The Blatant Truth Weblog

No One Ever Got Fired For Hiring (Fill in Name Brand Company)

We all know the cliché: no one ever got fired for hiring IBM. Or AT&T. Or Google.

This all too common practice of hiring the “big dog on the porch” is a relatively safe one. You select the biggest and most well known entity and the responsibility (blame!) for any sort of screw up can’t be laid upon your shoulders. Whew. What a relief.

And so masses of business people hire resources and companies and employ this underlying selection criteria (make the safe choice and don’t risk your job/status/reputation by picking the less well known (albeit highly credible) resource…yes, play it safe!).

And yes, full disclosure right here: I am hardly the “big dog on the porch” yet for 24 years my firm has been providing clients with high quality, cost-effective, results-driven training and consulting. But our history of success and extensive testimonials from satisfied clients didn’t mean much this past week when I lost a piece of business because as the firm stated, they “felt more comfortable” going with the name brand. And although the selected organization provides a fine work product it will be a generic off the shelf solution that will not address this client’s unique situation as detailed to me in their initial discussions. I guarantee it.

I do understand that my small firm does not have the bandwidth for some projects but this wasn’t one of them. This was a program that I would have nailed perfectly.

But in the end it didn’t much matter and so the hunt for new business continues. Let the little dog prevail.