If you've ever been able to get through the first quarter of the cumbersome, yet wildly popular book, The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, you may remember that a large portion of the beginning of the novel was dedicated to the main character, Alex Rogo, being counseled to figure out what his plant was in existence to do. Finally, after what seemed like pages upon pages of Alex Rogo thinking of an answer, he has an epiphany that is so simple yet so powerful it prompts him to make changes that drastically affect the dismal outlook of the plant he runs, the people he manages and the job he is so desperately clinging to. Alex Rogo's plant was there to make money for the corporation for which he and his employees worked. Plain and simple.

So let's do the same exercise that Mr. Rogo was asked to do for our own technical organizations. When I say technical organization, I mean support, planning, engineering, management, etc. NOT DEVELOPMENT. That's a whole nother ball of rubber bands. Why do we as technical resources exist? If we're not consultants, we don't exist to make money. We're overhead, we all know that. So, again, I ask the question. Why do we exist?

Technical environments have become an essential tool in any business endeavor no matter how big or small. We exist to put these environments together so that the tool is the most valuable to the organization in reference to the amount of money the organization is willing to spend. If we do this correctly, support is easier and the company that made the investment is saving money. We exist because when people walk into their offices in the morning they expect the lights to respond to the flick of a switch, they expect their chair to support them when they sit down and they expect their email to work when they hit Send and receive. We exist to save money. Said better, we exist so that people can get the most out of their technical investment now and into the future.

Think about that the next time you say, "hey, I just got my MCSE, where's the cash?" Think about that the next time someone tells you the company website is down and you say, "not my problem, I'm a security guy." Think about that the next time you consider hiring a guy fresh from high-school because you want to pay $25,000/year instead of the $60,000/year you're paying you're next lowest guy on the totem pole. Think about that the next time you feel comfortable with the security of your job.