Maverick from Top Gun: “You don’t have time to think up there. If you think, you’re dead.”
The US news has been filled lately with doom and gloom stories about the current and future state of the US economy. Alan Greenspan wrote that “fear undermines America’s recovery“. Technology company leadership, which have been known to be risk takers in the past, have given into the fear hysteria and have downsized or at least put major innovations on hold for the foreseeable future.
In some ways, I can understand Technology companies leaderships rethinking their strategy and staying in a holding pattern to feel things out. Yes, there is a large increase in unemployment. And yes, the dollar has weekend against other currencies. But there comes a point in time where truly great leadership sees these risks as opportunities and begins spending money on the future of their company. Tech companies should be the first ones to kick off the recovery. Technology innovation is a huge part of the US economy and we’re still the best in the world at it. We as American’s must also come to face the truth that it is the working people that will fix the US financial and unemployment problems, not our government.
Technology Leaders need to begin using the weak dollar to their advantage. Instead of targeting US customers, target countries where the currency has straightened such as China, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. Also, the dollar weakening means that it might be more cost-effective to bring back those highly-skilled tech jobs that have been outsourced overseas.
And speaking of hiring, now is a great time to get your pick of an overflowing technology pool seeking employment. With unemployment at nearly 10%, there are plenty of highly qualified individuals sitting on the sidelines. A recent Computerworld poll also indicates that 1 in 3 Tech employees are dissatisfied with their current job and will be seeking new employment soon. This news shouldn’t come as a surprise as other organizations are cutting staff and asking those tech employees who remain to do more work for less pay. A technology maverick in a leadership role would buck this trend and seek the best-of-the-best and give them the work load and flexibility that great tech geeks thrive in.
So while some Tech companies make decisions based on fear, truly great leaders will believe in their products and/or services and seek to be successful in any economic conditions. These are the mavericks that take risks to invest in innovation and topnotch employees. Eventually the tables will turn again. The dollar will strengthen and unemployment numbers will get better. So who will benefit? Those tech companies that decided to continue to spend to build new products and services and hire the best employees. Fearlessly lead companies will come out of this mess far ahead of the pack.
Article first published as The US Needs Technology Leaders That Are Maverick Risk Takers on Technorati.
