People Behind Tech
You know why ideas can not be stolen? You know why the top team members get to sign “stay” agreements when their company gets acquired?
Well, actually, ideas and tech can be stolen and copied. Specifically their implemented form. And this surely can do some damage in the short term. But it doesn’t really matter in the long run.
Because technology and ideas are dead without the people behind them. Sure, some ideas and tech are strong enough and have enough momentum to carry through for some time. But once you remove or replace the brains behind them two outcomes happen – either the idea/tech will start decaying and fall apart over time, or the new leader will disassemble it and build a new direction.
Ideas and tech are not static immutable things, they are like a living entity – developing, growing, adapting, evolving. They are never done and finished unless dead and out. The people behind it are the inner soul – remove them and you get a zombie.
A tricky part is that within a team it is not apparent who’s really the vision holder of successful or promising technology and who’s just getting in the way. The one making it happen and evolve is not necessarily the most outspoken proponent, and it is often times not the lead. It can be an introvert tech guy quietly working on it, most likely between other tasks, and making things happen without much fuss.
The vision behind any idea or tech is very subjective and is based on a specific person’s experience, beliefs and values. Put a different person in charge and she’ll bring a different experience, belief system and values to the table – resulting in a different direction, no matter how subtle it may be.
To make things more complicated, some systems are like an ecosystem, where the composition and the dynamics of the team make it happen. It does not reside with any single person, it’s a collective entity. This, however, does not last, as these structures are very volatile.
Successful managers and leaders invest time and effort to identify the key people behind each of the key technologies and work with them to give them the power and resources needed to foster their work.
True, there are no irreplaceable people, but this doesn’t mean their ideas and vision will carry on without them. New people bring in new ideas and directions, most likely at odds with the orphaned ones.
A Bob-Maiden’s Tale
I agree with your analysis, and would even extend it by stating that ideas/tech are like children.
Originating ideas and prototypes are oft referred to as “seminal works”. These works, once incubated, start developing into full grown technologies (children)
“That’s Bob’s baby” is heard in many inception phase environments. It’s mostly inside him, and begins to emerge as Bob goes into the labor phase.
You can’t steal a baby while still in the womb – unless Bob is a surrogate mother (Hand-Maiden/out-source labor). A surrogate Bob-Maiden could indeed run away while still in labor. Happens all the time.
A natural mother cannot steal her own baby.
So the dangers of outsourced development are similar to surrogate births. Even their raison-d’etres are the same: the baby has no natural mother (Bob-Maiden).
“Whoa!” you might say. “Are you stating that tech development is outsourced because there is no local labor force?”
Labor there is, but obviously not in any kind of force.
Why would a natural mother who is fertile allow a surrogate birth (Hand Maiden)? Vanity, perhaps but what kind of mother would that be?
Are local developers so vain that they permit outsourcing simply because they don’t want to get their hands dirty?
Bob-mother has as much choice in the matter as a natural mother. Bob is capable of labor and should engage in seminal works if he so chooses. Bob-mother’s wishes transcend any rational for a Bob-Maiden.
Here is the big creepy – Globalization is turning all developers into Bob-Maidens. They conceive the ideas, develop the tech and then it is whisked away.