10 Comments
Sep 16, 2022Liked by Walt Shill

I wish had read this back in 1985. Would have saved me many wasted hours...

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Sep 27, 2022Liked by Walt Shill

Excellent post, Walt. MECs definitely apply to both startups and partnerships too. I speak from experience, whereby I've over-invested without any form of guarantee that other parties are equally invested and/or committed. The conditions/symptoms you gave are also very relevant and relatable.

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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Walt Shill

well said. must read for any consultant. maybe also for procurement departments....

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Sep 17, 2022Liked by Walt Shill

Glad you penned this. This should be a required reading in new consultant orientation programs.

8 pm

Overzealous SM to a new consultant fresh out of b-school:

Pull together slides with thought leadership, credentials, and data to support our value prop for the meeting with “Bob” tomorrow morning

Consultant: Sounds interesting, I’ll text “Bob” for data as a token of their MEC right away.

Overzealous SM: DON’T! Just look up for something similar on practice’s SharePoint.

Consultant: I’m so sorry, I just realized that I have a late physical therapy appointment tonight - still recovering from that skiing injury. You might want to check with Mary, she did something similar for another client last year.

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Sep 16, 2022Liked by Walt Shill

Great thoughts on relationship building, Walt! That Yoshi sounds like a very wise man, too!

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I've been part of discussions where there's a suggestion that we staff an experienced technology strategist at an established client for a few weeks, for free, to help build favor/influence with a client executive in a new technology leadership role.

I needed your "MEC" phrase to better explain how that strategist would have a hard time getting meetings with said executive, and that any strategy or advice they produced would be unlikely to generate any meaningful action or follow on work with the exec.

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