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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | JUNE 26, 2001 TECHNOLOGY Across the Geek Divide Techies aren't renowned for communication skills, which can be a real problem when software clients want to meet the person behind the code
The extroverted geek looks at your shoes, rather than his, when he talks to you. There is some truth to the stereotype that many technologically oriented employees would rather commune with computer code or hardware than the world at large, say those who head software companies -- the same people who are now finding that potential customers want to hear from their techno wizards, aka geeks. Increasingly, software sales teams must include a programmer, one who is comfortable talking with a roomful of marketing and financial executives. Technical degrees, traditionally, do not cover the communication and management skills that are part of, say, an MBA or marketing degree, so software companies find themselves doing in-house training. Vivek Wadhwa, founder and CEO of Relativity Technologies, which modernizes legacy software systems, uses trial-and-error coaching to get a programmer to be part of the sales team. One of Relativity's best salespeople is also its Russian-born chief technology officer, Len Erlikh. Because Erlikh was a brilliant technician, "I would push him in front of customers, then critique him when it was over." After many such sessions, Erlikh has become "awesome" on sales calls, said Wadhwa, adding that experience tells him that about one-third of all techies have great potential as business people. One of the reasons he's willing to spend a lot of time coaching that one-third is because it is how he was transformed from a "clueless" programmer into a capable CEO. PARTY WITH A GEEK. Before founding Relativity Technologies, in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, Wadhwa was chief technology officer at Seer Technologies, founded by Gene Bedell in the early 1990s. "He got ahead because of his technical prowess and general aggressiveness," says Bedell. The trouble is, Wadhwa would say what was on his mind rather than listening to the customer. Bedell still winces, for example, at the memory of losing a big corporate client when Wadhwa told its team that they were, in effect, "a bunch of dopes." Adds Bedell: "Those guys would never talk to me again." Fortunately, "constant coaching" transformed Wadhwa, says Bedell, unlike some technical people he has worked with who proved to be "constitutionally incapable of listening." Wadhwa says that what he learned from Bedell, author of Three Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way, is that "all the world's a sales call." Why does the CEO bother to work so hard on the technology employees' communications skills? The way the salespeople get credibility with the customer is to bring the tech person with them. "We call it genius-on-a-string," Wadhwa says, alluding to a pull toy. Why would the technology-minded work so hard to be a salesperson? Because the ones who help make the sales get the promotions and the biggest salaries. THE TECHIE DIVIDE. "Those who can communicate literally raise themselves above the pack," says Harry E. Chambers, whose book, Effective Communication Skills for Scientific and Technical Professionals, was published in June, 2001. His book quotes Elizabeth Haggerty, program manager for business and manufacturing process improvements at the Carrier Corp. in Hartford. She has both engineering and MBA degrees. "The path of being an engineer/scientist and spending the rest of your life as an individual contributor does not really exist anymore. If you really want to get promoted, get salary increases, and be recognized for your contributions, you need to have [communication] skills." Things are changing, but they still have a way to go. In his work as a consultant, Chambers has noticed how, "Techies will roll their eyes and talk about all those other people, and all those other people will roll their eyes and talk about the techies. It impacts productivity in companies today." That's why, he says, at more companies, bridging that communication gap is increasingly part of the job. "If Susan is having trouble with her computer, it's no longer acceptable for the computer technician to say, 'Susan just doesn't get it.' Unless she is certified as below-average intelligence, it's part of the technician's job to get the information she needs across to her," Chambers said. He is optimistic that this "disconnect" between the technical and non-technical side will change "because it has to -- but it ain't gonna be tomorrow." PARTY WITH A GEEK? Goldman, too, thinks the problem eventually will disappear. Many of those who, traditionally, have been attracted to computer technology "are there because they want to avoid the problems of communicating with people," he says. But as technology becomes an ever more pervasive part of the knowledge economy, those techies with a broader array of skills and a more outgoing personality will begin to see technology as a career option. "Society will adapt," Goldman says. "What happened in the dot-com explosion was that we saw those people could make a lot of money and have a lot of impact. People are now willing to date computer programmers. The problem will solve itself as it becomes cool to be a geek." Whatever their communications difficulties today, it sounds as if those geniuses on a string are likely to have the last word.  Theresa Forsman in New York Edited by Robin J. Phillips  | | |
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