I had picked them up pretty much in the standard way as a referral from a friend to do maintenance programming on their legacy system. They had me share an office with the Big 5 consultant who was interviewing ERP vendors. I knew immediately that he had no idea what he was doing and would ultimately waste a lot of good people's time and money. I had a lot of respect and loyalty to this customer and didn't want to see them taken advantage of.
I remember sitting up all night wondering what to do. I decided to go to the CFO. I told her that her Big 5 vendor didn't know what he was doing and gave her plenty of good examples. I explained that after working with her software and her people for 3 months, I could come up with a more effective way of solving their problems in 10% of the time for 10% of the cost.
I half expected to be thrown out of her office, but instead, she got up, closed the door, and said, "Funny, I was thinking the same thing but didn't know what to do about it." Together we laid out the plan and strategy for the project.
Ever since, I have never been bashful. Even though proficiency and experience can carry you a long way, your biggest advancements often come when you go out on a limb to provide real value for a customer.
Another lesson: you never know what a gig can turn into, so just do your best and keep pushing that envelope.
This is one more example proving "No guts, no glory". IMHO it takes real courage and conviction to go to a C-level executive and state the obvious. Which is why it doesn't happen more.
I remember sitting up all night wondering what to do. I decided to go to the CFO. I told her that her Big 5 vendor didn't know what he was doing and gave her plenty of good examples. I explained that after working with her software and her people for 3 months, I could come up with a more effective way of solving their problems in 10% of the time for 10% of the cost.
I half expected to be thrown out of her office, but instead, she got up, closed the door, and said, "Funny, I was thinking the same thing but didn't know what to do about it." Together we laid out the plan and strategy for the project.
Ever since, I have never been bashful. Even though proficiency and experience can carry you a long way, your biggest advancements often come when you go out on a limb to provide real value for a customer.
Another lesson: you never know what a gig can turn into, so just do your best and keep pushing that envelope.