We choose to go to the moon

“We choose to go to the moon.”
John F. Kennedy, September 12th 1962

We’ve all heard or read those seven words; the vision behind them, and the execution that followed have inspired at least two generations. JFK’s speech conveys a highly ambitious goal, yet it is also engrained with a great deal of reality. A lesser-known passage of JFK’s speech is much more specific on the details of the big challenge: 

“But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, reentering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.”

Any big achievement, whether it’s landing a man on the moon, breaking a world record or climbing Mount Everest, is a composite of smaller, yet transcendental achievements. Each of the elements mentioned by JFK represented enormous challenges: propulsion, food and survival, re-entering the atmosphere. By solving those “minor” challenges, NASA built what I like to refer to as “innovation building blocks” to build the greater accomplishment.

In fact, many technology breakthroughs of the Apollo program became great innovations that have made it on their own throughout time. In its 2012 edition, Spinoff, a publication that explains how NASA’s science innovations are transferred to the private sector, described how a technology used in space to reclaim waste water for drinking – yes, including urine—is now used by Unpeeled, Inc., a beverage company in Minnesota. The company is leveraging the technology to produce a healthy alternative to sugary beverages. It also describes how the technology NASA developed to help keep astronauts comfortable in their gloves (which must accommodate to temperatures that range from 250 °F to -250 °F) is now used by undergarments manufacturer Jockey, in its Staycool line. It also highlights how NASA shared its technology for keeping astronauts nourished and protected from space-related illnesses with AmeriSciences, a Houston, Texas company that offers multivitamin supplements and vegetable-derived antioxidants to consumers. It is amazing to see how those 1960’s innovation building blocks are still paying dividends today.

At Softtek we have a vision, a vision that was set by Blanca and embraced by the organization. We aspire to become a benchmark of the IT services industry in terms of financial performance, innovation and culture. This means that we want to be the standard by which others in our industry will be measured. It’s a huge [and achievable] endeavor. In our everyday work, we create solutions to small problems. We build data extraction tools to move information from one database to another; we write scripts that automate repetitive tasks; we code discovery tools that help us identify how many times a function is called within a program. We create hundreds of small innovation building blocks to help us reach the greater goal.

Softtek is in a privileged position. We are masters of software, and as Marc Andreesse wrote in his 2011 essay: “software is eating the world.” Today the world’s largest bookseller; the world’s largest video service and the most dominant music companies are Amazon, Netflix and Apple’s iTunes respectively. All of them are software companies. This year’s top two blockbuster movies were Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University; again, software. 

Look at your smartphone and see how many devices have been displaced by software: maps, compasses, cameras, fax machines, newspapers, flashlights, TV sets, credit cards, alarm clocks…the phone itself is an app.

Google’s algorithms disrupted the advertising industry. FedEx software systems are disrupting the world of logistics. High-frequency trading is disrupting the securities market. Big data algorithms are helping energy companies to discover deep water oil fields and shell gas deposits. Whatsapp is eroding Telco’s profit margins by eliminating text messaging.

Software is creeping into every aspect of our lives, and is disrupting entire industries. The question we need to ask ourselves is: How can we disrupt our industry through the use of software? Ironically enough, the IT services industry still relies heavily on artisanal methods as opposed to software—more man-hours vs. coded algorithms. Perhaps the fact that we have focused so much on solving other industries’ problems through software, has led to losing sight of the same for our own industry.

Can we focus on creating small, yet transcendental achievements that help us achieve our mission of becoming a benchmark, through the use of software? Can we create softwarebased innovation building blocks that can help us transform our industry? Can we start looking at those small tools we create on a daily basis from a strategic point of view? Can we start eating the IT services world through software? The opportunity is there for us to bite.

To kick-start Softtek Innoventures, it is very important that we focus on our core, and start expanding it through little, yet transcendental innovation building blocks. Focusing on transforming what we do through the use of software could be the start of a journey that can lead us to many discoveries. But we need to establish an initial purpose. As JFK said in another famous speech, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”