A hundred or so Visual Basic programmers are cheaper to replace and "maintain" than one good Delphi/C++ programmer. ;-) That is the reason management likes "Visual XXXX." Been there, learned that. Hire the staff from the largest pool, not the most effective. Besides it's damn hard to be a prima donna, when your replacement is ready to jump off that forklift and learn a cushy job.
Fred > -----Original Message----- > From: John Elrick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 7:36 PM > To: sqlite-users@sqlite.org > Subject: Re: [sqlite] Improving performance of SQLite. Anyone heard of > Devic eSQL? > > > John Stanton wrote: > > This also is an anecdote from some time back. As we were signing a > > fairly significant software contract with a large > organization their > > manager told us "You guys know nothing about marketing. Your > > presentation was unprofessional, no glossy brochures, no > audio visuals > > and we would not have bought except that you were the only ones who > > convinced us you could do the job". We just smiled and watched the > > ink dry while we pondered "where did we go right?". > > > > The simple truth is that if you hype a product and sell it into an > > area where it is inadequate your triumph is short lived and > the scorn > > and litigation enduring. On the other hand if you deliver > a solution > > which works as well, or preferably better, than proposed you have > > generated raving fans who will buy again and endorse your > product to > > all and sundry. Which is the better model? > > To quote a former programs manager for Bank of America "the first > solution which meets my business needs and performs the job > adequately". In this case, adequately can be defined as loosely as > "doesn't crash too often" or as stringently as "positively no > errors", > depending on the business use. > > Keeping the discussion academic, "hype a product..." is a > business model > that apparently has been used to at least some degree by a company > called Microsoft. It tends to work because the model permits > them such > an early lead that even better products have difficulty catching up. > > I do most of my programming in Delphi, a Borland product > which remains > in my opinion, even in its shadow of former glory state, a far more > straightforward and powerful product than Visual Studio. Borland has > always been a technical company, not a market driven one and its > flagship product is surviving only because it remains a more well > rounded Windows solution than its competition. However, it is only > surviving and is unlikely to actually thrive ever again. > > So my suggested answer is, the proven model is "dominate the market > early with an adequate product". If your product is very > good and even > better than proposed, all the better. But if you are "Johnny come > lately", you will likely lose unless your product is very, > very good. > And, whether we like it or not, a big part of market domination is to > convince all the decision makers (management) and decision breakers > (engineers with influence) that yours is the safest choice to make. > > FWIW > > > John Elrick > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > --------------- > To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -------------------------------------------------------------- > --------------- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
