Name
Jason Greer
Title
VP of Strategic Solutions
How do you help clients?
Far
Reach is a technology firm with a focus on doing good within our
community and world. I work with clients to understand the business
problems they're trying to solve, then work with the Far Reach team to
meet those needs. At the heart of everything
we do is solving business problems.
What led you to here?
Through
networking, I had the chance to meet a few people at Far Reach over the
past few years. I was always impressed with their culture and purpose
to make the world a better place. When I had the chance to start a new
chapter, I gave Kate a call to
see if she knew of any opportunities and the rest is history.
Tell us about your background or training.
I
started in IT with my first project to do Y2K changes in COBOL. A few
years into my IT career, I was a part of a continuous improvement (CI)
project. I fell in love with CI, so I studied Lean and Six Sigma and
have been leading those types of projects
for 15+ years. A big part of CI is collecting and analyzing data, so
for the past 8 years I have been a consultant for both CI and data
strategy projects.
What is your work mantra?
Intentional Excellence
What are you reading?
Who do you follow?
Where do you see the field going in 1-3 years?
For IT:
The
basic programming of a website is becoming a commodity. You can go to
Wix or GoDaddy and set up a basic online store in an afternoon. The
reality for many businesses, however, is that cookie cutter doesn't fit
their business. The field is shifting
from a commodity approach to understanding root-cause business
problems and using technology, data, and problem solving to tackle
really big problems.
For Data Analysis:
I see data
visualization becoming the same commodity that basic web design has
become in the next 5 to 10 years. What we are going to face in next few
years is the need to master data governance. The tech community is aware
of the problem, but in reality,
data governance extends beyond tech and is a business problem. If
business areas want to answer more complex questions with their data,
they have to learn how to make their data trusted, consistent, and
reportable across their organization. This is an undertaking that
requires business and IT areas to work together.