Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Happy Accidents

We had an executive meeting yesterday with one of the biggest names here in Silicon Valley (no, not Google!) We've been working with them for a while on a pilot program that stretches our technology to the max but which, in return, could deliver significant value to the customer.


The goal of the meeting from our side was quite explicit: we need a PO in order to continue to work on this. The customer, for obvious reasons, would prefer to keep the proof-of-concept (PoC) going in order to reduce the risks of betting on what we are striving to sell them.

Anyway, the meeting quickly headed off into the weeds, getting wrapped up in technical details. The main executive we need to work on was starting to disengage as his technical team got more involved in a bits-and-bytes discussion in the background. To get back in control we were about to have to step on quite a few toes in order to refocus things on the key business issues that we needed to get addressed.

Right then, the fire alarm went off! After a few moments, it soon became clear that this was neither a test nor a drill, and that in fact something in a lab somewhere had tripped the sirens and flashing lights into action.

Rather than stand outside wasting time on what was a very chilly California morning, we headed off to another building, losing the conference call attendees along the way. Bingo! No slides, no remote bridge to the technical team in India.

Long story short, we took our shot and made our pitch to the VP, thereby getting the green light to begin commercial discussions.

Sometimes, you truly are better off being lucky rather than smart ....

2 comments:

I said...

Good outcome....but did you pull the fire alarm handle? ;-)

J said...

Not guilty!