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Technology CanÆt Replace Your Best Asset: People
07/ 02/ 2002

by Michael Grebb

In my extensive travels (at least over telephone wires), I often end up chatting with entrepreneurs about their adventures in technology. Recently, I was speaking with Mark Spivak, the founder of Comprehensive Pet Therapy, an Atlanta-based pet training firm with 20 employees. Spivak loves Apple’s Macintosh computer platform; so much so that he recently spent months trying to find a consulting firm that could upgrade his database system without forcing him to switch to Microsoft. That firm--Eagle Technology Consultants--solved his computer conundrum, but Spivak noted one other bonus: The new automated software made him less dependent on his employees. "An outstanding work ethic is hard to find," he told me. "I have more trust in computers than people. The computer is going to work at night, whereas people might be making personal phone calls.”"

Don’t get Spivak wrong. He values his employees and simply uses technology to make better use of them in other areas. But some small business owners take this principle a bit too far, often wondering whether a new computer system or the latest software could completely replace the most unproductive workers. It’s a Jetsons-esque fantasy that seldom migrates from the cartoon world to the real one. And most experts say the dream of replacing expensive employees with technology comes true for only a few; most small business owners are risking folly by viewing technology as an end-all problem solver that can cut the biggest source of overhead--salaries.

"People always look at headcount," says Ed Moran, partner for Deloitte & Touche’s technology, media and telecommunications practice. The irony, Moran says, is that a successful technology deployment might then lead to company growth. Rather than rehire employees, a more efficient long-term strategy might be to reassign existing employees to new areas.

Others agree that small businesses must think long and hard about the consequences of replacing workers with technology. (After all, do customers really appreciate navigating through voice mail systems?). "Technology is not a stand-alone solution," says Linda Swerling, founder of small business consulting firm Level II Solutions in Brookline, Mass. "You don’t cut down on the number of people you need with technology, you cut down on certain functions that require people."

In other words, cutting staff and telling those remaining to take over some of their functions with new technology isn’t always the best course. Swerling uses the example of a sales force remotely entering and tracking their own orders rather than calling them in to clerical workers. "Sales people are not good at detail," she says. "They’re big picture people." Putting them in charge of a complicated database or invoicing system may not pay big dividends, she says.

Perhaps that, more than anything, is a lesson for small businesses: Don’t let yourself be too seduced by technology. It can’t replace your best asset--people.

Grebb is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who focuses on technology and Internet issues.

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This article originally appeared in the June/July 2002 issue of MyBUSINESS magazine.

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