Mayfield Fund, Forrester CEO weigh in on tech economy

Call it the elephant approach to sizing up the health of tech.

In two separate reports released Monday, Forrester Research CEO George Colony and Mayfield Fund weighed in on where they believe tech is headed in this challenging climate.

Colony, who took hold of the proverbial elephant's trunk, noted in his CounterIntuitive blog that the current recession will likely result in a tech spending slowdown, but nothing near the levels seen in the post-bubble-burst era of 2001 to 2003.

He noted CEOs and CIOs are indicating they plan to "change their way" out of the current economic doldrums, while the industry should find some comfort in the fact that technology has become more pervasive since the last downturn. So have the youthful Generation Y folks, 18- to 27-year-olds, who are far more wedded to their cell phones than previous generations, notes Colony.

Venture capital firm Mayfield Fund, meanwhile, noted in its fourth quarter report that its CEOs will rely on innovation, resilience and experience to "navigate the road ahead."

Here are a few CEO comments from the Mayfield Fund report that offer a proverbial feel of the elephant's leg, tusk, and tail:

Centrify CEO Tom Kemp: I am hoping the economic uncertainty will weed out some of our weaker competitors and cause our bigger competitors to not invest in the market.

Adchemy CEO Murthy Nukala: The combination of a recessionary macro-environment along with a dislocation of the online media landscape through advanced math techniques is creating a tremendous opportunity for performance marketing leaders like Adchemy.

Slide CEO Max Levchin: An obvious challenge--the economic downturn--is really a big opportunity for companies like Slide that can grow smart (e.g. hiring the best talent, maintaining excellent customer service, beating out competitors) during a recession.

[johnblack22]

There is also the question of how the coming recession will effect the green tech economy -- as both US presidential candidates seem to be banking heavily on future investements in solar and wind as a way to combat climate change and to promote green jobs. If you could do an article on this, that would be great.

[williamsolar]

John, You can check out http://www.greentechmedia.com/ they usually have the lo-down on all things green-techy, as well as tackling bigger questions like how the recession will impact different sectors of greentech/cleantech investments.

[williamsolar]

here's the link again John ... .

href="http://www.greentechmedia.com" target="_blank">Greentech Media</a>

[lc58harvard]

<a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com" target="_blank">Greentech Media</a>