One of my blog's visitors asked me some questions about technology accelerators as described in Good to Great, and she said it would be ok if I posted the response here as well.

If technology cannot make or break a company's level of greatness, but only serves as an accelerator of greatness or demise already in progress, then why did everyone fall in love with technology for technology's sake during the 1990s?

There are three main reasons in my opinion, and some companies might have more than one of them.

I am reading Good to Great at the moment, and it was really exciting to read about the role of technology in a company going from good to great. Every company that really went from good to great had technology play a significant role in every single example. In a few cases the technology was not information technology which reinforces one of the most important points. It is not just deciding on a technology and implementing it that enables the transformation into greatness. The specific application of the technology and how it enables the company and its employees to create competitive advantage is what it takes.

No, those who turn good into great are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake. Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity, in contrast, are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.

So how can you figure out whether you are missing a piece of technology to really enable that move from good to great? To me, one of the first steps is looking at the processes where there is either hidden knowledge or an opportunity to make processes immensely more efficient. When done well, business intelligence solutions can create major competitive advantage. The data your organization collects is more than just a record of sales or the storage of customer information. The data is a resource as much as an employee is a resource, one that should be put to work and utilized to its fullest potential.

If business intelligence is an area that is only slightly familiar to you, I highly recommend picking up an introductory book or taking a class on the subject. While I understood the potential benefits of business intelligence, it was not until I really dove more deeply into the subject that the ideas starting coming on how business intelligence could really transform the way we do business.