All industries move forward (via technology), but some take longer than others. There are usually some good reasons why certain industries (healthcare, for example) shouldn’t be upended overnight; data privacy, lives at stake, etc., but there are also some needless ones.

After working directly with century-old organizations for the past several years, I’ve picked up on a few patterns.

It’s Not Whether or Not They Care; Rather What They Care About

Throughout my first few interactions, and before I got to personally know the folks at the warranty companies we work with, I assumed they simply didn’t care. It turns out that it’s a bit more complicated than that, and I think I realize why.

At a small startup, it’s fairly easy to make an impact (if you try). The lack of scale and red-tape allows any slightly motivated person to take an action against a particular problem, and many times, they can solve it. In an organization with tens of thousands of employees, that’s simply not the case (in general) so if you’re trying to inspire a single person (even someone fairly senior) to help you transform the industry, don’t misunderstand their lack of energy as a lack of interest.

Getting Action

So…what do they care about? Typically, as with anyone, they care about their boss’ perception of them and their paycheck. Many times, those two things go hand-in-hand. This is the oldest trick in the book, but worth restating: figure out how to everyone a bonus. Ignore your company’s mission for the time being and inherit theirs.

Making Progress

What can’t be measured, can’t be improved and if I had a dollar for each time one of our partners in warranty wanted to pull a report, but couldn’t…

I’m coming to understand that this isn’t really just an old company issue, but true for most organizations who don’t make it a priority. I know of one company that’s been trying to implement NPS surveys for going on 2 years now, and still can’t figure it out. This phenomena of organizational inertia (or [extreme] lack thereof) can also be your problem to help solve. I started with data/reporting, but we shouldn’t limit ourselves to that.

However, if you measure what your counterpart wants to (but can’t), you get the power to craft the narrative. And, as we all know, that is powerful.

Meet Them Where They’re At?

If we had it our way, our customers would do things differently; they’d all have an API, embrace automation, move quicker and have a higher appetite for risk. And then, the problem we’re solving wouldn’t exist. So be careful what you wish for and be more patient than your competitors as many times, it’s the last man standing (as opposed to the first mover) who takes the cheese.

Displacement

This is the uncomfortable part of innovating alongside old-industry folks. We’re all familiar with the “will AI/Software/Technology take my job?” question, but when you’re success relies on your counterpart or customer potentially being displaced, it gets tricky.

What’s helped me here is make sure they see this displacement coming, and to help place them in a position to be on the right side of it, by being an active player in it.

In Closing

I love working with these people, primarily because it’s refreshing. The tech-world gets mundane quickly and getting a chance to slow down and understand what life is like in rural Iowa is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise fast-paced week. To borrow from Bill Walsh’s The Score Takes Care of Itself; fixate on your inputs (how you work with your customers) and the outputs (modernizing an industry) will take care of itself.