Business is like a game of poker—a few careless moves will have you trading in your designer clothes for a barrel with suspenders. New business ventures, particularly Internet ones, present thrilling opportunities; we come across them regularly at ICMediaDirect.com. While I’ve noticed that there’s so much that’s needed to make a success, I’m also learning that the best way for a business to shore up a solid business plan is to invest in human capital or more specifically, invest in geeks.
Most people find the image of a savvy businessman quite divergent from that of a geeky programmer. However, when these two personas collide in an individual, the results can be spectacular. Look no further than Google, a company founded by two tech geniuses with a flair for the bottom line. Those two know the value of geeks, they’ve been almost fanatical in hiring the brightest people available. It’s said Google has 5,000 PhDs in-house, mostly engineers. This strategically places Google above the competition. It must, they ate the talent pool.
Businesses need geeks now more than ever. Success in the global marketplace for companies requires constant innovation, continued learning and value creation; when these human pursuits are met, profits ensue. With an obsessive-compulsive technophile, you can expect innovation to occur all the time, even on Friday nights.
But how useful or practical is a guy with good ideas but no conception of the bottom line? Not very. Any well-seasoned businessman will tell you that company demographics are important. You have zombie-like phone drones and customer reps, pushy managers and creepy tech dudes. But with technology and the Internet becoming so crucial to almost all facets of the business landscape, there’s more need than ever to bridge the gap between the executive washroom and the tech basement floor office. And who better to do that than someone who knows how to efficiently run computer systems to mesh with seasonal sales plans or geo-targeted resource logistics? The nature of technology assures the geek’s place in today’s boardroom.
A business geek possesses the aptitude to improve existing technology and the motivation to get it done. Everyone knows that today’s successful business could be obsolete tomorrow because of technological innovation. Recent history is littered with high fliers done in by “The Next Big Thing”. This is why the world of commerce needs people who have a genuine interest in learning, and not just someone who learned years back in order to nab an MBA. Not only do geeks love to learn, but they experiment with their knowledge. And the business savvy geek your company wants is the one who understands that building the latest chess supercomputer is not why you have his or her resume.
Most importantly, geeks are concerned about results, not office politics, not cocktail parties. In some aspects of the business world, contacts and networking can get you the job even when your skill set is lacking. However, in geek culture, talk is cheap and results are ultimately what matters. Results gain respect. Business geeks can offer their vast technical skills, passion for learning, and cutthroat work ethic to make you money, and make themselves the envy of other geeks.
Do you ever wonder why most businesses fail, while only some succeed? Perhaps the answer can be found in this geekspeak saying: “There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.” I rest my case; invest wisely.
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