Tech Equity: How to Future Ready Your Small Business and Outperform Your Competition

By Michael C. Fillios

Conceptually viewed as an asset, Tech Equity comprises key components of a company's technology portfolio. SMBs that invest in building Tech Equity are better positioned to navigate crises, take advantage of opportunities, and outperform the competition. This not only translates to higher returns and a more appealing balance sheet, but yields greater talent retention, a heightened focus on the customer experience, and a better understanding of the company itself.

Fillios draws on more than 25 years of experience in business, finance, and IT leadership and includes multiple real-world case studies demonstrating Tech Equity in action, amidst the challenges of the pandemic, as companies compete for survival and search for new opportunities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667893990

Book preview

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Published by the IT Ally Institute

Edited by Warren Gold and Alyson Gold Weinberg

Cover design by Tracy Fagan

Illustrations by Mimi Eanes

Copyright © 2023 by Michael C. Fillios.  All rights reserve. No part of this publication in any form by any means, Including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission by the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-66-789399-0

Dedication

To my first grandson, Liam Alexander. You warm my heart and show me firsthand why being a grandparent is so fulfilling.

To the rest of my amazing family: my wife Lisa, sons Mike and Griffin, and daughter Sydney, for their unconditional support and love that fuels my purpose for living.

To the IT Ally team and our extended family of allies, thank you for all that you do to serve our clients and support each other. Your dedication and professionalism are unrivaled.

And, finally, to our many SMB clients. We would not exist if it were not for you and your trust and commitment to our company. We have your back, now and forever!

In Memory of John Connors

Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.

-Bob Richards

Contents

Preface

PART 1 – BALANCING ACT

Chapter 1 – Hurry Up Offense

Chapter 2 – Tech Equity Portfolio

Chapter 3 – Tech Equity Influencers

PART 2 – REAL WORLD TECH EQUITY

Chapter 4 – Responding to Crisis

Chapter 5 – The Digital Goldmine

Chapter 6 – Disciplined Technology Portfolio Management

PART 3 – GET READY TO FUTURE READY

Chapter 7 – Sustainable Generation of Tech Equity

Chapter 8 – Diagnosing Tech Equity

Chapter 9 – Tech Equity Playbook

RESOURCES

Tech Equity Diagnostic

Acknowledgements

About IT Ally

About the IT Ally Institute

About the Author

Works Cited

Preface

Over the past year I have been conducting interviews with business leaders, performing in-depth research, writing, and editing this book, Tech Equity. It truly has been a labor of love. As Founder and CEO of IT Ally, with a team to manage and clients to serve, I’m a busy guy. And having already written one successful book on tech, Tech Debt 2.0®, why write another?

That’s a good question, one that I’m conscious of as I put the finishing touches on this book. I believe the answer is simple: I wrote Tech Equity because I consider myself a champion for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). SMBs are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy and the embodiment of the American Dream. The information in this text will prove to be an invaluable guide for SMBs given the current economic climate and state of technological advancement. And the urgency of getting the ideas and tools in this book to you, my readers, and leaders of America’s SMBs, has only increased over time.

Events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian War with Ukraine, inflation, rising interest rates, and the threat of recession, will happen time and again, often unexpectedly. What’s worse is they almost always disproportionately affect SMBs, in some cases threaten their very survival and, at the very least, introduce significant challenges that require thoughtful and innovative solutions so that SMBs can effectively compete and continue to create value for their customers and investors.

My first book, Tech Debt 2.0®, was a guide for SMBs, one that centered on the urgency of managing risk, controlling costs, and preventing crises such as cyberattacks, reputational damage, downtime, and loss of revenue. This is no less relevant today than when I wrote Tech Debt 2.0®. In fact, some of the components of building Tech Equity, the Beta components, specialize in mitigating risk and volatility and keeping the lights on.

Managing Tech Debt 2.0® allows SMBs to keep the utility of IT running reliably and efficiently, enabling the business to run smoothly, with minimal risk and disruption. Conversely, companies that fail to address Tech Debt 2.0® are putting themselves at risk. Note that managing risk does not necessarily translate to the creation of value or provide a leg up when competing against similar companies with access to the same technology.

In fact, there is a level of being digitally transformed and cyber-aware that is a requirement for mere survival in today’s economy. This, of course, presents challenges to SMBs, as they may find it costly to keep up with their competitors, but also highlights the imperative of not just owning and maintaining technology but finding innovative ways to use it to create value and future ready your business.

As I mentioned above, the Beta Tech Equity components are concerned with mitigating risk and volatility. But you will see, echoed throughout this book, that Tech Equity focuses on creating value with the Tech Equity Alpha components. The Alpha components elevate IT from a utility to a collection of specialized tools that produce differentiation and efficiency, thereby creating value.

As you read through the chapters of Tech Equity, we will discuss the Alpha and Beta Tech Equity components in depth and review real-world examples of them in numerous case studies. You will also meet the Tech Equity Influencers: business leaders who have the greatest opportunity to influence and make important decisions regarding Tech Equity. We will talk about the importance of making Tech Equity creation repeatable and sustainable by building Tech Equity muscle memory. And we will introduce the Tech Equity Diagnostic and the Tech Equity Score, which are essential tools for measuring Tech Equity. In the final chapter of this book, we will outline the Tech Equity Playbook, providing a guide to creating and sustaining Tech Equity in your own SMB.

Thank you for picking up this book and welcome to the journey toward becoming future ready as you create value for your SMB with Tech Equity!

PART 1 – BALANCING ACT

Chapter 1 – Hurry Up Offense

There’s a way to do it better - find it.

-Thomas Edison

Disruptions Abound

The spark of ingenuity that lights the brilliant fire of innovation is often generated in critical moments out of sheer necessity. In recent years, we have seen this phenomenon occur time and again, in all sectors of the U.S. economy. The crises we have endured since 2019 contributed to drastic changes in the way we conduct business, becoming a catalyst for creative solutions. As COVID-19 surged, relentlessly attacking the global population, vast vulnerabilities in business models were revealed. The pandemic forced much of the population to stay