I was having a conversation with a client who, like many of us, is fighting a war on two fronts.

First, he is fighting a war of business survival.  Day in, day out, he needs to figure out how to position his business for tomorrow; he must try to predict what the markets will do, what will they demand of him and his team, what the competition will do, and what new competitors may do to surprise him.

And, day in and day out he has to make sure that those inside his “castle” are fed, are safe, can continue to produce, and are ready to adapt to the next challenge.

Like everyone in a leadership role today, he is being pulled by two opposing demands:  The demand to be forward thinking, innovative, and strategic and the demand to be grounded in today’s reality, manage tight resources, be tactical and constantly execute.  Sound familiar?

You might think that the last thing in his mind is IT.  After all, his business is not in technology or interactive.  But Information Technology is at the center of his thinking.  Not a day goes by that he doesn’t challenge himself and those around him on what technology can do for his business, or how it can give him an operational edge.

I remember telling him how much I appreciated his abilities and focus on IT.  He just looked at me dumbfounded.  “What do you mean?” he asked, “Doesn’t everyone?  How can you possibly survive, much less thrive, unless you know how to navigate these shifting waters?”  I tried to explain that executives do try to navigate but they either tend to be too strategic or to operational when it comes to the integration of technology into their business.  That’s when he came up with a great line.  He said, “That’s impossible, if you really think about it.  When we’re talking about IT we’re really talking about a magnet.  No matter how much you cut it in two, you always have two poles: north and south.  You can’t just have one, but you can recognize that what you’re holding is a compass. It always points you to true north.”

The last thing I remember was feeling so lucky that we have clients like him.  Clients that push us to think strategically and clients that expect us to squeeze every drop out of their IT investments.  Clients that understand technology limits, but push against them anyway.  Clients that are not afraid to admit what they don’t know, but use it as an excuse to learn.  Clients that will accept nothing less.

Then my alarm clock went off!

The good news is that we do, in fact, have clients like the one in my dream. Only they’re not very common.  I figure we all head north eventually.  The only thing we need is a good compass.