Bob Sievert’s insight reflects the RAM 1998 model, and is exactly the point that the Hansen Models formalize today.
You cannot implement to someone else’s outcome.
You can only implement from your actual starting point.
Case studies show you someone else’s trophy.
HFS shows you your readiness to compete.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most organizations are not beginning in championship condition.
And that’s not a criticism — it’s a starting point.
What matters is not whether you match eVA’s peak performance.
What matters is whether you understand:
- your team’s capabilities,
- your structural limitations,
- your cultural friction points,
- your incentive landscape,
- and your absorptive capacity.
In sports terms:
You don’t train a beginner like a champion.
You train them like a beginner so that one day they may become one.
This Is Why Phase 0 Exists
Phase 0 doesn’t sell the fantasy.
It establishes the reality.
It tells you before you buy:
- whether your team is ready,
- whether your agents are aligned,
- whether your governance can carry the load,
- whether your culture supports the change,
- and what your actual path to success looks like.
Some organizations will achieve eVA-level outcomes.
Most won’t — and that’s not failure.
That’s fit.
Your job is not to become Virginia.
Your job is to understand your championship reality and build toward it — not toward someone else’s victory lap.
The Bottom Line
You’re not supposed to win Bob Sievert’s championship.
You’re supposed to win yours.
Your people, your constraints, your culture, your readiness.
Everything else — every case study, every vendor promise, every analyst diagram — is just noise unless it starts with that truth.
Technology is not the equalizer.
Readiness is.
And until our industry stops selling Super Bowl rings to teams that haven’t yet built a playbook, the 80% failure rate isn’t going anywhere.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE (WARNING):
Only read the following 2-Part case study after looking in the mirror and saying we are NOT Tom Brady, nor are we the Commonwealth of Virginia:
Yes Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 1) – https://bit.ly/3SUWxml
Yes Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 2) – https://bit.ly/3qHEyq4
Procurement Insights
Your Championship Reality Is Not Someone Else’s Case Study
Posted on December 10, 2025
0
Bob Sievert’s insight reflects the RAM 1998 model, and is exactly the point that the Hansen Models formalize today.
Case studies show you someone else’s trophy.
HFS shows you your readiness to compete.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most organizations are not beginning in championship condition.
And that’s not a criticism — it’s a starting point.
What matters is not whether you match eVA’s peak performance.
What matters is whether you understand:
In sports terms:
You don’t train a beginner like a champion.
You train them like a beginner so that one day they may become one.
This Is Why Phase 0 Exists
Phase 0 doesn’t sell the fantasy.
It establishes the reality.
It tells you before you buy:
Some organizations will achieve eVA-level outcomes.
Most won’t — and that’s not failure.
That’s fit.
Your job is not to become Virginia.
Your job is to understand your championship reality and build toward it — not toward someone else’s victory lap.
The Bottom Line
You’re not supposed to win Bob Sievert’s championship.
You’re supposed to win yours.
Your people, your constraints, your culture, your readiness.
Everything else — every case study, every vendor promise, every analyst diagram — is just noise unless it starts with that truth.
Technology is not the equalizer.
Readiness is.
And until our industry stops selling Super Bowl rings to teams that haven’t yet built a playbook, the 80% failure rate isn’t going anywhere.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE (WARNING):
Only read the following 2-Part case study after looking in the mirror and saying we are NOT Tom Brady, nor are we the Commonwealth of Virginia:
Yes Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 1) – https://bit.ly/3SUWxml
Yes Virginia! There is more to e-procurement than software! (Part 2) – https://bit.ly/3qHEyq4
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