Paris, Bidding and Partnerships

I was at an IT partners award evening at Paris (in a place overlooking the stunning Place Vendome) on wednesday. Several partnerships in the IT industry were awarded. There were some small companies partnering with big companies and some others between small ones. There were no big with big, which was probably only a coincidence. Though no one mentioned how they won customers together, the bid manager in me could imagine the trials and tribulations the partnerships must have gone through during the bidding. One must remember, of course, that these were the success stories paraded on the awards night. There must have been plenty of failures for every success story.

Partnering to bid is a topic in itself and I shall devote a future post or two to it later. Now, I must get ready for the long journey ahead. For the next four weeks when I am partly on holiday, I would probably post only little vignettes like this. Perhaps some photos too.

How the sheep are led to Presales

A fresh young MBA stepped into an IT Company for his first day at work, and was immediately assigned by HR to the presales team. 

How did this happen? 

In the morning, when he first went to meet HR they told him triumphantly 

'just like we told you in your campus interview, you will go straight to the cutting edge of our business, where delivery-meets-sales-meets-project-management and within two years, before you even know it, you would have become as rounded as an untampered cricket ball with all the skills that you need to manage our business successfully.'

Do you mean I can become the CEO in two years? 

Not really...you can manage 'something' in two years, end to end you know...

you mean, like a small business? 

Not exactly...but something along those lines...

Wait a minute...what really happens to me after two years? Do I get into general management since I would have learnt sales and delivery and project management?
 

Eh...not exactly, after two years you would enter one of the serious careers in IT, i.e. delivery, sales or project management. 

Ah, so for two years, I am only checking things out to see what would work for me...what a waste of time...why dont I just join delivery for example, I would get a two year head start in delivery that way...

No, kid, you are mistaken, you need to first check out the world around you and see what fits you and what you like so that your career does not fizzle out like a wet firecracker!
 

Alright, so you are telling me I should spend two years to decide what I want to do? Is that what presales is all about? A place to cool my heels waiting for the real thing?

Not really, you will check out all the three careers we can offer you so that you can decide which one is the least...sorry most suitable for you...

Here the MBA feels like he is playing Inky, Pinky, Ponky in hell and so he dares to ask one more question - 

what if I like delivery after two years, will I able to get into delivery and work on software development projects...

Actually why would you want to do that...delivery and and all is for engineers, I thought MBAs would want to do better things...aren't you...ambitious? 

Oh, okay, then suppose I want to get into project management, that would be acceptable wont it be? 

Sure, you can get into project management but to manage projects, you would need to first of all learn our business, isnt it? How can you manage something you dont know?
 

Okay, so I would get into sales then? I would get to go onsite and sell to customers in fancy locations like Constantinople and Vladivastok and yes even in my favourite location from Godfather... 'Palermo in Sicily'!!! 

Of course not (you silly!)...how can you sell without knowing what you are selling? 

But I know how to sell, like how I sold myself into this job. I can sell anything, I even sold my old stamp album for 33 rupees to my neighbour in meerut when I was all of 10 years! 

Hey dude (now HR has become his pal almost), what are you saying? Selling IT is not like selling hot dogs. You need to know what the customer wants to buy, you need to know what our delivery guys can make and most importantly, you need to know how to package what what we make to make it look like what the customer wants to buy...

here the MBA sighs in resignation and mutters 

'Oh my god...they never taught me this in Business School' 

and the HR guy closes the conversation with 

'Welcome to the IT industry kid, now you can clearly see why we have put you in presales'...