Lets talk about Tech baby

Spoiler: This is not a new idea, investment in “tech” delivers.

A recent report by McKinsey found that organisations who invested more in digital technology, saw twice the revenue growth than those who didn’t. … 2x… 100% more…twice as much.

Research here at small harbour found that not only is it about the spend on tech, but the perception amongst both the team and the customers as to the how tech-savvy and user friendly the business is affects both staff and customer retention.

Are we saying that investment in Tech increases staff retention? ….. Yes

What tech have you deployed to make the job easier?

Of course tech will save hours and in the big picture that means lower employee costs, but we see lower levels of staff turnover in tech rich environments. Why move to the opposition if your routines are tech enabled? Maximising the ease of communications, the routine or mundane tasks, planning the teams workload transparently are all benefits to be had.

Looking at customers now…

Does the customer feel that the buying experience is tech enabled?
Customers will go where it’s easy to do business (ask any car dealer who didn’t have a web purchasing facility ready for the Covid lockdown)

Tech strategy & ongoing investment

It is not quite like the Forth Road Bridge gig, but yes, the investment never stops and that’s ok if you are continually delivering savings.

It’s not all that simple, we think the culture needs to be “tech savvy”, all leaders in the business need to encourage best use of IT and not allow the culture to blame older systems or the IT support team for the team’s failure to make the best of the tools that they have. To steal a marketing line from the famous black Irish stout, “Tech is good for you“.

Business owners or boards can foster this culture, maximise the return on the tech investment by understanding the tech around them, the suppliers and the attributes of their products and where than can add efficiencies within the company’s processes or in enhancing the customer experience. Same goes for the employees at the competition or similar job roles, what tech is enabling other businesses, get enthusiastic, it will reap rewards.

Blindly throwing money at isolated “get tech quick” ideas ends in disaster time and time again. The team needs to understand the processes as they stand now inside out, to enable successful investment appraisal in “tech” through procurement and finally effective implementation. It doesn’t stop there, the review mechanism and modification spend.

Need help?

We see those businesses that encourage a “tech savvy” and data inquisitive team get the return. Growth is made more possible by engaged managers who really “get” the data underlying their department or service.

They are immediately “on the right page” when innovation ideas are tabled for changes or organic growth and core to delivering on acquisitions.  We often refer to the incremental changes made in GB Cycling understanding the data and then making small purposeful enhancements.

If you are ready to start the journey and need support at board or management level with transforming to that “tech savvy” culture we are happy to help. Contact us here.