Nathaniel Laroche in bullet points

• Currently works at Scottrade in Project Management.
• Started his own technology consulting business in 2001 while studying at the University of Missouri.
• Successfully built a technology support team in Mumbai, India.
• From his consulting background he approaches the development of a project with an eye on sustainability.
• Entrepreneur of the year 2002 while attending the University of Missouri.
• Successfully helped turn around a BPO operation spread across Mumbai, Bangalore, and Manila.
• Experience in E-Commerce marketing.
• Strives to bridge technology and business.
• Life long student of the differences between leadership and management, leader and follower.

Professional Links

NathanielandStephanie.com
Handy Man Laroche
Peasants for Pheasants
University of Missouri
Scottrade

Contact Nathaniel

E-mail Nathaniel
Phone and address provided upon request

Mixing Business and Information Technology

For IT managers, finding newly graduated job candidates with the right mix of skills is no easy task. Just ask Ron Griffin, CIO at Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc. Overseeing an IT team of about 1,200 people, Griffen has seen plenty of programmers come and go. Too many of them, he says, lack the business know-how and communication skills needed to administer IT systems in business.

The problem, Griffen says, usually starts in school: IT programs at universities tend to teach students how to code but not how to use technology to actually affect a business's bottom line.

Nathaniel's take on business and information technology

The above quote might have been written in 2001 but it is still applicable today. I obtained my management degree because of the passion I have for the subject. My computer science degree came from a more economical perspecitve (growing up in the Tech Boom) and from the fact that computers have always been a hobby. The paragraph above helped guide me as I combined that passion and that hobby.

To me an IT professional needs to be a business professional driven by economic performance and using technology to meet economic goals. That premise comes from the fact that technology is only the means not an ends in itself.