Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a land of IT outsourcing and relationship management, there were two vendors. One vendor was named Mouse and the other named Hippo – I have changed the names to protect the innocent (hopefully you got that already).  My client (who will remain nameless), contracted with each to provide two major applications for an important global business program designed to bring all parts of the business together so that they were able to engage global clients as a true global company.

Now the mouse was very fast and nimble. When obstacles arouse, Mouse was able to change directions quickly. Even when there was no clear direction, Mouse ran and ran he did, as fast as he could. Everyone liked Mouse’s ability to run. Seeing Mouse run, people felt that things were moving, that things were good. It didn’t take a lot of cash to get Mouse running, he ran and ran and ran. When we told him to run to the tree, he would run to the tree – then once he got there, he would add a dance, a spin and run to other trees close by. The problem was that we didn’t want the dance or the spin. Soon we found that even Mouse running to the nearby trees wasn’t needed. Mouse spent a lot of his energy spinning, dancing and visiting nearby trees.  In fact so much energy was spent doing these things that Mouse eventually ran out of energy before he got to the tree. Mouse then decided to only ran half way to the tree, do his spins and dances and wander around the nearby trees. Mouse’s best attributes were also his undoing! You see, in the end, Mouse was not properly managing his energy – he would use up his resources. Even though we said to simply run to the tree, he would let us know that he was also going to do his spins, dances and visit nearby trees.  This seemed very good to us because we were getting more than we asked for and this seemed like a good value. But, when his energy levels were running low, Mouse was left with no other option than to economize his actions, which resulted in poor results.  In the end, no one felt confident that Mouse could deliver. His heart was in the right place – he wanted to give us value and do whatever we needed, but his head was not so much engaged.

Now Hippo, on the other hand, could also run and run very fast, but he had a hard time getting going. Hippo required a lot of push. To get Hippo running, we would have to determine where he was running and what indicated that he was running. Also, we had to have checkpoints along the way to show that he was in fact running.  Everyone liked this attribute of Hippo – sure, a lot of work up front, but once he was in motion, we all felt confident that Hippo would get there.  Soon we found that even though the tree that he was to run to was fully defined and checkpoints along the way to indicate that he was making forward progress were set, when things came up and we needed to change directions it was a big problem. You see, Hippo could not simply change directions.  He would come to a complete stop first – and even this took some time. Then we would need to go through all those steps again; defining the tree, setting the interim progress indicators and getting everyone to push him so that he would get going. To make matters even worse, even the very small changes required these efforts and Hippo spent his resources quickly so that even the most simplest of changes cost a lot. In the end, no one had energy (budget) left to keep Hippo moving in the right direction accounting for small changes along the way.

The bottom line

The Mouse will over promise, seem to over deliver, but will soon run out of money. This business model can’t support anything longer than a fantastic looking sprint – then they implode and the relationship (or their business itself) is ended. A long term partnership requires a two way commitment. Sure you can take advantage of short-term gains but the ramp up of new partnerships is expensive. Plus the gained knowledge was not able to be leveraged and is lost.

The Hippo will always look to protect their top and bottom lines. This makes it hard for a partnership centered around value for the client. Since most of their effort is around ensuring their survival, adapting to business change and delivering quick value becomes very expensive or worse, they get bogged down in such a level of detail that they can’t deliver at all.

The good vendor is a hybrid; half mouse and half hippo. Structure is necessary but it can kill. Likewise, no structure gives agility but without discipline (structure) it leads to failure.

Manage your vendors; exploit their strengths, determine their weaknesses and lead them in the journey of ‘partnership’. (Keep in mind that ‘partnership’ is not so much of a destination, rather it’s in fact a journey – a common path that two parties walk, both correcting each other and reaping the benefits of success together.)

Epilogue

Mouse is still here because they have us (their client) at the center of their focus. But they are in trouble, both internally (keeping top and bottom lines in check) and externally (poor reputation). They are used for very short sprints. We realize their weaknesses and provide safety nets (extra budgets). Scope is well managed and talked about often to keep them on track. They are learning. Pain is a hard teacher but without pain, how does one know the problem areas.  

Hippo is no longer around. You see, they had themselves at the center of their focus. The protection that they employed revealed itself as unbending agreements, over complicated change management processes, and expensive addendums. This quickly led to an adversarial relationship and who wants a vendor who won’t commit to an equal partnership.

Once you find the perfect Mouse-Hippo Hybrid, clone them!

~Scott Felten