Comments on: You ARE a technology company

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:14:12 +0000

I think that for this to occur on a grand scale, Ecommerce needs to remain a separate business unit within retail organizations, reporting directly to the president. And the Ecommerce leader needs to be a right brain/left brain balanced leader. These types of people are the ones you find in internet companies today, but they are not easy to find (or easy to attract to a retail company). That is why Amazon can be tech focused. They aren’t being asked to ‘centralize’ their functions into existing marketing/merchandising/ITS departments. Once centralization into existing retail organization structures occurs, ecommerce becomes just another ‘tactic’. And yes, an outsourced tactic due to the lack of true experiential knowledge available within old school retail executives.

By: Kevin Ertell

Kevin Ertell — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:59:32 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Mark and Mark.

Mark F: I completely agree with you about the friction that results when teams aren’t aligned and integrated. I’ve certainly seen it first hand. I’m glad you’re out there advocating!

Mark S: I think it’s probably all of the above. I think lack of knowledge and understanding of technology may be the largest issue, though. It’s always tempting so outsource something that is unfamiliar in the belief that someone else can do it better. I’m just not sure that type of philosophy works for e-commerce, where the technology being outsourced is such a key component of the business strategy, execution and differentiation.

By: Mark Schneyer

Mark Schneyer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:54:50 +0000

I agree, and I wonder where the bottleneck is that prevents this from happening at most retailers. Is it a bottleneck of technical knowledge, and there just aren’t enough people knowledgeable in the right way to go around? Or is it a bottleneck of understanding at the business executive level, where retail execs have thought a certain way for a long time and haven’t changed ways of thinking for a new era? Or is it just politics? (Or all/none of the above?)

By: Mark Fodor

Mark Fodor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:12:54 +0000

Kevin,

I have shared this philosophy for many years and could not agree more with your thoughts. Organizational alignment in my opinion is the highest priority; having technical leaders that are fully integrated and understand the business and vice versa will allow retailers to use the technology to create a competitive edge. All too often retailers feel they need to purchase the technology but do not have a solid plan how to leverage it. this leads to frustration and friction between IT and the business.