This from an email sent from a friend of mine in our industry, specifically pointing to the announcement of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing initiative.
Isn’t that the truth?!
Combine the changes in the economy with the changes in our industry - both in terms of technology and in business models - and you may feel like you are in the eye of the storm!
So, what’s a good IT consultant or managed service provider to do? Here’s what we are doing, maybe some of our approach can work for you.
- We’re aggressively looking for ways to increase our gross margins
- We’re aggressively looking for ways to cut our expenses
- We’re developing new services that are less focused on infrastructure management and support, and more focused on business results
- We’re cranking up our sales and marketing efforts
- We’re making sure to spend good, quality time every month discussing changes in the marketplace and how we see them affect our industry
The goal of point #1 and #2 are to give us the flexibility to survive potential tough times.
The goal of points #3 and #4 are to try to take advantage of the opportunity to attack while others are getting defensive.
The goal of point #5 is to make sure we are giving conscious though to how we have to adapt to maintain our trajectory into the future.
Whether or not you take the same approach as we are at Everon, I would suggest that you need to be doing something that achieves all three of the goals I described. If not, I believe that you are really at risk of being tossed by the storm, rather than finding a way to sail through it.
All of this reminds me: the best book I’ve found to date on business strategy in terms of finding new markets to pursue is:
If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest you get a copy!
MRC
