Quest CEO Tim Burke joined Paul and Adam Burke on a recent episode of Spilling the IT to talk about The Quest Way.
I recently sat down with Paul and Adam for a “Spilling the IT” show. During our time together, we covered a wide range of topics, including my early tech career, how I approach business, what I’m watching on TV these days, and my latest book recommendation.
Though there’s a lot to unpack from this interview and it’s definitely worth checking out, I’ve compiled a brief list of the key concepts behind Quest’s “How can we help?” approach that I’d like to share with you.
We Embrace Opportunity vs. Scarcity
I’ve always been in love with business, and I have always based my business goals on helping people. Many years ago, I had a realization while on a coast-to-coast flight – looking down and seeing millions of city lights – that there is an almost unlimited number of people we could assist. There are so many opportunities out there, so our overall philosophy when it comes to IT is: How can we help, and who can we help? If someone feels they don’t need or want our help, we don’t waste their time or ours. In short, we never try to “sell.” Instead, we try to focus on the many other opportunities available.
We Listen to our Customers
As I mentioned, our business is built on a simple philosophy and a simple question: “How can we help?” Our strategy is to reach out to our customers and let them tell us what they need, from managed cloud services to cyber defense to disaster recovery. Again: Quest is not selling stuff to customers—we’re listening to help them discover what their needs and pain points are and offering to help with solutions, services, and support that fit those unique needs.
We Continue to Stay in Touch
When we started out 30-plus years ago, we had a two or three-year window during which technologies remained stable. We would build marketing plans and technology-support plans that projected out for a three-year lifecycle. Today, the new technology lifecycle can be six months. The windows are radically compressing, so we’re constantly dealing with new technologies.
At Quest, our team is vigilant about keeping up with the latest updates in hardware, software, security, etc., and we find once again that the best way for us to stay in touch with emerging issues, problems, and solutions is by listening to our customers.
We Have the Courage to Say “I Don’t Know”
Oftentimes, if someone can’t figure out a problem, they fill in the blank with some answer that may or may not be correct. And unfortunately, often it’s not the right solution. They might believe they are expected to know everything, and so they pretend to be on top of something when they’re not. That can be very dangerous.
We’re trained in business school to fill in the blanks. The hardest thing for me to learn while running my own business was that I sometimes need to say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
Quest Offers Flexibility
In the episode of Spilling the IT that I mentioned earlier, I talk a bit about the popular business self-help book Who Moved My Cheese? The point of that book, echoed in several others that came out in the late ’90s, is that business rules were changing, and that flexibility and adaptability had become necessary for corporate survival. That’s why another guiding concept of the Quest approach can be summed up as: “Be flexible.”
Quest offers flexibility in a number of ways. Our core services are designed to allow you to update your hardware, software and advanced security position, sourcing from the top manufacturers, through contracts specifically tailored to your organization’s needs. A prime example is QuestFlex, which allows you to ensure that all of your IT needs are covered for a set monthly price. Quest’s overriding theme or philosophy is our willingness to be flexible and to work with clients to deliver on their requirements.
Bottom Line
We’re excited to help deliver services or products that benefit our customers, whether you need professional services, managed and cloud services, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, or infrastructure.
Thank you for trusting us to help with your IT needs. Contact us anytime.
Until next time,
Tim
