Duct Tape Marketing has an article with an incredibly insightful title, “Is CRM a Culture or a Software?”. In his posting, John opines that:

CRM starts with a strategic approach to marketing, a strategic approach to selling and a strategic approach to maximizing customer relationships. Nail those things and pretty much any of the major CRM tools can be customized to make it happen. Too many people waste lots of time and money trying to apply technology to fix a problem caused by a lack of business strategy.

Right on!!!!

Getting Skinny

While it is particularly prevalent with CRM, the phenomenon of “wishful purchasing” is seen across all organizations, especially with regard to information techology. Often, we think that if we just get the right hardware, software, and applications in place then our organization will be transformed into what it really ought to be.Which, of course, is complete balderdash. Hogwash. Horse Hooey.

This is the Atkins approach to information architecture, and in the long term it doesn’t work. You don’t lose weight by buying smaller sized clothing. You need to be eating sensibly, exercising, and dealing with the issues that got you to where you are in the first place.

What I am Trying to Say

I have seen organizations that have happy, profitable customers and don’t have any infrastructure ouside of a few spreadsheets. At the same time, I have seen organizations that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into technology and are losing customers at an epic rate. The tools didn’t make the difference, the culture did. Information Architects need to understand this so they can avoid the systems that are not going to deliver tangible value to their organization.

As John said,

The best … tool is the one you and your staff will actually adopt and adapt to achieve better sales results and automation.

Wishful purchasing is just an expression of consumerism in an organization.  Just because there are lots of people (salespeople, consultants, trade magazines, web sites, blogs, etc.) that tell you that you need something doesn’t mean that you do. Tools are tools, they enable you to do what it is you want to do. If you have organizational issues, spending money on infrastructure is just going to accentuate and reinforce those them.

This month’s Wired has an interesting article about the artist Beck and the release (and re-release) of Guero. Unlike traditional music release cycle, this body of work was released:

a) online as an unfinished mix that was leaked in late 2004; (b) as the official 2005 Interscope CD release, which contained most of the tracks on the leaked version plus a few new songs; (c) as the deluxe CD/DVD edition, complete with seven bonus tracks, a surround sound mix, and interactive video art to accompany every song; (d) in one of the many unauthorized fan mashups floating around the Net; (e) not as Guero at all, but as Guerolito, a commercially released companion piece featuring remixes by Diplo, Adrock, and Boards of Canada.

While I am a fan, you might be wondering why I am writing about Beck here. The thing that captivated me about the article was the way that the artist described his relationship with “the suits” at his label:

Does your label, Interscope, ever balk at your ideas?

Actually they’ve been great about everything. The labels are trying to figure all this stuff out just like everyone else, and I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to do so much experimenting to see what works. I’ve also been lucky because I signed a unique record deal back when I started that allowed me to try out a lot of weird things and even record different types of albums for different labels. I think that set me up nicely for where things are currently headed.

Isn’t all that repackaging just about making ways to sell more product?

I guess that’s part of it, but for me it’s more about giving the music legs, giving people new ways to experience it. There are so many ways to integrate technology into music; I can’t wait to see how the opportunities end up being put to use.

Why This Is Interesting

Recently, I talked about the culture wars that I see over the horizon as demographics begin to take over the workplace. In this context, think about the relationship between Beck and Interscope that I mentioned above. It is a creative partnership between an artist, his audience, and a business that is mutually beneficial. This is the face of innovation, smiling at us from just a bit down the road.

One of the massive changes every organization is going to have to deal with in the coming years is the arrival of the millenials in the workplace. These are folks who have been raised on the Web, IM, and SMS. They are digital natives, who think nothing about taking two disparate systems and tying them together with AJAX or whatever is at hand. This is going to be a scary time for a lot of IT organizations, especially ones who are led by digital immigrants. It will be the changing of the guard, the face-off between two cultures who are both large, ego-driven, and don’t want to be ignored.

In my time in the industry, I have seen (and heard recounted) the history of a number of cultural conflicts:

• Mainframes vs. Midframes
• Midframes vs. PC’s.
• Copybooks vs. Databases
• Databases vs. Spreadsheets
• Memos vs. Email

In each of these cases, the “old timers” resented the “young turks” who had no respect for how things ought to run. At the same time, the turks resented the fact that they had to work so hard to do somethng that was so obviously needed. In retrospect, it wasn’t an issue of right or wrong, it was a question of new vs. established.

Why This Matters

It is really, really hard to look out on the world and see that you are on the other side of the “us vs. them” line. The same baby boomers who decided not to trust anyone over thirty are now pushing sixty and looking back. They empathize with their parents a little more, and find themselves starting their sentences with phrases like, “The kids today …” Conflict is brewing, and it is brewing hot, our quote for the week not withstanding.
Recently we been witnessing some skirmishes of our own, such as:

• Email vs. IM
• IM vs. SMS
• PC’s vs. Web 1.0
• Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0
• Web 1.0 vs. CMS
• CMS vs Blogs
• SOA vs. Databases
• Compiling vs. Scripting

How is your organization doing in the culture wars? And who’s side are you on, anyway?

The Bottom Line

There is a changing of the guard occurring. This isn’t because of moral failings or ineptitude, it is simply demographics. Still, it is happening. You have to understand it, plan for it, adjust to it, and embrace it. This is simply going to be the reality for the next 30+ years. The people who are setting the standards are not going to be the ones around to deal with it.

Information architecture will be key in making millenials productive in your organization. This is very important to your bottom line and you need to take this seriously. The pace of change is going to be increasing in the IT industry after the lull from the dot-com bust. The most best organizations are going to be able to take advantage of this, the others will struggle to replenish their workforce.

As an example, I have worked for technology related companies that don’t allow IM. While for most of my co-workers this wasn’t a problem, it almost caused me not to take the job and most certainly pushed me to purchase a phone that allowed me to do it. I can’t imagine a 25-year-old PhD with a blog who lives on IM thriving in that kind of environment. The company I am thinking of thrives on talent and innovation, and I think they are shooting themselves in the foot with this kind of policy.

Conclusion
So, it turns out that Elvis wasn’t the end of western civilization, nor were The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. Neither was Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Metallica, or Marilyn Manson. However, trying to paint them as such was the end of the line for would-be crusaders like Tipper Gore.

Locking things down isn’t the answer. Hooking people up is.