The following entry is reposted from the sascom voices blog, and was contributed by David Hughes, SAS VP of Sales for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. I hope you enjoy reading his words, as there are important lessons for marketers in the examples he uses to illustrate the importance of attitude and focus in driving success.
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Value (n): a fair return or equivalent in goods, services or money for something exchanged; relative worth, utility or importance; a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation; something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
Competition can be a complicated thing. There was a distinct sense of competition between Michelangelo and one of his contemporaries, Bramante, who was fiercely jealous of Michelangelo’s incredible talent. Once, when Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build him an extravagant tomb, Michelangelo took to it with his usual fervour and spent eight months in a marble quarry selecting and cutting the most perfect pieces of marble. While Michelangelo was away, Bramante had deviously influenced the Pope to cancel the project. Some years later, when the Pope commissioned a new project, Bramante turned down what he saw as an arduous task with little possibility of recognition. Instead, Bramante proposed that Pope Julius select Michelangelo for this time waster, to keep the master busy and away from the limelight.
Michelangelo was no fool ... he knew of Bramante’s deception and took on the project with vigour. He spent many years working tediously under physically exhausting conditions to complete the project. Bramante had miscalculated. The outcome was so breathtaking that it has become recognised as Michelangelo’s most iconic work. It was the Sistine Chapel.
I recently attended The Premier Business Leadership Series in Berlin, where I was pleased to spend time with a large French bank discussing an opportunity to address an issue that our high-performance risk solution can clearly address. Another vendor had convinced the customer that a solution which requires more and more hardware investment over time is the way to go… The customer was clear with us that the decision was all but made. Like Michelangelo, the SAS team decided to think differently from the competition. Since the bank is very focused at this time on being prudent with its funds, we showed how SAS High-Performance Risk could be more cost effective because of the low hardware cost and the ability to scale easily using the flexible blade architecture. The bank is now considering re-opening the issue.
I met with another bank CIO from Belgium who had a cost-of-hardware issue. When his IT people informed the risk department of the hardware costs (due to the many scenarios they wanted to analyze), the risk team decided to reduce the number of scenarios to save money. So the cost of hardware is a good reason to put the bank at risk, I asked? I alluded to the similarity to the Titanic debacle, where the number of lifeboats was reduced to accommodate more passengers. Again, this CIO saw the efficacy of our high-performance risk solution.
After The Series, we held our Olympic-themed AP Sales Forum in Indonesia in which salespeople from across AP gathered to network and take part in a case study competition. It was a mock sales opportunity with country managers playing the part of customers. Interestingly, culture and language barriers melted away. Reps from China bonded with reps from India, while reps from Thailand and Taiwan joined forces on a single team. Aside from the practical lessons in value-based selling, one of the most meaningful aspects for participants was the ability to trade war stories among peers with whom they might not under normal circumstances.
Speaking of war stories, here’s a story I shared recently with my staff that I hope you find inspiring:
Károly Takács was a Hungarian Army officer and, in 1938, the top pistol shooter in the world, roundly expected to win the gold medal in the 1940 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Mere months before the Olympics, a hand grenade exploded in Takács’ right hand, taking it completely off at the wrist. Takács spent a month in the hospital and, after returning home, immediately taught himself to shoot with his left hand. You see, instead of focusing on what he lost, he shifted his focus to the two things he did have – mental toughness and a healthy left hand. He practiced alone and in secret for months. Then, in the spring of 1939 he attended the Hungarian National Pistol Shooting Championship. Each of the competitors approached him to offer sympathetic words and admiration for his courage in coming to watch them shoot. With resolve, Takács said, “I didn’t come to watch, I came to compete.”
And he won.
In 1940 and 1944, the Olympics were cancelled because of World War II. In 1948 he qualified for the Summer Olympics in London, where he set a new world record and won the gold medal. Incredibly, he won the gold again at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.
The truth is, people with a winning spirit recover quickly. When set upon by hardship, true winners force themselves to look at the bright side. Recovering quickly ensures that you don’t lose your momentum. After all, when a boxer gets knocked down, he has ten seconds to get back up. One second more, and he loses the fight.
"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise, and thinking that having problems is a problem." - Theodore Rubin
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In the case of Michelangelo, his talent shone through even on an obscure project. In the case of Takács, he showed that his brain and eyes trumped the loss of his hand as a sharp-shooter. Both men triumphed. So, how do those examples apply to you? Would you like to share a story of adversity turned into opportunity? Please leave a comment or two. Thanks!
