Understanding Customer's Vision Is Key Says Philadelphia Tech Manager
Dave Spencer works for SAP North America in the east region. He is the managing director and his duties include navigating the market operations of the business, strategic planning, development, customer service, and regional growth for the pipeline.
What sort of education is needed to successfully do your job?
"My formal education is in accounting, but for me, it's really about taking my formal education and adding the business experience that I have acquired over the course of my career. Learning how business works, how the processes work within an organization has been the real business education. I like to say it's not defined by a moment in time, it is a continual process of learning and always being on the lookout for ways to educate myself. This involves both learning internally with SAP, as well as understanding industry-wide best practices. That means constant reading, interacting with others, and keeping relevant."
What is the most relevant aspect of your education that applies to your day-to-day job?
"My accounting and finance education has given me a mindset to think of cause and effect, and that for every action there is a reaction. For example, if you are going to allocate resources to a project, you're going to have to pull resources from another area. It's about making investments to drive positive change that truly impacts the business and our customers."
What is the most fun aspect of your job?
"This is an easy one. The fun aspect of my job is seeing the impact of how we are delivering change at SAP. We are helping transform our customer's business and drive change. Watching companies go live with our solutions means that we delivered on our promises and a joint vision. I get excited when I'm driving down the street and my daughter or a colleague says to me, 'I just saw the NFL Fantasy Football (powered by SAP).' That excites me. And it's not just the NFL – it's all of our customers, we're delivering innovative technologies to help transform their businesses."
What advice would you give someone just starting out in the field of technology?
"Don't focus on the technology, focus on the desired business outcomes. To me, technology is an enabler. An example is that technology gives us access to data faster so we can make better decisions. Business knowledge and understanding your customer's vision should always come before a choice. That may mean opening up new markets for potential customers that now have access via mobile devices, or board rooms have real-time data so they can guide the business."
Christina Thompson is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia. She reports on various topics such as; Social Media, Local Events, Entertainment, Food and Drink and more. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.