What's core to his business is, in fact, the more mundane, more operational aspects of running an organization, and that's a valid core competency.
I think Bill was being brutally frank that if the mundane doesn't excite you, that's fine, but that doesn't mean his company doesn't measure its success in a very specific way.
In both cases, IT should be supporting the core competency of that organization. That is the point. We're led astray sometimes because we think core competencies should be similar, and they're not. They're very different company to company.
It's about education, ownership and strategy. It's tough to find one product today that's built by one company. It's all about partnership, alliances and affiliation. Today, it's all about strategy and service.
