Problems with being "Tech-Centric"
As an employee for a self-professed "tech centric" company I see
all sorts of problems I feel are inherent in this sort of outfit. The coders by and far feel they should run the roost. I tip my hat to them, they are the people who make the monkey dance, but there is something else to the game: ACTUAL BUSINESS SENSE. I don't think coders have much of this, by & large. They are forward thinking and logical, which is a good thing, but there are some short comings to this as well. I will stop generalizing from here on out. Our CEO is a coder. The guy is good at that. Super, in fact. A real innovator with a talent for ferreting out the difficult problems. But he's not "in the trenches" with us on the actual business side. When it comes to client/sales dynamics the guy has no clue. Which brings me to the CFO. She used to be the COO, but has been shuffled. Good for her. But I don't think she's cut out for the job. Internal accounts (which I audit) are a mess. She was (somewhat) in charge of straightening this out before she became CFO, and I've yet to see any progress.
The problem with tech centric is that we depend too much on the tech. We start investing so much time, energy and money into it that the people side of the operation is cast to the wayside. This is seriously problematic. You can't be a general and not listen to the guys in the field. Your strategy might be grandiose, but if you don't know the lay of the land or the nature of the enemy all the strategy in the world won't do you a bit of good. That's what I am constantly reminded of here: soldiers and generals. Generals in the form of upper management and soldiers in the form of sales/CSRs/Accounting. We totally get stuck with the brunt of what happens when the business stalls and sputters.
Sometimes I get to so frustrated I want to jump ship. I want to say "the hell with it" and find a job somewhere else that isn't so bass ackwards. Then I think about the incredible
potential I feel for this company. So much energy. So much talent. But we need leaders. We need structure. Believe it or not I was never in the armed forces, but I can respect (and admire) the orderliness of the operation.