Once again I read a blog post this morning on Mark Lewis’s blog that I felt compelled to comment on. Unfortunately EMC has opted to disable the comment function of Mark’s TypePad blog??? What’s the deal with this? Hopefully someone will realize that comments should be turned on sooner rather than later.
Nonetheless it is nice to see that Mark commenting on the applicability of expert knowledge to great technology. What a great quote ?Technology is no cure for stupidity.? I believe that any great solution is built on great technology, expert knowledge (intellectual property) and well honed process. The ability to apply technology to holistic business strategy is a difficult thing for many organizations to visualize, all to often tactical infrastructure requirements bubble to the top and take president, forcing many organization to abandon strategic vision. I propose that with the application of expert knowledge tactical problems can be solved and aligned with a strategic vision. Tactical behavior with a disregard for strategic alignment will continue to make it very difficult for organizations to realize the the maximum potential of many of the technology solutions that they are deploying and implementing. Ultimately this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let’s face it – there is ton of parity in the marketplace, the ability to apply expert knowledge to a business problem is now where the solution value lies. Is there still business value in the bowels of brick and mortar technology or should we be focused on solving business problems and identifying solution providers who provide our organization with the highest probability for success. The analogy I like to use is if you were to build a brick structure, who provides the most value, the mason, the quarry, the kiln process, etc…? Most of us discount the value of the quarry and kiln process as a brick is a brick, the expert knowledge of the mason is more often subject to heavy scrutiny because the success of the project relies on the mason. The mason holds the knowledge and the consumer is entrusting the expert to source the right brick for the job, apply their expert knowledge and compete the project to specifications, on time and on budget.
As side note, this brings up another thought – depth vs. breadth, a debate that I often am engaged in. Is a highly skilled brick mason qualified to do tile work? As an educated consumer I would not hire a brick mason to lay my tile floor, although these are adjacent skills the discrete skills required to deliver effectively and efficiently most probably do not exist.
Would love your thoughts on this rant….
-RJB