We’re all technology managers now

Interesting stuff to report from the last bit of my MBA, which I’m revising this week for an exam on Tuesday (last one! After three and a half stricken years! Yay!).

The module is all about tech management, and the course material strongly supports the thought that media companies will have to become as adept at managing technology as they are producing content if they’re to thrive.

The very first page of the first book of the course uses the newspaper industry as the prime example of how technology management binds general management with traditional science and engineering.

“Printing by moveable type was among civilisation’s best inventions, but latterly newspaper trades failed to innovate. Industrial practices based on craft skills and division of labour gave virtual control to the various trade unions. General management was not only unable to bring in new technology, it remained ignorant of the possibilities… even when management did update, it was often to ‘old’ new technology, such as systems using mainframe computers. Such systems, fully developed to the point of obsolescence, failed to link the end-point objectives of management with technological opportunities; managers were technically ignorant, and hence gullible.

[...]

Technological and business changes in the newspaper [now] cover every aspect, from news gathering to the return of unsold copies. Newspapers are a combination of service (news) and manufacturing (newspapers), but even at the heart of “pure” manufacturing, in metal working industries no less, an observer pinpoints the ‘competitive need to make the right technological choices for the business’ (Probert et al., 2000).

The technology management experts who drew up this course clearly know their onions, so it’s fascinating - if slightly terrifying - to see that, of all the industries in all the world, they picked the newspaper business as the one they’d use first, to highlight the point of their course.

Newspaper industry insiders, as well as close observers, may reflect that industries under much less immediate threat already have a more enlightened, informed view of where technology and its management sits in their business; right at the heart, as a core competence.

But there are bits of this industry still grappling with the worth of blogs (or even simply being online). In the US, they’ve only just got around to the notion - reluctantly - that their most famous newspaper awards should also include online work. See that, and you know there’s a way to go yet.

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COMMENTS / 3 COMMENTS

Interesting stuff indeed Neil, as it raises all sorts of questions for us about where boundaries should be drawn around our jobs, our responsibilities and our skillsets.

It’s no longer enough for us to be journalists, or journalists and managers - we need to be journalists first, highly technically adept secondly and then some of us might fancy ourselves as managers as well.

All well and good, but from a staffing point of view how many people can we actually find who are going to tick those boxes? And is it a realistic expectation that people should be that rounded?

I know it’s a slightly tangential thought, but it is certainly occupying a lot of my headspace at the moment - I just can’t find people who are good enough journalists and who have the technical wherewithall to prepare engaging copy (sorry, I’m trying to fight back against content) for multi-platform distribution.

And then in my own case, I’ve got the journalism runs on the board, I’ve ticked the management skills box and I’m technically adept… but as you would have found with your podcasting project, the pressure to become a technical expert in all areas is huge. We’re working on a video project at the moment and that has virtually turned me into a TV guru. It’s nuts, where does it end?

I guess the upshot of all this is that we have to suck it up and raise our own standards and be responsible for our continuing education because otherwise the geeks will surely inherit the earth.

Allowing the geeks - or the techs, or however you want to describe them - to maintain the upper hand would surely present us with a 1984-esque scenario where Rupert made his Wapping Dash. Are geeks the new troublesome inkies?

Anyway, that’s enough of a ramble for just now. It’s good to hear that you’ve stuck with the MBA and that you’re getting a lot from it.

When are you coming Down Under for a beer?

Muz thought this on Apr 20 06 at 3:50 am

There are two things going on here. First, there’s updating your technology to ensure the on-going value of your business — but the same business. Second, there’s evolving your business to move with changing technologies.

I’m sure Ivan Fallon (your link) would happily advocate the first, and that’s what your textbook is mostly discussing.

But what he rejects (paper/web integration) is a case of the second, and that’s what you’re discussing.

Of course, I totally agree with you that technology and management should be a core competence, and you and I would agree that that entails recognising when you have to evolve your business. But I guess where some people see a two-way process (technology and management inform each other) others see a one-way process (management dictates technology).

Nik thought this on Apr 20 06 at 7:14 pm

Hi Muz (to readers: this is the guy who must share a large portion of the blame for getting me to do an MBA in the first place. He got his years ago). I think the answer to all this, as well as Nik’s useful separation of the various discussions, is that technology management and general management have become, in many (most?) cases, one and the same.

This isn’t the first time such mixes have happened; journalism and management have always been mixed, after all. Journalistic managers now, however, have to add a third string to their bow if they’re to keep up - that of technology.

Then, just to add the cherry on top, all three disciplines - journalism, general management and technology - are changing rapidly, with interactions between the three powering some of that change in each. It’s all a bit bloody complicated. I should draw a diagram, and probably will in tomorrow’s exam