Technology Intelligence and Business

posted by Loren Davie on Monday, March 5, 2007
1 Comments


Why do some business make such smart decisions with technology, and some are so helpless? What’s the difference between a business that leverages technology to grow its business, increase its profit margin and out-maneuver the competition, and one that sinks a lot of money down a useless, costly, black hole project?

I’d suggest that alongside intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) that businesses also sport technology intelligence (TQ). A business’ TQ governs its effective use of technology, which in turn has a substantial impact on its effectiveness as a whole.

Here’s how I see the five levels of TQ in business:

1. Business Problem: The first step a company takes towards TQ is when they acquire the knowledge to address a specific business problem with technology. This could be hiring developers or an external vendor to write a custom application, or it could simply be the purchase of a system to meet a specific need.

2. Tech Strategy: The second level is where a company stops looking at individual business problems in isolation, and develops a comprehensive tech strategy. At this level, the application of technology to individual business problems is evaluated within the context of the overall strategy.

3. Tech Ecosystem: At the third level, the company is aware of its tech strategy in a larger eco-system of always changing technical trends. The company is sensitive to how the "tech landscape" will affect its internal strategy, whether through availability and cost of personnel, the continuance of particular tech platforms or the development of new ideas and paradigms.

4. Tech Vision: Once aware of the "tech landscape", a company begins to have the opportunity to make strategic decisions based on an understanding of where things are going. A company can purposefully choose where it wants to live on the adoption curve, and then monitor new developments as they work their way down the curve. At this level a company starts to be able to anticipate movement in the landscape before it happens, and can position to get ready for change, and to avoid destructive disruptions.

5. Tech Leadership: At the very highest level of TQ, the company can make change happen in the tech landscape. This very sophisticated understanding involves identifying unfulfilled needs beyond the company that intersect with the company's business, and applying technological solutions to meet them.
1 Comments
What I've been feeling is that greater TQ stems from the business owners. Many business owners know they need tech but still have reservations. They drag their feet for decisions or resist their own CTO/CIOs because they can not understand the tech. Business owners need to keep in mind that technology in any form, from fire and electricity to HTTP and WiFi is what keeps us out of the jungle and makes us able to compete.

Honestly, I do not see a point in the near future where there will be a clear shift towards business owners who better embrace tech-- although I've heard people suggest this is already occurring: e.g. Google, Microsoft, etc. I disagree, rather what we are seeing is the natural generational acceptance of existing technologies. The senior management at large companies these days grew up aware of computers in the 50s & 60s, regardless of whether they touched them. In twenty years, kids of the 80s & 90s will be senior management and they will have accepted far more complex technologies, having grown up aware of the Internet, mobile tech, and the accelerating pace of tech.

That said I would suggest that across the board their acceptance level will be on par with today's leaders, except the apparent complexity may hide that. Perhaps this trend should be considered technology complexity inflation or just Tech Inflation?

p.s. I'm posting this to my blog.