Getting Out of this Hole

In the past we've recalled Charles Kettering's famous quote from a speech he gave in the 1930s during the depression to a group of advertising executives, "I believe business will come back when we get some products that people want to buy." Kettering, the inventor of the electric car-starter, founder of Delco and head of GM's research labs to 1947 after he sold Delco to GM in 1916, was one of the leading technologists in the early half of the twentieth century. In the same speech, Kettering also said, "Research is simply to find out what you are going to do when you can't keep on doing what you are doing now." These are both excellent points and as relevant today as they were eighty years ago. But where will the buying start? We believe that for tech infrastructure companies the way out of this recession will be led by the financial services industry for two reasons - 1) As a percent of revenue, financial services spends more on IT than any other industry sector; and 2) Financial services companies are the fastest when it comes to changing their spending plans (while some industries set out 12 month budgets with little chance of changing mid way, financial services companies are known to review IT spending allocations on a monthly basis if needed). So if you're an infrastructure company take a look at your NY facing financial sales teams (if you don't have one put one in place immediately) and get ready to catch a wave of spending (hopefully).