Chapter One
THE RIVAL
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Eighty million dollars in annual revenue should have made himhappy. Or at least not bitter. But Vince Green, the founder andCEO of Greenwich Consulting, would not be satisfied until hiscompany was recognized as the number one technical consultingfirm in the Bay Area. And on particularly bad days, hejoked that he would be truly happy only when his competitor,Telegraph Partners, was dead.
It wasn't that Telegraph was much larger than Greenwich. Infact, from time to time Greenwich rivaled Telegraph's quarterlyrevenue (although its profits never seemed to do so).
More than the financial war, it bothered Vince and his staff thatGreenwich couldn't seem to win any of the less tangible battles.Telegraph was always regarded as a darling of the tradepress. Industry analysts fawned over them. Telegraph's clientsraved about their services and even stood by them during difficulttimes. Though Greenwich certainly garnered its share ofnew business, retaining clients felt like a constant struggle. Onthe other hand, life seemed too easy for Telegraph.
And if this bothered Vince, then the battle for employeesenraged him. Telegraph didn't have to work as hard or spendas much money recruiting good people. To make mattersworse, there seemed to be a small but steady stream ofemployees leaving Greenwich to join Telegraph, but rarely didtraffic flow in the other direction. And in those few instanceswhen employees actually did leave Telegraph for Greenwichpastures, they rarely stayed more than a year.
Perhaps the most subtle but frustrating aspect of the competitiverelationship that kept Greenwich executives awake andangry at night was the fact that Telegraph's CEO, Rich O'Connor,rarely, if ever, acknowledged Greenwich. Not during pressinterviews, conference speeches, or client presentations. Andwhen a Greenwich executive occasionally met Telegraph'schief executive during an industry event, almost without fail heseemed genuinely disinterested in Greenwich and unaware ofwhat his largest and most direct competitor was doing.
All of this would have been less frustrating had Greenwich notinvested so much time and money learning about its rival. Frominterviews with former Telegraph employees to minor acts oflegal corporate espionage, Greenwich had amassed as muchknowledge about its competitor as about any of its own clients.
Still, none of the surveillance yielded anything that Greenwichcould put to use.
Until now.
RECONNAISSANCE
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As part of his desire to understand the mystery of Telegraph'ssuccess, Vince Green occasionally invited business scholars tohis staff meetings. Strategy experts, marketing professors, andfinance gums had analyzed Telegraph's practices, paying particularattention to any areas where Telegraph and Greenwichdiffered.
Much to the dismay of Green and his team, these experts usuallyfound little real difference between the rival firms' businessstrategies. Both companies recruited from the same schools; theypaid their employees similar salaries (Greenwich actually paidslightly more); they invested roughly equal amounts of moneyin marketing; the financial models they used to run their businesseswere remarkably similar; even the prices they chargedclients and the services they offered were almost identical.
Confounded by the lack of insight gained from these high-pricedanalysts, Green reluctantly agreed to have a local organizationaldevelopment professor and consultant compare thecultures of the two companies. On the day that she came topresent her findings at the weekly executive staff meeting,Green was in no mood to listen to psychobabble about theimportance of employee picnics and holiday parties. He wouldbe pleasantly surprised.
The consultant immediately grabbed the attention of everyoneseated around the conference table: "Based on the informationavailable and the research I've done, there is so little in commonbetween Greenwich and Telegraph that making a comparisonis extremely difficult."
Amazed by the apparent ridiculousness of the remark, Greenwas on the verge of bringing the presentation to an early halt.But before he could do so, she continued: "Something aboutTelegraph's culture is remarkable, like none I've ever seen.Their ability to attract clients and employees, to retain clientsand employees, and even to maintain a loyal base of formerclients and employees is really very impressive."
The Greenwich team was caught between two strong emotions:a sense of relief at having finally discovered even a kernelof insight that might help them understand Telegraph, anda wave of disappointment that their competitor had recruitedyet another admiring fan.
Green was too driven to let jealousy override his desire tounderstand his competitor. "So what exactly are they doing?"Although the consultant could not ascertain the core reasonsfor the cultural discrepancy, she spent the next hour simplydescribing various aspects of Telegraph's culture. "Apparently,there is almost no politics, very little voluntary turnover, andrelatively few lawsuits brought by disgruntled employees. Evenmost of the former employees I spoke to raved about the firm'sculture."
The executive team listened closely, asked questions, and scribblednotes like college students the day before a final exam.
The consultant eventually concluded her remarks: "Essentiallythey have an organization that is so sound, so"—she struggledfor the right word—"so healthy that it makes them immune tomost threats. This, more than anything else they're doing,seems to be driving their success financially, strategically, andcompetitively. I wish I knew exactly how they did it."
Vince spoke for the first time in an hour. "So do I." Standingnow, he waved and forced a smile to say thank you to theconsultant and left the room immediately.
No one could have known that he already had an idea.
Now where did I put that phone number?
Copyright © 2000 Jossey-Bass Inc.. All rights reserved.
