Tech Equity: How to Future Ready Your Small Business and Outperform Your Competition

by Michael C. Fillios

Conceptually viewed as an asset, Tech Equity comprises key components of a company's technology portfolio. SMBs that invest in building Tech Equity are better positioned to navigate crises, take advantage of opportunities, and outperform the competition. This not only translates to higher returns and a more appealing balance sheet, but yields greater talent retention, a heightened focus on the customer experience, and a better understanding of the company itself.

Fillios draws on more than 25 years of experience in business, finance, and IT leadership and includes multiple real-world case studies demonstrating Tech Equity in action, amidst the challenges of the pandemic, as companies compete for survival and search for new opportunities.

123 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of books written today about the titular ‘equity’ in Michael C. Fillios’ new work can be dismissed by certain parties as triumphing worthy ideological goals over practical appliance. Not so with what Fillios does. In the pages of the expertly presented, concise and fluid Tech Equity: How to Future Ready Your Small Business, and Outperform Your Competition, Fillios seamlessly takes the reader from A to Z. There’s never a sense Fillios is grandstanding ideologically without specific example and analogy to back up what he is stating. Sometimes, this means forgoing what semantically would be an attractive read, so the reader is as inundated as possible with facts. Whatever Tech Equity may lack in overt charisma or pacing zeal, it more than makes up for with respect to its target audience. There’s never the sense Fillios is providing filler for any holes in logic. Rather, there’s almost too much – sometimes making the read, again, feel intellectually exclusive. But such flaws are easily dismissed, as the ideas and implemented strategies themselves are critical for an increasingly amorphous, digitized, and altered workplace. Then, of course, there is the impact on an external, worldly scale as businesses’ alterations impact economies, budgets, prices, and populance ratios. “…there is a level of being digitally transformed and cyber-aware that is a requirement for mere survival in today’s economy,” Fillios states, in aforementioned vein. “…The spark of ingenuity that lights the brilliant fire of innovation is often generated in critical moments out of sheer necessity. In recent years, we have seen this phenomenon occur time and again, in all sectors of the U.S. economy. The crises we have endured since 2019 contributed to drastic changes in the way we conduct business, becoming a catalyst for creative solutions.”

He adds, “As COVID-19 surged, relentlessly attacking the global population, vast vulnerabilities in business models were revealed…Where did all this upheaval leave small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the robust heroes and underdogs of the great American economy? Sadly, SMBs were hit very hard by the pandemic and its fallout…Competition remains fierce. If one company does not use technology to their advantage, it's likely their competitors will. Some business leaders look at IT as an afterthought, a necessary evil to help keep the lights on. However, when technology is viewed as a strategic asset or even a strategic weapon, it tends to increase overall business performance.”

Fillios writes with this assuredness that’s actually quite comforting. It sounds precious, but it reminded me personally of how long it’s been to actually feel like you’re guided, not just lectured to, by a bonafide professional. Fillios is not a naturally polished writer in and of himself, but he more than makes up for this by making everything feel as intellectually palatable as possible. Often the ideas and specifics can become tangled in the communication process due to being necessarily complicated. Fillios keeps you abreast, though, easily so. That’s not only rare, but something to be commended.