Checking social media the other day, I realised 2022 marks a rather significant (and alarming) anniversary: the first official job on my CV was 30 years ago. According to my LinkedIn profile, my tech career started in 1992.
But after the horror had started to fade, I began to reflect on the way things have changed since then. Obviously, the technology is a little different now. While we haven’t quite reached the time-travelling, liquid metal, sentient robot phase (Terminator 2 also dates from 1992), cloud, robotics and AI are certainly impressive.
However, the biggest change we’ve seen over the past three decades is our tech culture. These days it’s less about one-off product sales than symbiotic ecosystems and ongoing relationships. And it’s how we envision and deliver projects, and manage these relationships, that ultimately determines how well businesses succeed.
Here are three key lessons I’ve learned over the past 30 years:
1. Culture eats product for breakfast almost every time
I’ve worked at all the major cloud providers, which has given me an insider’s view of every organisation over many years. And the number one thing people ask me isn’t about their products – it’s “what’s the culture like?”
Once upon a time, a tech sales manager would sell a customer a product that did a certain job. That was the end – and for both characters in the story (you hoped), it was happy ever after. With the nature of cloud computing, managed services and ongoing transformation, a typical engagement is no longer about single products that do a single job. It’s about building trust and relationships, and working together to make more meaningful changes at an organisation-wide (or even societal) level over the long term.
The very best partners won’t just give their customers a new solution – they’ll enable them to do more for themselves, to change their own culture and empower their teams to embrace innovation on an ongoing basis.
The truth is, many products do a broadly similar job. A good culture fit is what will really make the difference when it comes to a tech partnership, so it’s important that businesses find the right fit for their organisation, whichever provider they choose.
2. Remember the three Cs: Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration
With all the best planning in the world, a tech implementation seldom goes 100 per cent smoothly. Success is about how you plan to address issues – who do you go to, what’s the procedure – so having good governance in place is paramount. That includes how you prepare teams for new technologies and projects, having a change management plan to bring everyone in your organisation along and build understanding before you start.
These days, customers have to manage greater complexities than ever before, proving to boards that new tech solutions meet requirements around sustainability, data protection, residency or compliance, which is a massive trust undertaking compared with the situation 30 (or even 20) years ago. In my experience, collaborating on a solution in the first place helps iron out a lot of issues, rather than taking a paint by numbers approach.
Feedback from customers is also that they appreciate their feet being held to the fire to ensure they derive the most value from tech deployments and services, interrogating their actual needs and drivers rather than simply offering a product. This is where tech companies are increasingly becoming business advisors and partners for the longer term, rather than one-off vendors.
3. We’re all responsible for tech development
The way we think of technology has changed. In the past, it was possible to simply sell a software product and not be responsible for its use, and maintenance was limited to periodic security patches and upgrades. However, products like cloud are utilities, the same as electricity and gas. Tech companies are no longer just vendors, but infrastructure companies. Just as we’ve moved from electricity generators to a shared grid system, we’ve moved from individual products to full service-level agreements that make cloud vendors responsible for the ongoing quality, availability, security and even sustainability of cloud networks. This also makes tech providers liable for ensuring the technology is used responsibly.
That’s a lot of responsibility, but one that Microsoft takes very seriously, given that cloud has no “shelf life”. It’s why we’re investing heavily in security, as well as engaging with governments and other organisations to help ensure the “cloud grid” supports societies, businesses and the environment, and technology is developed responsibly.
But it’s also on businesses and individuals to hold tech companies collectively accountable for the products and services we create. The big names in tech have made huge strides towards developing technology that’s more inclusive, more empowering, more environmentally sustainable and more humane – but which also has greater impacts on humanity than anyone could ever have imagined. Over the last 30 years, the whole planet has become a tech project, and that’s why the tech sector needs customers to speak up and let us know when change is needed.
In fact, every business is a tech business now, and almost everyone has digital technologies somewhere on their CV. I’m really excited about the innovative solutions and opportunities it will create having so many people collaborating in the digital world. Here’s to the next 30 years.