So far, 2016 has been a year of tremendous change. From accelerating technology shifts – cloud, IoT and mobility – to market changing acquisitions such as Microsoft’s purchase of Linkedin, or Western Digital’s acquisition of Sandisk.  We have seen robust hiring by many high tech companies, but also significant layoffs by Seagate, Intel, EMC, HP, NetApp and others. VC funding, a key barometer of the future of the high tech industry, is flat from 2015; however, a closer look at the funding trends show a 29% decrease in number of deals and most of the new funding going to already established unicorns such as Uber, Snapchat and Slack (source: Pitchbook). Investments for innovative, new, young companies are severely crunched.

Such changes obviously pose risks, but also provide new opportunities for technology companies. The companies that will thrive in the current market environment are companies who build agility and rapid feedback access points into all processes so that investments yield positive ROI, and course corrections are made quickly. Market changes must be addressed and leveraged as soon as possible, before a new development makes them irrelevant.

Resource Flexibility

One area where agility must be built into organizations is that of resource flexibility. Within marketing teams, we find that more companies are relying upon flexible resourcing models to bring in the right skills quickly and make changes, as required, rapidly. New initiatives and products can be launched faster and successful programs can be extended with the right people who are available “on-demand. It’s estimated that 40% of the workforce will be “on-demand” by the year 2020 (source: Intuit), and according to a recent Oxford Economics survey, 83% of executives indicated plans to increase their use of interim workers.

As we work with high tech leaders such as Cisco, NetApp, Western Digital, Equinix, Plantronics and high growth companies, we are increasingly hearing the need for flexibility. We exist to provide agility to our clients. We can rapidly bring in seasoned marketing professionals with the right marketing skill set and technology background to fill a short term need, a longer term contract role, or a contract to permanent hire need. We execute quickly, effectively and within clients’ budgets. Most client needs can be met within 1 to 2 weeks.

How can we do this? Well, we have a tremendous network of high tech marketing professionals and we have strong ties into marketing communities, nationally and internationally. This means that we can fill the gaps in your organization quickly and cost effectively, so you can achieve your goals and succeed in the current volatile market.

Let’s have a conversation. Please contact me at [email protected] or call me at 408-887-1033.

We look forward to working with you to create success in the second half of 2016.

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