What sits within the cross section of our talents?

While having dinner with a couple of friends the other night a discussion came up of where each of our businesses were going in respect to our city, state and region. Everyone at the table is either a new entrepreneur with a service based businesses model, or had been one at some point. The, enviable, topic of trying to move from a 100% service (billable hour) to purely a software as a service model (monthly reoccuring revenue) eventually reared it’s head.

I’m not going to go so far to say that I don’t like software as a service, I’m a huge fan. I’m not convinced that it’s the end-all-be-all-for model to build within our region. Yes, the SAS model does offer (currently) the best economics currently, but is it the right business to build here in respect to resources, talent and focus?

I drew the diagram above on a napkin. Grand Rapids, and West Michigan in general, have some very interesting companies moving from their historical center of expertise to one of the cross sections, but I’m not sure if anyone has figured out what lays in the middle. I’m not saying that every new successful business will hit dead center of this three way intersection, but to me it’s one that’s rather intriguing.

What problem space is waiting to be solved at this cross section? Do you think anyone is already doing, or well onto their way, all three of these equally well?

We don’t hire commodity workers

Last night at the aimWest Innovation panel a great statement was mentioned by one of the panelists that stuck in my mind. “We don’t hire commodity workers.” That short, one sentence, line provides a great deal of insight into the culture, direction and fortitude of the company, department and team members. Not just top down, but even the expectation placed on fellow coworkers.

In today’s environment, especially within the tech arena, there’s a large demand for talented people. The gotcha is it’s not a demand for someone who can just take a spec and write some code, or someone who just pulls a cable from point A to B. For teams to be effective all members have to hold the skill set to communicate, think analytically, question and deliver.

The day of the one trick poney is done. Companies want collaboration, collaboration doesn’t work with commodity talent.