Is slow adoption of technology killing your business?

The business world has never been as divided as it is today.

Up one end are the bleeding edge adopters who are on top of the latest technology developments before they are officially released, most of whom are at the forefront of their respective industries. At the other, struggling smaller businesses who still use pen and paper bookkeeping and think the web is still something occupied by nerds.

Think I’m exaggerating? Well I can tell you that in the last 12 months I’ve had smaller clients who on one occasion I’ve had to instruct how to add an attachment to an email and on another, how to use the BCC function of their email.

Because by their nature, the vast bulk of smaller organisations take longer to adopt new communication techniques than their bigger brothers and sisters.

Scale = tech savviness

This is simply a result of scale. Larger organisations can easily find budget to hire specialists to guide them through new developments while smaller organisations have to either find time to learn it for themselves or hire a less expensive (ie. not as clever) expert.

So while larger organisations are generally ‘up to speed’ with taking on the latest developments, only the extremely informed, cashed up or time rich of smaller organisations get to do the same.

This leads to a very long tail of adoption compared to their larger counterparts, as illustrated here.

Some nimble and aggressive

The more tech savvy smaller business are able to adopt technology quickly because there is less bureaucracy involved in exploring and implementing it. Not unlike a minnow changing direction compared to a super tanker.

So these tech savvy SMEs enjoy rapid success because not only do they beat their similar size competitors to a slice of whichever flavour of online pie they are eating, but they can also outflank slow moving large competitors.

Hence the comparatively high number of online start-ups that have simply stolen the march on heirs apparent to the various online thrones to become fast successes.

For example, Google started from a university computer lab and quickly gained market share over both established corporations and directory heirs apparent, to become the fastest growing company in corporate history.

And while Apple was hardly a minnow, it didn’t have a presence in the music category at all before it stole the march on well-heeled traditional music retailers with its iPod and iTunes businesses.

Similarly, the fresh thinking of these businesses is simply too clever for those stuck with the ‘old way’ of doing things.

Then there are the businesses that probably wouldn’t have been possible without the web, such as Aussie start-ups Seek, Red Balloon Days and SourceBottle.

Small generally equals slow

But compared to most larger organisations and these more tech-savvy SMEs, the majority of SMEs take considerably longer to adopt technology and so fall behind both these types of organisations.

The bad news is that this adoption lag can damage a smaller business irreparably.

Not only do they get stuck with older and generally more expensive promotional methods, but they do not get the productivity gains that technology brings.
This means that competitors start to undercut them on price because the cost of providing the product or service is lower and overheads are less and they are more profitable.

Soon the laggard business either struggles to survive at all or has to invest heavily in investigating, implementing and learning introduced technologies.
And by then it could well be too late!

Getting web savvy quickly

So how to adopt technology when you are already time and cash strapped?
One advantage of being slow to adopt is that by the time you are ready to look at a new technology, it will be considerably less expensive than when your competitors adopted it much earlier.

So you can use this to your advantage.

But what is as critical is getting tech-savviness batting for you. If you can’t hire someone who can steer you through this maze, then there are a now a range of affordable services to help educate and guide you to what is going to work for you.

But don’t hesitate to bring this expertise into your organisation.

Early intervention will not only save you time and money but potentially your business itself.

For more Internet Secrets, click here.

Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.