Every morning, I spend a few minutes getting the news, reviewing the business climate, and reading a few different blogs. On Wednesday, Seth Godin’s post, Scale vs. Speed: Why Organizations Slow Down really caught my attention.
As a smaller software manufacturer, we face many challenges in managing and growing our business. Seth’s blog reviewed some things we all face, regardless of our respective industries, as well as some of the causes that get us to those positions.
I had to laugh, though. He noted many things could have easily been written specifically for the software business.
He noted that more bodies don’t always translate to better results. Working through challenges with a large team can be cumbersome – and slow to produce.
But assembling a large team is itself a challenge in today’s job market. It seems as though quality folks are scarce, and the ones available are overpriced (in my opinion). This has forced us to rethink and adapt our development approach to stay fresh, relevant, and creative.
Labor isn’t the only resource challenge. All types of product resources are experiencing increased costs and diminished availability, forcing us to get creative in multiple aspects of our business.
The same is true for our clients. On the upside, our mobilePLUS solution was built to streamline and optimize their asset management activities, enabling them to get more from their asset investments while requiring fewer labor resources to do so.
Regardless of the challenges you face, staying fresh and innovative with a quality mindset and execution doesn’t take a holiday. They just provide us with an opportunity to learn and grow.
While I would appreciate a vacation from these ever-changing challenges, they are also appreciated. It’s nice to have reminders like Seth’s blog to shed new or different light on the issues we may face and sometimes offer fresh ways to move forward.
After all, innovation isn’t just about products but also operations.
