IT Lead Generation Insider

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes April 27, 2011

In our last blog we highlighted some of the best resources for B2B Tech Marketers and today we bid farewell to one of the very best – our Manager Director Greg Cooper. After 25 years in the B2B tech marketing trenches Greg is pursuing new projects around environmental sustainability and leaving the business in the capable hands of our current Operations Director and now new el Comandante Hector Taylor and the excellent Martrain team.

Over to you, Greg…………..

In a 25 year career in IT marketing I have seen many major changes and watched as some companies surfed the wave of change and others disappeared below the waves. In the beginning I started as a telemarketer when telemarketing was the new kid on the block. Projects included campaigns for early personal computers – the Commodore PET, Apple 2 and then the early Apple Macs with their advanced “Windows” interface. I grew up with DOS and over the years have been upgraded umpteen times most recently to Windows 7. I saw the rise and fall of mini computer giants like DEC and Data General and the apparent demise of the mainframe, although in fact I’m told that 90% of financial transactions still touch a mainframe at some point. IT has been an exciting industry to work in as, more than any other, it thrives on change and innovation.

One of the most fascinating aspects for me has been to witness how IT companies cope with change, and what lessons can be drawn from this. I am talking about major technology shifts e.g. from mini-computer to PC networks, from proprietary operating systems to open systems. We tend to use the term “disruptive technologies” today, more recent examples are the internet, SaaS, and social media.

Companies like individuals are often resistant to change especially when the existing product set is very lucrative. I’ve noticed also that there is a certain arrogance that accompanies success. On a visit to DEC, the then number 2 computer company in the world, in the late 80s – senior executives took great pleasure in telling me how no-one ever returned a customer call, “If the customer wanted to do business with DEC they had to call again”.

There are many examples of where market leaders have become arrogant and complacent – IBM was famous for its annus horriblis where it lost $1billion, at the time a corporate record, until they were rescued by the CEO of a biscuit maker (Nabisco) who knew little about computers but a lot about giving customers what they wanted. When Bill Gates published his vision of the future in 1995 called “The Road Ahead” he almost completely missed the significance of the internet and was forced to into a hasty rewrite immediately after it was published.

Another reason perhaps why some companies fail to see “the writing on the wall” is that structural change tends to creep up on us and then all of a sudden it’s everywhere. Cloud Computing is a case in point. Eighteen months ago it was definitely overhyped today many firms are moving to the Cloud and the growing assumption is that this will be the model of the future. As a result many application vendors are having to rewrite their business and marketing plans.

For IT marketers these are certainly interesting times. It will be intriguing to see who the winners and losers are over the next 5 years. Will LinkedIn implode? Will Microsoft be taken over by Facebook? What will be the next three letter acronym on everyone’s lips?

So as I log off I hazard two predictions  - the companies most likely to thrive will be those who can see the world through their customers eyes and respond with eye catching flexibility, and secondly that it always rains over the Easter Holiday Weekend…… perhaps that should read ‘expect the unexpected’.

Cheers and thanks for the ride.

Greg