I’ve seen it before. They were from Microsoft in 1996, Netscape in 1998, Ariba in 2000. Today they are from Google. They are talented, successful and very, very arrogant.
I went to a small trade show today in San Jose. From an industry with about 10 major and 20 minor players, about 50% were there. This is an industry that deals with a technology I have personally been making a living from since 1992, with some non-trivial size clients and actually deployed implementations under my belt. I have devised a simple litmus test, a “magic” question I always ask a vendor in this business. In most cases, for each vendor, I am reasonably certain that I know the answer in advance.
The question I ask serves two purposes. First - I try to find out if some dramatic technological change has occurred under the covers (in our business we have to stay on top of this sort of thing). Second and more importantly, I judge the corporate culture and the sales & marketing pitch.
The best way to find customers that are in trouble and could use our help is when you discover that their vendor is selling hot air at an average deal size of 6-digits and more.
Today, I received all the right answers, form all the usual suspects. The right answer in this case is “no, it does not do that”. Occasionally, a very well prepared presenter will add “but there is a simple way to accommodate for this”.
Then I walked up to the Google booth and seeing that there was no one talking to the two people on duty, politely asked about their new product. Then I asked the magic question.
The answer was amuzing – not because it was incorrect (I would have gladly accepted a “Yes, of course we can do that”), but because I was told that my question was meaningless! In fact, the exact words were not only telling me that “This makes no sense, no one would ever WANT to do this, therefore it is unnecessary…”, but I was told off in the arrogant and condescending tone of voice that my 5 year old recently started using with me, when I get a cartoon character wrong.
I realized that Google’s culture has crested the magic boundary of success that will inevitably lead to stagnation. The naiveté of these guys was heartwarming in a way – after all, let’s be honest - we all try to measure ourselves against the greatest success stories of the day, and discovering that the grass is not THAT much greener on the other side appeals to the same instincts that drive envy and, in conjunction, arrogance.
So here is my idea for a bumper sticker of the day: “Silicon Valley! Home of the great, who know it.”
