I went on a tour of a hospital research facility and got to see the inner workings of one of the labs. We walked into a large room that was dominated by a piece of machinery, the centrepiece of which was a robotic arm about four feet long. As we arrived, the robotic arm was taking samples out of a container and putting them through a series or tests. I was mesmorized by the actions of this robotic arm.

When I snapped out of my trance, I asked the researcher how the machine was helping her do her job. She answered “it helps us with speed, efficiency and productivity. The robot can do things faster, better and with higher quality than any human, and it would take 8-10 people to produce the equivalent amount of results. Now, I start the machine in the morning, check in a couple of times to see the results, and spend my day doing actual research work.”

This got me thinking…this is exactly what every business needs, although it does not need to be robotic or expensive. Small changes can have a huge impact on your business. The goal is to find your “robotic arm.” What changes can you make that will have an impact on the speed, efficiency and productivity in your business?

Why is it that we have technology that allows us to have global meetings without ever leaving our home office, yet when we plug a laptop into a projector it never works? We seem to have started to master the technology of having live conversations with people from all over the world through a few cameras, microphones and TV screens. There are now temporary facilities that offer global conferencing for a rental fee, what a brilliant business concept as companies cut down on business travel.

Contrast that to the fact that we have all watched people spend 15-20 minutes trying to get their laptops successfully projecting on a wall and you see the dichotomy of technology. We are constantly innovating and improving on what we have, yet where we invest time and effort depends on the innovators. The issue of plugging a laptop into a projector and making it work has been an issue for years, why has no one fixed this problem? This has led to hundreds of hours of lost productivity while we try and get that image up on the screen.

No one has fixed the problem because there is no additional revenue in fixing the problem. Would you sell more projectors if you sold the perfect connection? Probably not. But you can sell the advantage of holding a meeting with teams from around the world with the ability to save significant travel costs.

Like everything else, innovations in technology focus on where the revenue can be generated, not necessarily where the productivity drains exist. If we could focus more on fixing things to increase productivity and less time on things that are cool, then technology would do a better job of helping companies improve performance.

I guess for now, we will have to stick with cool apps….