Absence Highlights Change Series: From “Meal d’value” to Custom Creation
This is part 3 of the Absence Highlights Change Series
Those of you who have been following my thoughts here will have observed my contention that “absence highlights change” – and that maxim is maintained in a few additional observations.
When I left the industry in 2005, there were no large providers of custom, complex, compliant solutions. Most hosting companies used an approach akin to a “Meal d’Value” at the local burger joint – and special orders certainly upset them!
A previous colleague once (jokingly) observed the way most companies would address a unique customer request: “let’s analyze the opportunity until it goes away!” He said this jokingly, but the core intent of his comment has both rung true, and stayed with me over the years.
Specifically, in my previous roles, any engagements that exceeded the confines of the “Meal d’Value” offered by the company would stall, often fatally. Part of this failure could be attributed to a pedantic corporate mindset, part to a fear of the unknown, and another part to a considerable dread in estimating operational expenses in light of a unique customer requirement.
Now, I’m not proselytizing: there are significant and compelling reasons why a hosting company might espouse a somewhat rigid and pedantic mindset. Heck, those two terms are in themselves pejorative – a very large mega-conglomerate will focus on the majority of the projected client base. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that, unless you happen to be one of the companies out there who need something that exceeds the norm in any way.
This is both the challenge and the fun of a smaller company such as mine.
Of the three considerations above, the zest and energy of the “deviations from the norm” are the area in which a nimble, smaller company can excel. In this context, I find that my present company has the flexibility and the will to do what’s right for the customer.
That’s a change.
And if we must bandy-about the tired old adage that “change is good”, at least – in this case – the adage is correct.
And so we’ve come to something resembling a circle: I packed up my puppy in my puppy carrier, and climbed onboard the motorcycle, and we hit the road. We’ve seen that on the roads less traveled, the change from one visit to another can be great… and yet we focused primarily on the definition of “cloud”.
But over the mountains, we see the high cirrus that foreshadows another triumvirate change in the weather: power, analytics, and applications.
Stay tuned, because the ride ahead will prove to be both exhilarating and frightening at times.
Ride safe, hug your dog, and my best to you and yours.
Continue reading this series, check out part 4 of the Absence Highlights Change Series: Power, Part 1
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