Casualties of Technology

One of my first editors was a wizened veteran of business to business publishing, who never got technology. And I don’t mean writing algorithms, but even using Microsoft Word on a PC. Instead, he would employ a rustic Corona manual typewriter to draft his stories and columns - using only his two index fingers at warp speed- and then instruct his exasperated assistant to re-key the stories on her computer.

Nevertheless, he would occasionally attempt to make the switch to his computer, but after a few minutes, he would frustratingly bellow for help, a cry that was heard clearly around the newsroom.

Not surprisingly when a new publisher came on board bringing with him a plan to modernize the news and sales departments, it was clear that the editor was going to be one of the first casualties of the new regime.

He hung on for nearly a year before the inevitable axe fell and was summarily replaced by someone nearly 30 years younger and far more familiar with technology and its future in publishing.

I’m sure we all have similar and often sad vignettes. But I am always amazed that it so often occurs when technology is involved – either directly or peripherally. When desktop publishing came to the mainstream, I was a witness to an entire staff of typesetters being shown the door, pink slips in hand.

Now I've written in this space many times about my rather superficial understanding of all things technology, but not once I have ever overlooked or understated its importance.

Which is why it’s astonishing the degree of resistance that some CPA firms show regarding IT. I’ve sat with managing partners who did not even have a computer on their desks – now let that image in 21^st century accounting sink in for a while. I thought that was an anomaly until exactly two weeks later I visited a firm in the Northeast and saw the exact same thing. It’s probably not a stretch to understand why these two firms were struggling to grow and were looking for any available suitor.

And now with the advent of blockchain, AI and machine learning, that will force many multi-partner firms to evolve with them – making the gradual switch to become more of a consulting entity rather than a basic commodity provider for Type A audit and tax work.

Nearly 20 years ago, I sat in on a session at a conference where the presenter was a noted futurist who warned the audience in no uncertain terms, “Those who do not keep pace with technology will be left behind, period.”

Sadly, you need only ask my old editor for proof of that.