Minda Zetlin, business and technology writer and columnist at Inc. discusses the rapidly evolving landscapes of technology, work and business.
Technology has become a lot more central to how people do things. Now there’s this thing that a lot of people say, “Every company is a software company.” That’s up for a lot of debate, but it is true that most companies, especially larger companies, have an understanding that technology is really central to what they do and if they don’t do it right, then their company can’t succeed.
There is the fundamental idea that people who work in technology come to work with different priorities and people who work in business remain a source of misunderstanding. We have people who still specialize in aspects of technology and the rest of us who are consuming it on a regular basis either personally or professionally.
As with everything else, technology is a matter of limited resources and balancing different priorities. One of the culture clashes that seems to come up a lot or at least it’s come up with organizations I’ve worked with is the whole question around security and risk.
Technology people who like what they’re doing, who want to protect the organization will often focus on risk as something that people in leadership positions don’t worry about enough. Leaders don’t naturally think about their technology needing to be secured or the risks involved with evolving to a new technology. And that’s OK because we have studied different fields. It is communication that I can’t stress enough of. We come together each with our own knowledge of something that makes up an organization. Without all these moving parts not working together and communicating effectively, a business will not be able to succeed.
