Solutions are everywhere

One aspect of my job that people simultaneously do not understand and think is marking speak is that of custom solutions generation.

This is often described as “We don’t sell products, we sell solutions.” or “Clients all have different needs, instead of fitting each one into the same box, we build a custom box for each client.” It’s a good story, but what does it actually mean?

The problem with explaining it, is that most of what I do for one client would make absolutely no sense for another, which leaves us to only speak in generalities. Of course, when you do that, people get bored and drift off. So today, I’m going to try to do it differently.

Over the weekend, the following news story was released. The attention-grabbing headline was “China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate”. Of course, being in the business I am in, I immediately had the following thoughts:

• Boy is that an implementation headache
• China just created another branding problem for themselves

So, I am going to look at this problem from an IT/Business perspective. Suppose for the moment that China hired me as a consultant, and they posed the problem. This is how things might evolve:

China: Welcome. We need to prevent the Dalai Lama from re-incarnating. We’d like you to help.
Me: OK, we’re starting a bit early here. Let’s take a step back and reconsider the problem.
China: The Dalai Lama has too much power in Tibet, we need to be able to control things over there.
Me: Alright, if I am hearing you correctly, you are saying that you perceive the situations in Tibet as a threat to China
China: Right.
Me: Now, from what I know about Tibet/China relations, one of the reasons that Tibet is a threat is that China puts increasing control over Tibet, and the people don’t like that, right?
China: Well, maybe.
Me: I fully understand your need to keep your people safe, but let’s consider what might happen if you were to ban reincarnation…
Me: It seems to me that, since many people in Tibet are already reincarnating, this policy would either be ignored or would seriously upset the population.
China: Hmmm.
Me: Now, suppose you could ensure that the policy would be followed by increasing the military presence in Tibet.
Me: What would that cost?
-China pulls out an envelope and runs a few numbers.
China: Umm, that would take 50 million troops, at 85 yen per day blah blah blah (I’m not even going to pretend that I know what it would cost China to fully invade Tibet).
Me: That sounds like a lot of money.
China: Yeah.
Me: So let’s look at the other option. Suppose that the people feel compelled to follow the policy, but get upset. What would you do in that situation?
China: Send in the troops.
Me: So the cost for that would be…
China: Oh.
Me: So maybe this isn’t the best solution to your problem. Let’s brainstorm a few others right now.

Let’s compare this to the standard IT solution that does not consider the entire business case:

China: Welcome. We need to prevent the Dalai Lama from re-incarnating. We’d like you to help.
GenericIT: Sure, we can do that for you.
GenericIT: First things first, we need to install a firewall on each of your reincarnate lamas, to block outbound soul migration.
GenericIT: We recommend using SoulShield.
GenericIT: Next, you’ll need a maintenance plan for each firewall, and we recommend that you install a country-based reincarnation detection system in Tibet, so you can find when souls are trying to break out of containment.
GenericIT: You’ll need one CRDS installed in each of Ngari, Tsang, Ü, Amdo and Kham
GenericIT: Now, who will manage the system? Do you want the hassle of manually allowing reincarnations, or would you like us to do this as a managed service for you?
China: Umm, get us a quote on both options.
GenericIT: Sure, no problem.
-GenericIT doodles on back of envelope.
GenericIT: Well, we think we have what we need. We’ll get back to you next week with two quotes.

Now, I ask you to consider two things.

1. If you were China, which long-term solution would be best?
2. If the technical solution fails to work 100%, what are the chances of GenericIT’s contract being renewed at the end of the year?