By Mike Hart
Anyone who runs a small manufacturing business is wise to learn how to recognize a technology freak and avoid any involvement with that person.
What is a technology freak? It’s a person who falls in love with technology for its own sake. It’s a person of mediocre ability who knows just enough about technology to impress non-technical people with his supposed expertise.
The technology freak is constantly reminding you how knowledgeable he is. He is opinionated and vocal in meetings. He knows what every software company is doing wrong and tells you how much better he would do things were he in charge. He is a name dropper.
Technology freaks prey on small businesses that lack technical knowhow and can’t easily discern true expertise from empty hot air.
Invariably, technology freaks push for more technology, but only when it increases your reliance on that person to run it. The technology freak pushes custom programming because only he will be able to maintain it. His objective, like a drug dealer, is for you to become dependent on his services and to consider him indispensable.
A great many technology freaks are consultants. The reason many of them are consultants is because they don’t have a job. The reason they don’t have a job is that they eventually got “outed” as phonies and now have no choice but to consult.
The technology freak knows nothing about manufacturing processes. Instead of focusing on the fundamentals that really pay off, such as reducing inventory and work in process, he pushes peripheral solutions such as barcode and RFID scanning, mobile inventory, web store integration, EDI integration, CRM integration, and the list goes on. These things are fine at the appropriate time, but the technology freak has no ability to set priorities and elevates anything technical to top priority.
The technology freak leaves wreckage in this path. Not only do these peripheral projects cost a lot of money, but they usually fail because the technology freak is incompetent. He’s a big talker, but can’t walk the talk.
How do you protect yourself against the technology freak? You start by learning how to identify a technology freak. When you interview a potential employee or consultant, the more he talks about technology and all the things he can do for you with that technology, grab hold of your wallet and show him the door.
Mike Hart is the co-founder and President of DBA Software Inc., a leading provider of manufacturing software for small businesses.
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