I have a high technology client who’s e-mail address begins with ‘chainsaw@...” and some of you may know from that who it is. He cuts through and decisions are made on the spot, meetings are kept to a minimum and staff is left to make many of their own decisions. And everyone is charged with making money.

Our changing technology is not just about smaller cell phones and bigger data pipelines.

The new technology is transforming how we do business, how we make decisions, how we process information, conduct business meetings, get things done, inside the office, on the road making sales.

If this new paradigm has not hit your business, pray that it does soon, or go out and embrace it because those who want to continue doing business the ‘old’ way are very likely to be left behind. As Henry Ford said, “Those who does not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” And we do not have time to sit and sulk that things are moving too fast.

And, yes, it is painful, uncomfortable, disquieting, unnerving, and upsetting to staff when change is the constant order of the day. No one wants to reinvent their business model, but everyone is going to have to face that truth.

It IS a new paradigm for how business is conducted and ready or not, it is here and it means doing business in new ways. And it means constant reinvention. Don’t like change? Too bad.

For employees and staff who are willing to get on board, it means a new kind of ride and done right, it is empowering, invigorating, and stimulating. Business can flourish when staff are left to define how they work best and when employees challenge rules and ‘the way things are done,’ reward their initiative and let them loose to be creative.

For years I have worked in the conventional business world and done business the way it was always done.

But in the past five years, I’ve been fortunate to have some high technology clients and become involved as a director for a local Internet company.

One of the first things I noticed, and welcomed, was a de-emphasis on meetings. Anyone who knows me or has worked with me, knows how impatient I am with what I call ‘process,’ something Kitsap seems deeply ingrained with. This may be a legacy from the military mentality that surrounds us, but even the military is changing.

Meetings for me have become as positively transactional as I can make them. We use an agenda and we meet to discuss action steps. I have never heard a high tech CEO pine away because there is no time to get the staff together to write a mission (or vision) statement. They don’t spend time on process.

The focus is — and must be — on customer-centric programs. That’s not just a phrase, it’s a reality. Customer satisfaction must become the center of your thinking, something the Nordstrom family learned several generations ago. It’s not brain surgery.

One high tech company president told his staff, ‘If you are working on something that is not making money for us, stop.”

I’m not advocating business anarchy. What I am endorsing is creating an environment where every basic assumption, procedure, is constructively challenged. And management needs to see this as a good thing, not a battle with authority or wanton rule breaking.

Nothing is absolute in this new business paradigm. Reinvention may well mean dramatic changes in your core business, your products or services, your marketing, advertising, sales, pricing, administration. Having a flexible-thinking work force is not just a good thing, it is requisite.

My contention is that this new business paradigm is going to make good companies better and old-fashioned companies obsolete.

It is all about customer relationships and meeting, exceeding, anticipating, and championing your customers. Competition is intense and this new technology paradigm permits loyal customers to chippy and do business with someone across the country, around the world.

As Yeats said, “A terrible beauty is born” and it will touch all of us and challenge the ways we conduct business and commerce.

If you’ve got a chain saw, it’s a good time to get it out and put it to use, cutting away convention and tradition, dissecting how you interact with customers, chopping away at moribund business practices, freeing your staff to make decisions, clearing out dated practices and opening the door to the future.

Technology is changing how we do business. Are you on board?

(Editor’s Note: Bill Hoke is owner of Hoke Consulting in Manette and provides marketing and sales consulting. He can be reached at hoke@hokeconsuylting.com.).