Ice's blog

Current trends and advancements in outsourcing, global commerce and new abstracted levels of technology usage, are indicating new shifts in the way IT companies are thinking as a whole.

In order to stay on the curve, companies are increasingly emphasizing the need for strong non-IT skills in their IT-staff. Those side skills and are gaining value more than ever.

IT professionals in the evolving business environments nowadays are faced with a tough task in their work: to understand a variety of business and other topics, yet to be a specialist when a crisis occurs. It takes more than a pure techie to cope with those challenges; it takes a tech of all trades.

These are the core ingredients of one such person:

Expertise

Expert knowledge and strong IT speciality is a prized possession in any corporate IT environment. It is the backbone of every IT company; without it, your production process will cease to exist. Individuals equipped with strong expertise are the rocks in your organization you can rely to in the time of crises and tight schedules. Obviously, a tech of all trades must be strong in his area of expertise.

Divergent Thinking

In order to stay current, innovative and therefore competitive, you need more than pure work-force; you need a 'divergent thinkers' in your organization. The skill and ability for divergent thinking is perhaps the most valuable side-skill in every professional, no matter the profession. Although it’s not a primary skill, if recognized and properly utilized can become one of the most valuable assets an organization can have.

Having it more present in the units of your organization means that your company’s ability to evolve and innovate will increase. Those kind of divergent thinkers are the ones that will question the most obvious matters and will give a totally new angle in the solution for your problem. To sum up, they are the ones that will ensure your company *thinks* when producing which will undoubtedly result with innovative solutions and designs.

Communication

We can all agree communication is the key to success in any organization. It is the holy grail that will ensure the proper and quick flow of information within the organization, which in turn will eliminate potential misunderstandings that may arise to potential trouble spots.

By employing transparent and clear communication, your organization as a whole will be more cohesive and will act as a single unit.

Flexibility

When times of change occurs your staff should be able to ‘go along with the current’ and with the new technologies. To adjust quickly to these frequent changes of technologies (read customer requests), you need a flexible staff.

You need a staff that can pick up a new technology (or a new way of thinking) quickly. Having a staff that possesses this skill is necessary if you want your products to stay current and competitive on the market and make your customers happy in the same time.

A Business Mindset

In a business environment where you have business goals it is important every single unit of your organization to understand these goals. To be able to do that, you need staff that will be able to ‘see further from it’s responsibility’ and align with the organization’s business goals.

Drive To Success

Without a clear goal and a willingness to achieve that goal, any effort will be in vain. Simply put, your organization is doomed if you have staff that comes on the job just to get ‘off the hook’. Very quickly your projects will collapse like a house of cards.

Conclusion

From the above, at least one statement can be drawn : In order your organization to stay competitive and to melt with the current trends, you need a multi-skilled individuals in your company.

Until next time,
Ice