There is often a chasm that arises between IT and business leaders because of the way they communicate with one another. This happens when people do not speak the same language and understand the business from a fundamentally different vantage point. The Narrative Group, led by today’s guest, Bruce Fairley, looks to change that. Their mission is to go beyond technology and enable holistic change within organizations. In this episode, Bruce sheds light on his career and shares the impetus for founding The Narrative Group. We talk about his passion for leveraging enterprise value through technology. While big corporations are using data to scale and make more of an impact, small and medium-sized businesses are getting left behind. Bruce works with these companies to create solutions that help them be competitive. Our conversation also touches on using software, rather than people, to implement and maintain your backend infrastructure, using data to inform behavioral changes, and why tech people need to be looking at the bottom line. Bruce’s unique message is timelier than ever, given the pandemic-related shifts. Tune in to hear it all.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Get to know Bruce, his background, and how he came to found The Narrative Group.
• The common theme throughout Bruce’s career so far.
• Redefining enterprise value for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Many small and medium-sized businesses are not leveraging IT to enhance their business.
• Some of the reasons Bruce believes technology is such a sticking point for businesses.
• Technology requires growth and innovation, which leads to new insights and data.
• An example of a client Bruce worked with where they made the data insights actionable.
• As a data person, you need to give business leaders information they don’t already know.
• What we have learned about technological commodities during the pandemic.
• Bruce’s insights on how tech people should be communicating with executives.
• The role of culture in business and how it ties into a company’s ability to evolve.
• How small and medium-sized businesses need to think about their IT and data teams.
• Why Bruce believes that you do not need personnel to run your backend infrastructure.
• The three commonalities when it comes to measuring success.
• Bruce’s final words for us to think about.
• The Narrative Group’s “financial first” methodology and how it helps their clients achieve their desired outcomes.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Bruce Fairley on LinkedIn

The Narrative Group

iSecurity

QuickBooks

Data Rich Show

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics