You Reap What You Sow - Technology Leaders Worried About 2010

An interesting set of posts have been published recently such as this one from Network World entitled "IT Departments Need Right Skills to Recover in 2010". Basically many organizations are worried that they no longer have the talent necessary to succeed in the upcoming year.

This question is fairly typical and rolls around every year. However what I find very fascinating this year is that the general concern among not just departmental heads or even a CIO, but rather whole organizations. On the one hand most organizations realize that they need to make far better use of their technology. Recent projects that I have engaged with have valued my abilities and experience greatly and in several cases extended permanent offers. What I realized was that I was highly discerning about the offers I received. Many of the projects reflected the sheer chaos within these larger organizations. Most still were not in total agreement that innovation was really worth the price in terms of risks based on organizational disruption and what not. From an employee view, I definitely knew many of the existing professionals were planning departures as soon as the economy picked up. The reasons were many: they did not believe that the company valued them in the long term, they were pessimistic in that they firmly believed that the organizations were merely using bandaid measures and not fully committing, they were working really long hours with their input being ignored on how to make things better, and worst of all their ideas and contributions were being swept aside.

Admittedly there are a few workplaces that do extremely well but these are the exceptions, not the rule. They also happen to be the organizations that have done extremely well in the downturn as opposed to their competition.

The general negative outlook from employees is reflected in surveys cited in these posts. A very large number of organizations know they are on what I call "thin ice" with their technology staffs and especially the top talent. I know from so many of my contacts that unless there is a lot of fundamental change there will be a lot of personnel moving around. I also know based on what I hear and see, that the leaders will continue to attract top talent and achieve what they need for their organizations. I see 2010 where professionals disenchanted with corporations in a manner not seen since the "dot.com bust" no longer see traditional companies in favorable light. As a result they will be getting lowering levels of talent which will make their technology investments even more precarious.

However given the general mismanagement of technology talent in companies this is not unexpected. All organizations in my opinion "reap what they sow"; and in terms of 2010 I fully expect to see many companies losing ground when they should in fact be gaining.