“Everyone — vendor, consultant, analyst firm, and buying organization will be affected this time around.” – Michael Lamoureux on pending AI Bubble Burst (You can read his entire LinkedIn post via the following link – be sure to comment.)
The biggest challenge in assessing the ProcureTech market today, unlike any other time in the past, is that the hype cycle is louder, more distracting than informative, and I hate to say it, filled with so much gold rush fever BS that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sift through to find the real gold.
Each time I interview a prospective solution provider, trying to find five credible players in total, I ask the tough questions because I don’t need the thrill ride of reaching for the stars at this stage of my career. I simply want solution providers who care about successful implementations more than announcing their possibilities in heralded press releases that ultimately dissolve into a distant memory. Refer to my last post on solution provider announcements.
Is The Party Over?
Maybe what makes the frenzy more robust and unwieldy this time around is that the tech tools and toys can make someone working out of a garage look like a “reputable player.”
I remember a 2009 email exchange with Good to Great author Jim Collins regarding social media and leadership. Here is an excerpt from the email:
“Like most of the world, we are still navigating the world of social media – and do not yet fully know what its impact will be. As such, I’m afraid we likely won’t be able to shed too much insight on your question.
However, we do know that nothing we have seen has suggested that there is any fundamental change to the framework we uncovered in Good to Great – even when those leaders were running the organizations, there were still media and other publicity pressures on them; but they simply approached them differently than did the comparison CEOs. If anything, it would seem that social media does not fundamentally change the nature of the beast – it perhaps just makes it noisier, and faster.”
“Noisier and faster” – think about that for a moment. With a twist of phrase, replace the words “bigger” and “harder” with noisier and faster,” and you have “The Noisier They Are, The Faster They Fall!”
Getting Through The Noise
Earlier today, I spent more than one hour asking pointed questions of the founder of a solution provider who actually understands the intricacies of their technology – which is a good thing because he created the platform.
The above “screening process” is time-consuming, requiring me to know as much—if not more—about the platform than its creator. Later today, I sent a second set of equally probing questions, which will be followed up with a full assessment report.
In the past few months, this point in the process has made many solution providers uncomfortable—at least the ones who suspect their gold is actually pyrite. At this time, I have to decide if I walk away from a prospective client or – there actually isn’t an “or” because, at that point, I am not interested in going further. But it is a process I must go through to find the rare “real gold,” that is, the four or five solution providers with whom I will work to help them deliver on their promise to the procurement practitioner.
I know they are out there, and I will find them and enter the AI Balloon Bust period, confident that we can make a difference in this industry.
Procurement Insights
Finding The Gold In A River Of Pyrite
Posted on August 22, 2024
0
“Everyone — vendor, consultant, analyst firm, and buying organization will be affected this time around.” – Michael Lamoureux on pending AI Bubble Burst (You can read his entire LinkedIn post via the following link – be sure to comment.)
The biggest challenge in assessing the ProcureTech market today, unlike any other time in the past, is that the hype cycle is louder, more distracting than informative, and I hate to say it, filled with so much gold rush fever BS that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sift through to find the real gold.
Each time I interview a prospective solution provider, trying to find five credible players in total, I ask the tough questions because I don’t need the thrill ride of reaching for the stars at this stage of my career. I simply want solution providers who care about successful implementations more than announcing their possibilities in heralded press releases that ultimately dissolve into a distant memory. Refer to my last post on solution provider announcements.
Maybe what makes the frenzy more robust and unwieldy this time around is that the tech tools and toys can make someone working out of a garage look like a “reputable player.”
I remember a 2009 email exchange with Good to Great author Jim Collins regarding social media and leadership. Here is an excerpt from the email:
“Like most of the world, we are still navigating the world of social media – and do not yet fully know what its impact will be. As such, I’m afraid we likely won’t be able to shed too much insight on your question.
However, we do know that nothing we have seen has suggested that there is any fundamental change to the framework we uncovered in Good to Great – even when those leaders were running the organizations, there were still media and other publicity pressures on them; but they simply approached them differently than did the comparison CEOs. If anything, it would seem that social media does not fundamentally change the nature of the beast – it perhaps just makes it noisier, and faster.”
“Noisier and faster” – think about that for a moment. With a twist of phrase, replace the words “bigger” and “harder” with noisier and faster,” and you have “The Noisier They Are, The Faster They Fall!”
Getting Through The Noise
Earlier today, I spent more than one hour asking pointed questions of the founder of a solution provider who actually understands the intricacies of their technology – which is a good thing because he created the platform.
The above “screening process” is time-consuming, requiring me to know as much—if not more—about the platform than its creator. Later today, I sent a second set of equally probing questions, which will be followed up with a full assessment report.
In the past few months, this point in the process has made many solution providers uncomfortable—at least the ones who suspect their gold is actually pyrite. At this time, I have to decide if I walk away from a prospective client or – there actually isn’t an “or” because, at that point, I am not interested in going further. But it is a process I must go through to find the rare “real gold,” that is, the four or five solution providers with whom I will work to help them deliver on their promise to the procurement practitioner.
I know they are out there, and I will find them and enter the AI Balloon Bust period, confident that we can make a difference in this industry.
30
Share this:
Related