Where I work, we pride ourselves in wanting to be early adopters of new solutions, methods and management techniques. Then again, who doesn't want to be an early adopter and show that you are innovative and a true visionary? According to a study made by A.T. Kearney, almost 75 percent of companies want to be early adopters or in the stage of early maturity when investing in technology. The same study also shows that when it actually comes to coughing up the dough, about 40 percent do so only as late adopters or once the technology is in its mature offering.

Everyone loves a winner, i.e., someone that has been a visionary, made bets on new solutions and succeeded in doing so. However, everyone also hates the person that stands out. And if you suggest investing in new solutions or methods, you stand out. Inevitably, you will be challenged with questions like:

* How do we know that this new thing works? (We don't.)
* How do we calculate a return on investment? (Always difficult for new and unproven phenomena.)
* Why should you do this exciting innovative thing? (Try to explain that you came up with the idea and hope that this will be accepted by your critics.)
* Do we really need this when we already have other solutions? (Always a matter of opinion.)
* Should we not try something else? (Rest assured that this means that you will have to get back to your office and evaluate new solutions for a year, doing nothing that will upset your opponents.)

If you win over the resistance when proposing new and mostly untried solutions, you deserve to be loved. So, why is the situation so often not like this? Because people tend to be cautious. We don't want to stand out and make others jealous of us. If we instead wait for others to try something with relative success, then we should be able to do it ourselves using their proven "best practice" methods, right? Well, best practice is far too often "average practice." If you really succeed, do you want to share that with your competitors? And if everyone uses the same "best practice," how can we be better than the others?

However, by only investing in mature technology, we will have a problem being innovative leaders. On the other hand, few people will stand out and be disliked. Therefore, the inevitable conclusion is that by only investing in mature technology, at least the jealous people will be less jealous. How this will help the organization grow and be profitable, I do not know.

It is no coincidence that the British elite army unit Special Air Service, or SAS, has the motto "Who dares wins." What would it look like if they had the motto "Maturity Avoids Risks"? They would be safe rather than sorry. They would also be safe rather than glorious. They would only do operations where everything is peaceful. That would be a lot of expensive and advanced training for soldiers who would refuse to do anything unless others have already blown away the target into small bits and pieces and then asphalted it. For stepping in when everything is already done, we have the politicians and not the SAS.

So, your organization may not be the SAS. However, that glory and winning comes if you are number one, not number five. No one cheers number five in the 100-meter sprint finals of the Olympic Games. Heck, few even remember number two in the finals. Winners count more.

Investing in technology is a sales activity, whether you are selling it to your superiors or if you are a salesperson selling to a potential customer. If it is new technology, you have more hurdles to overcome. But if your product is tried and tested, customers may even come to you with inquiries. The sales process is very different and a lot harder for new solutions at an early adopter stage, and the techniques are certainly more different than for selling mature solutions.

Do You Dare to Innovate?
The question for the decision-maker is whether you really dare to be an innovative early adopter. In some cases, you may not realize that you are an early adopter: Sometimes, the solution can be — and often is — sold as something very mature. (And it would be, if there would only be some existing customers....) You can use this yourself when selling within your organization. The drawback is that you will not receive much recognition for having implemented something considered as mature. On the contrary, the risk may even be greater to you because every mature solution should be implemented correctly, or you have screwed up.

At least with the early adopter technique, some margin for error is allowed. But then you will stick out because you are implementing new things.

This is an impossible equation: You should not fail doing mature solutions. However, whereas you have the right not to hit the mark the first time with a new technology, you will run the risk of being less accepted by others because you stand out.

Perhaps the best thing is to do simply nothing and hope that all problems eventually go away. You may not be around much longer if this happens. But at least you will not be disliked for standing out. Maybe just for being incompetent.

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