It’s the Team that Makes the Difference
Those of you who know me have heard me say this before: when it comes to large-scale IT projects it is people, not technology, that makes the difference between success and failure. In the almost 20 years since Handel was founded I have been involved in well over 100 major software projects. Add in the projects from my pre-Handel days and that number grows to about 150. Sure, technology itself is key to success in any technology project. However, from my experience, technology never stands in the way of making a project a success or failure. If you have the right people involved, the technology part will work itself out. Likewise, if you have the wrong people involved, great technology is not going to save the project. Year after year, I credit the Handel team and our customers for the long string of successful RiteTrack projects. This year has been no different. In fact, this past year has seen some of the most complex projects in the history of Handel and in each and every instance, the projects have been very successful. As with most IT projects, there is a positive correlation between the amount of complexity and the number of people involved. The more complexity and the more people involved, the greater the risk and thus the greater the possibility for failure.
This past week has been quite eventful. Tuesday I attended the annual Wyoming Business Forum. Keynote speaker for this event was Rob O’Neill, best known as “the man who killed Osama Bin Laden”. Hearing his story first hand was spell binding. The conclusion: In spite of him being the one who pulled the trigger, taking out Bin Laden was very much a team effort of the most elite navy seals, SEAL Team Six. If you have not seen the Fox News Special on this, I suggest visiting Rob’s web site. http://www.robertjoneill.com/ Rob very much credits the team, not the individuals, of their success.
This weekend I was California attending the Big Game between Stanford and Cal Berkley. While there I had the opportunity visit Apple’s campus in Cupertino as well as Google’s campus in Mountain View. Getting behind the scenes at these two high-tech companies was a great experience. Perhaps the thing that struck me most was that none of the employees I encountered there looked any different than the employees I know at other companies. I am not sure what I had expected? Super-humans perhaps? Nope, didn’t see anyone who appeared to have super-human characteristics. Then what is the difference? What is the secret to the success of these companies? I believe the difference is the team and the team culture that these companies have created. Bringing the right people together on a team is what ultimately creates success. Whether SEAL Team Six, Apple, Google, or Handel, having the right people in the right place for the right project is what I believe makes the difference between failure and success.
As we enter this holiday season, one of the things I am the most thankful for is the amazing group of people we have here at Handel. Perhaps more than any other accomplishment, having helped assemble this world class team we have here, is one of the things I am the most proud of. When you put the three ingredients together, our team, our customer’s team, and the RiteTrack platform, success is close at hand!
