Yeah, that's an interesting social dynamic. Thanks for mentioning
that
Ean.
If I understand right how that applies to us as collaborating
service
providers the basic idea is that we don't all go after the same
client, or more generally that the situation will be better for
all of
us if we voluntarily back off from a prospect if we find out that
they
are further along with another service provider. Of course the
client
will pursue who they will, but it doesn't do any of us any good to
fight over clients or subvert the efforts of other service
providers.
In that particular scene there was the "super-attractive" prospect
that everyone wanted to go for, and the point was that if all of the
guys went for her then chances are none of them would "land the
deal"
as it were (she could only pick one, and chances are she'd get upset
and pick none of them, and what's worse is then the other ladies
wouldn't want to be the second pick so they wouldn't accept the guys
either). Only by collaborating and deciding to ignore her would the
guys have a higher hit/miss ratio with the others.
It'll be interesting if that situation ever comes up literally in
this
community. In other words, if there is ever a very visible client
that
we all know is contacting various service providers and we all go
for
that client and ignore other prospects. That would be a bad thing
overall, and is certainly a danger!
A more likely scenario, and one that I know has happened a lot, is
the
2-3 service providers will be competing fiercely and sometimes
unfairly for a single client. It's natural that a client would
talk to
multiple service providers before choosing, but when we as service
providers cross the line it does a lot of general harm. One thing I
consider to be crossing the line are things like looking at client
lists of other service providers and trying to contact those
companies
and ask them to switch over. There are probably lots of others that
are shady and that may or may not cross the line.
We can all put specific effort into playing nicely, and that is
probably the main point of this. For example, if a company contacts
you and you know they are working with another service provider
then a
chat with that other service provider is a good gesture... if it is
okay with the company of course (ie better to ask the company before
telling the other service provider that the company has approached
you).
Anyway, these situations are often messy and I've heard a number of
stories over years, usually from one side of the situation and
sometimes from both sides. I suppose another part of the lesson from
the scene from "A Beautiful Mind" is that even if someone does
step in
and steal your thunder unfairly with a client, and it looks like the
client will be choosing them, the best thing to do is back off ASAP
(preferably before other of your prospects notice too much) and go
after other prospects more.
Of course, one really nice thing that simplifies (and in a way
complicates...) our situation more is that no client expects a
service
provider to be exclusive. If you neglect a client and don't take
care
of them chances are they will walk, regardless of the cost to them.
However, if you mention to a client that you're also seeing another
client, then it's not a big deal and except for a handful of
unrealistic clients is usually expected and a good thing (it shows
you
have experience, you're not totally dependent on income from them,
you
have the resources to scale up and down for them as needed, etc,
etc).
Sorry for the long email. This is a pretty important topic as part
of
the strategy for OFBiz. The whole point is to collaborate in a non-
commercial way to create and maintain things that are useful in our
various commercial endeavors. Sometimes those commercial endeavors
collide because of this commonality, though in reality the industry
OFBiz applies to is absolutely massive and I don't think we touch
even
0.5% of it... probably not even 0.05% of it... so there's no use in
fighting over prospects, or crying over lost prospects either.
On the other hand, I think this sort of community-driven software
that
is open to commercial use and extension is massively scalable and
someday we could see OFBiz directly or indirectly used for... say...
10% of the enterprise software industry. Personally I don't plan to
change careers until that happens... :)
-David
On Apr 14, 2009, at 3:51 PM, Ean Schuessler wrote:
Absolutely. Success for the project hinges on a successful *group*
of integrators. If anyone has seen "A Beautiful Mind", the part
where they discuss picking up girls really sums up what we are
trying to do.
----- "Jacques Le Roux" wrote:
"collaboration among competitors." that sounds really good to
me...
Fair-play !
Thank you guys (both Brainfood and HWM)
--
Ean Schuessler, CTO Brainfood.com
e...@brainfood.com - http://www.brainfood.com - 214-720-0700 x 315
