Investing and implementing technology in an organization is exciting, rewarding and exhausting. Technology can help drive productivity, which can help us achieve our goals. In order to better understand and implement technology, we need to first identify what kind of adopter we are.
Are you an innovator? You are eager to try and adopt new products that are unproven and under development.
Are you an early adopter? You are an influencer who closely watches new innovation but are more selective than an innovator.
Are you part of the early majority? You are more conservative and risk-averse than innovators and early adopters but look to them for feedback to help you with your research and adoption of technology.
Are you in the late majority? You adopt technology well after the average consumer does because you are skeptical about the benefits of new products and don’t understand innovators or early adopters.
Are you a laggard? You are adverse to change, not easily influenced and want things to be reliable and proven.
Knowing what kind of adopter you are helps you identify technology that best fits you and what technology to weed out. This is important because the early majority, which invests in technology like an innovator, will consistently be frustrated in their purchase, driving the seller mad and driving themselves and their organization mad.
In addition to identifying what kind of adopter we are, we need to identify why we are investing in technology. What problem or problems are we solving? Did you know a 10% labor productivity gain will double a wall and ceiling contractor’s profit? How much profit does saving on material versus labor bring to the bottom line? Once labor dollars are spent, you can never get them back. Materials can be returned or reused. Technology can help drive labor productivity, which will benefit you and your organization for years to come.
Please reach out to me and talk about your successes and failures in investing in technology. I would love to learn from you.
In addition to being 2022–2023 president of the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry, Travis Vap is CEO of South Valley Drywall, Inc. in Littleton, Colo. He looks forward to hearing from you, so contact him at [email protected].
