Embrace Geeks

I read an interesting blog post the other day on Business Pundit.com by Rob May entitled "Why Business Needs More Geeks". Being a geek at heart, I was pretty interested to see what he had to say.

The article makes some great points about how work has become a necessity as opposed to a desire, and how most companies view their employees as expenses and not assets. This results in both employer and employee viewing the other as expendable.

It hasn't always been like that - the author blames Wall Street (and I tend to agree). Wall Street has everyone focused on immediate gains. CEO's have to show profit increases from quarter to quarter or they are gone.

What takes a giant hit when this happens? Innovation and customer satisfaction. You are no longer innovating for the long haul. You are no longer trying to satisfy your customers and grow your business for the future. You are solely focused on satisfying your investors in the short term. Sometimes that might include innovating and meeting your customers needs, but too often it doesn't.

So what should we do about it? Rob's solution is embrace geeks!

I love business and I want to see it return to the days of true capitalistic competition. The days of business by legal and/or customer manipulation should come to an end.

So what can we do? How can business return to the roots of capitalism? By embracing geeks.

He gives five compelling reasons, but the most important in my opinion is #5 - Geeks are about results, not office politics. I fancy myself to be a results oriented kind of guy who HATES office politics. That was one of the main reasons that I quit my job to run my own business.

Imagine working in a company where the business leaders embraced these geeky ideas. Imagine the impact a company could have if filled with people who always wanted to learn, debate, and do things the right way instead of the easy way. Imagine working with business geeks who love what they do because they believe business itself is ultimately cool and fun.

It all comes back to people doing what they love. Many geeks LOVE what they do - I don't always know if that's always the case for people in marketing or advertising. If you are more focused on sabotaging your co-worker than getting the job done, you should be fired. In my mind it's that simple. I only want to be around people that believe in what they do and have a passion to succeed the proper way. As Rob May pointed out, that just happens to be geeks more often than not.