Truth or Consequences?

At what point does one tell the truth to a client? Or to anyone, for that matter? So often we see a company motto of something like "Our Customers are Number ONE" or "Customers Come First" or ... Well, you get the idea. The problem is that the customer doesn't really want to hear the truth. The customer wants to hear that things are going to be just grand, the the project will be on time and under budget, that there will be no problems, that you will exceed all of the stated goals (even though IT goals are, at best, nebulous), that the bottom line will improve dramatically, and that everyone will get a promotion and huge pay raise because of this wonderful project. Nirvana. Doesn't happen!

So, now that you are in the position of telling the truth or losing the order to another firm that you know is lying through their teeth, what do you do? The answer is (you knew it all along but wouldn't admit it, right?) that you walk away. That's right - walk away. If the customer wants you to lie now then the customer will lie about you later and, when the job goes belly up, you will be the one to blame. A consultant lives and dies on his/her reputation. A company is only as good as what it can do to help the customer. And if a 2nd or 3rd rate company has to lie to get the contract, then let them have it.

True, the customer WON'T call you back later - not normally. That would be to admit a mistake. But maybe they will listen to the next company or person who has to walk away rather than agree to everything and do nothing but take the money and run. If your integrity is for sale, then you lose that integrity on the first sale. And you never get it back. And you won't make as much money as the guys who lie, cheat and steal from their clients. But, in the end, you will be a much happier person.

I think that this will be the last in our line of philosophical blogs. From now on, lets' deal with rulebased systems, the Rete Algorithm, neural nets, statistical analysis - hard core stuff that we can all comment about.

Happy Chaunnuchah
(Yeah, it's over now)
SDG

Yaakov