What I learned from Sales Director from Alcatel

Switching again from last week, today I go back my early days in Power Grid. As I said, I was young and enthusiastic and eager to prove myself. Power Grid game me a lot of opportunities and courtesy Mr. Dasgupta a lot of freedom to work and experiment. Myself along with my colleagues was working on writing the specifications to buy optical as well as microwave communication systems. Today I am going to tell you a story from those days.

Reproducing knowledge does not make you wise.

I studied a lot and off course learned a lot. I was proud of myself and that fact that others were not putting in similar efforts was making my progress look great. I worked with consultants from US, a company called Macro Consulting with two outstanding gentlemen, Mr Ralph Brown and Mr Brian Ostler each expert in their own domains. They pointed out to me what writing technical specifications for a project looked like and where should I find the relevant information to learn. We worked hard and came up with two fairly comprehensive documents, one on fiber optic systems and the other on microwave systems. After we floated the RFPs (Request for Proposals), I was keen to get some feedback about the quality of the technical specifications.

Over the process of writing the specifications we had worked with various vendors and I had developed respect for a sales director from Alcatel, he was a french guy, very genuine and helpful. He was quite experienced and regarded young people like me with care and curiosity. Sorry, I forget the name. But I cannot forget what he said when he had a read through the specifications. He summed it up quite simply and showed me a mirror.

He said the documents contained, “Too much information for free distribution.”

I was shocked but persisted to get some specific feedback. He further elaborated, telling me that 70% of the document was reproduction of standards published and available in public domain. The useful information about the actual requirements itself had become tough to find. He further said, there was no need to waste so much paper. He was blunt but clear, while others were just polite enough to just praise the good parts. I do thank him for being candid and helping me reflect upon my work.

It took me years to learn to be precise, to not to color documents with the knowledge that I had gained in order to qualify to write them. To limit them to what was really required to be there. It was later when I joined Nortel and saw some of the RFPs from Airtel, that I realized, what a specification could be.

So, I hope that all of you can refrain yourself from just repeating known and published knowledge to prove that you know a lot. Being clear and concise makes life easier for all.

Stay tuned for more next week.