the last few years due to limitations on Visas or due to the difficulty faced by foreign IT workers to remain in the country permanently.)

Management with cultural barriers

Working with a group of people with diverse cultural backgrounds is both exiting and challenging. In my job as manager with international company, I interact and manage people from different parts of the world and each group of people from specific geographical region has their own unique characters that a manger must be aware of.

There are People who are reluctant to accept leadership positions, they brought up in societies where they always told what to do and not use their own judgments, with this group, I have to always monitor them closely and give them clear guidance on what is expected of them. The good thing about this group is that they listen and follow instructions.

There are People who seek leadership positions and willing to make judgments and take risks, with this group a manager has to be a bit careful, since he may end up with people in leadership positions without adequate experience, this group of people can be trained gradually to assume higher positions plus the manager can use them as to fill in on his absence since they require little supervision. These groups of people come from societies where men usually have to assume leadership positions and it expected of them to rise quickly in the corporate ladder.

The last group is of people is those who want to only excel in what they do, they are experts in their professions and willing to learn and advance as long as they remain focused on what they can do best. These groups of people come from societies where “excellent work and professionalism” is expected from every member of the society, they trained to excel in certain fields and remain focused on what they do best.

Of course this is my personal experience and it applies to this part of the world, the Arab world.

Change in Management must be done carefully

Every time there is a presidential election somewhere, we hear contestants call for change, they talk about the change they will bring to the government once they are elected, but change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes years of planning.

We may have read stories about how new management in some large organizations such as (GM, Chrysler, and Nissan), brought sweeping changes to management style and created success in short years, but these are only few success stories otherwise change takes time and years of planning.

In a small business world where I work, making changes is not that difficult since there are only few people are affected, but convincing people to accept the change and embrace is not always easy.

Also changes must be classified into categories, for example, changes in working conditions and better work environment can take place immediately where changes in business process or employee-management interactions must happen gradually over time.

In my current work environment in the Arab world, I came from American education and work background, it is hard and tedious process to convince upper management of the needed change in the organization, in addition, the society is still not ready to accept many changes in the work place.

Change is inevitable and it is part of life and those who try to stop it will be overwhelmed, but change must be managed and steered carefully to get the desired results.

What business are you in, IT or Customer service?

In his book “The Truth about Green Business”, Gil Friend writes about how railroads companies for many years considered themselves in the railroads industry rather than in transportation industry.

When I used to work as help desk support representative for a major hardware manufacturer the emphasis was on providing great customer service rather than fixing technical problems, we were trained to think as service agents rather than technicians.

Unfortunately, many customers cannot distinguish between the customer service rep and a technician. When I used to make on-site visits to fix technical problems, many customers would expect me to help them with customer service related issues in addition to fixing their technical problems.

It’s becoming harder to distinguish between the duties of customer service agent and support technician, especially at first level support, companies usually combine the jobs of the two into one position to streamline operation and cut costs.

I think it’s important for IT companies to define the industry they belong to, airlines, hotels and restaurants can be classified as service industries, but IT is clearly not all about customer service, but rather it’s about technical services.

Improve your employees standards by improving you own standards

I have met many managers who demand the best out of their employees but they themselves fail to live up to those standards or be a role model. What hinders the development efforts in many organizations, especially in the developing world, is the huge gap between management and employees; management demands certain quality of work but without providing a clear guidelines or standards to employees.

In several companies where I worked or where I visited I saw almost no training giving to employees not even new employees were giving an introduction to the company’s operation.

In many countries around the world, the culture of isolation between management and the rest of the employees is still very much alive, managers mostly view themselves as superior who seldom make mistakes and have no need to improve their standards.

A successful manager must always set himself as a role model to the rest of his employees, he must lead by example, he must know that his employees will only have faith on him if they see his standards are continuously improving.

Will you accept lower pay for big job title?

Do salary and benefits have to match the job title? Will you accept lower pay for bigger job title? I know people who are taking more responsibilities at their job in hope to add to their professional credentials and create better network for better future jobs.

I personally think you must be compensated fairly for the position you were hired for, if your job title is CEO or General Manager, then you should be paid as such.

What prompted me to write this article is a trend I have been witnessing in this part of the world, Arab world and the Gulf area, where people with humble educational backgrounds are giving job titles of General Manager or Chief Engineer but their pay scale only matches that of a junior staff member.

Unfortunately, job seekers with the right educational and experience backgrounds have to compete with applicants with less than educate experience for the same job title, this bring down the quality level in the entire industry.

Don’t expect less than what you deserve, and if you don’t find someone who is willing to hire you, then go back to school or write a book instead of giving your skills for cheap.

We always have done it this way

Business survives on innovations and the willingness to try new ideas and new ways of doing things, successful managers are always working on methods to improve business processes, they look for ways to cut cost and improve quality.

In some companies managers are trapped under ceiling that says “We always have done it this way”, a management that is not willing to try new ideas because their current business process is working fine, Japanese companies relentless pursuit for innovations put it ahead of the competitions by many years, take Toyota and GM as an example, Toyota took the lead from GM as the world number one vehicle manufacturer.

It’s true that some companies used business plans that served them well for years and there is no need to change these plans, but that doesn’t not mean those plans shouldn’t be closely examined periodically to look for room for improvements.

Its sad to see, when traveling through the developing world, how people suffer to get the basic services just because no one is willing to examine the old ways of doing business and think of ways to improve old processes.