{"id":50561,"date":"2017-07-24T19:53:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T19:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webolutionsmarketingagency.com\/denver-executives-seek-stay-ahead-curve\/"},"modified":"2023-09-13T19:47:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T19:47:05","slug":"denver-executives-seek-stay-ahead-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webolutionsmarketingagency.com\/denver-executives-seek-stay-ahead-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver Executives Seek to Stay Ahead of the Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat is the curve?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thus opened the July, 2017, installment of Webolutions\u2019 Executive Roundtable luncheon series, which promised an engaging discussion on Staying Ahead of the Curve<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Several examples of \u201ccurves\u201d were given.<\/p>\n

In a meeting room with\u00a0a backdrop spotlighting i\"Acceleratingnnovators in communication including Johannes Gutenberg, Alexander Graham Bell, and Steve Jobs; in the afterglow of Amazon.com\u2019s acquisition of Whole Foods and on the day that company publicly identified Blue Apron as a competitive target, Webolutions Founder and CEO John Vachalek<\/a> displayed the curve representing the accelerated growth in technology and asked the group, \u201cIs it possible to stay ahead of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

One attending CEO shared his struggle of going to market with a technology product that was \u201cof its time, and on the technology curve, but ahead of our target customers\u2019 ability to easily comprehend.\u201d (Vachalek, who started a website development company<\/a> in 1994, offered empathy.) Another attendee plainly admitted he was knowingly operating well behind the curve: \u201cI recall reading a Webolutions article several years ago,\u201d he noted, \u201cabout the importance of making your website mobile-friendly. We still haven\u2019t gotten around to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

These comments and others framed a discussion around Dr. Everett Rogers Technology Adoption Curve, whereby the former executive would identify as an Innovator, and the latter a Laggard. It should be noted the gentleman smiled and responded politely when asked if he still owned a rotary phone. This curve, all agreed, applied not just to technology but to the adoption of any new idea.<\/p>\n

\"Diffusion<\/p>\n

The executives concluded one problem with such diagrams is they are one-dimensional. Today\u2019s executive confronts technology curves, adoption curves, innovation curves, culture development curves, employee satisfaction and retention curves, workflow tool and process curves. Within the curve for a technology product, noted the group, progress along multiple curves must be managed. Personal computer external and internal hardware curves, user expectation curves, operating system curves, social media curves, web and mobile application curves, integration curves\u2026<\/p>\n

Additional discussion threads included:<\/p>\n