March 23, 2007

“I know you’re coming to tell me about your qualifications but my systems are down.  Go fix ‘em.  That’s all the credentials you’ll ever need.  Now get your team to Australia.  And while you’re at it, clean the muffin off your glasses.”

Smack dab in the middle of a huge IT outsourcing competition, our capture team had just arrived at the corporate headquarters of a Fortune 500 company to present more of our capabilities and answer questions.  We were scheduled to meet the corporate CIO and his staff of vice-presidents and directors from around the globe who were at headquarters for their semi-annual summit. 

Based on prior meetings and the relationships we were building, the momentum of the deal seemed to be swinging our way.  As timing would have it, our team entered the lobby area outside the conference room for our presentation moments after the CIO had been informed by his staff of some significant system outages in Australia.  The outages were having a negative impact on manufacturing. 

Just as the last signature from our team was going on the visitors’ register at the reception desk, one of the IT leaders came roaring out of the room to let me know that the CIO was ready to explode.  Our meeting might be delayed due to the internal problems.  His warning, while appreciated, left me with little time to react.  The CIO had exited the conference room and was heading my way.

He immediately invaded my personal space.  Calling me by my last name, and now right in my face, he began, "I know you’re coming to tell me about your qualifications but my systems are down.  Go fix ‘em.  That’s all the credentials you’ll ever need.  Now get your team to Australia.  And while you’re at it, clean the muffin off your glasses."

When the CIO had finished making his point, I glanced over at the “A Team”, all huddled in the corner of the lobby, as far away from me as they could get.  They weren’t able to hear the words that were said but they had a clear view of the muffin pieces that were spewed out of the CIO’s mouth.  It must have been comical.

Soon after the laughter stopped and the tenth re-enactment of the muffin spray took place, the members of the “A Team” collected themselves enough to put together a plan to fix our prospective client’s problem in Australia.  It was a challenge far greater than presenting charts and answering questions.   

The CIO proved true to his word.  Fixing the problem was qualification enough.  The huge outsourcing contract became ours.