Technology and You
New Technology - How do you keep up with it?
I have been asked, especially in the past 10 years, "How do you keep up with today's technology? It is moving so fast, how can you possibly understand it all?"
It is a great question, because you can't. You can't keep up with all the technology going on out there; from new cell phone apps and services to enterprise apps or software as a service. There is so much out there and there is no way to keep up on it all.
So what do you do?
First - target and focus on what your industry is in - if you are in the mobile industry, read and study everything you can get your hands on to understand the technology, trends, and upcoming innovation in that market.
Second - take one step away from this target and study other outside influencer's. I have mentioned this before in my postings; imagine a target, with the inner circle being that of your market, the next circle out is influencer's that can/may influence your current market. For example, let's say you are in the magnetic storage industry (hard drives - both internal and external), the next circle out is enterprise storage solutions (because a) they use your magnetic hard drives, but, also have new technology that influences storage, like magneto-optical, or optical (and so on). This next circle is the MOST important area, outside of your main market, to study and be aware of. The next circle is other market influencer's, like, new companies coming out with smaller storage (not just in technology, but also in capacity - like, for another example, the Apple Thin Notebook - Apple is providing a smaller hard drive so it will fit in the laptop - will consumers accept this? If so, how does this impact your market and your revenue?)
Third - Read outside the market publications, from the web to the paper to magazines. Read only those pubs that your customer may also read. A great example, and the basis for your marketing activities, is this: You want a company to purchase your product, but, the purchasing agent doesn't want your product (either too costly (in their mind), doesn't fit their need (because they are ignorant), and so on). But, the purchasing agent is not the person that is going to be using your product, the product is going to be used elsewhere in the organization. Target them. How? They read, they do research, they study, they talk to others. Get in their faces so that they can do the "pull" and tell the purchasing agent to purchase your product.
In other words, do research. Find out what they read and study and get in those pubs. Educate them on your solution and you will get the sale.
It's basic marketing, but, it increases revenue.
So, back to technology - if you do the above steps, you will inherently understand what is affecting your market, what new technologies are coming out, and how to counter them and address them. Remember, your product is already obsolete when you come out with it, but, you need to make the sales. By keeping up with technology IN YOUR MARKET, you can counter it with your marketing efforts, and thus grow the company.
We all have only a limited amount of time in the day - and yes, this does keep you focused in a general marketing category - but, that category is wide and spread across a few industries, thus not locking you into one category (like only storage), but, all technology related to storage - therefore, you can move to other industries quite easily.