Biggest barriers that prevent businesses from going tech

I sit in an ecosystem where new ideas and permutations of current technology based solutions are churned out daily, reimagining day to day living, business processes and value extraction.

Some of these ideas are brilliant in every way, triggering the “why has no one thought of it in this way before” eureka moments and probably fuelling the dreams of soon to be newly acquired wealth status from the imagined uptake of services by thousands, even millions perchance. That stage of ideation and creation is most exciting and many entrepreneurs work feverishly towards getting that first flavour of services up and running.

Reality often times hits when it comes to testing the product or service in the market, and this happens whether or not the techpreneur indulged in some form of market sizing or product fit missions. It is caused by a phenomenon not of their own making but one that they must navigate if they are to see their creations gain traction.

While some potential customer segments have a real need, the following two challenges are probably the most deflating that I have experienced when trying to position a service — primarily because there is no prescribed fix for them as they are hinged on the human condition.

Laziness: To call it as it is, many potential customers expect technology to solve everything for them, essentially absconding them from the need to put in actual work. With halfhearted, ad hoc usage even when the tools require no additional specialised skills, coupled with the expectation of immediate turnaround or results, the tool and the technology are quickly dubbed as useless and discarded.

Ego: This comes into play when a potential customer feels that they have domain knowledge of an industry or segment and its ways of work and they therefore have no need to learn or change anything.

This will be despite the fact that their businesses have not seen any growth over time, they have no visibility on the health of their enterprise or they are experiencing diminishing returns.

Many do not take too kindly to the suggestion that they are not doing something right.

The above mentioned phenomena, I have observed in small and medium sized enterprises that have the biggest need to refine processes, market efficiently, figure out book keeping and in general make small adjustments and form new habits that will bring a marked difference in their operations from increase in customers, stabilised and predictable cash flow and access to capital.

Perhaps if the majority opt for entrepreneurship as conscious decision and not a fallback plan, more SMEs will seek out any advantage that technology can bring to their operations. How to fix this at population scale, I do not know.

Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic.
Twitter: @mbuguanjihia.