Re: Legacy code. Was:Dates

["Kahn, David" <KAHN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Rehm (Mr.AS400@ibm.net) wrote:

>>If I invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in my own training it's not
>>in the anticipation of giving necessarily a better service, but a more
>>valuable one. It would not make sense to do it unless I expected that
>
>What makes it "more valuable" if it isn't "better"?

It's more valuable because a client will pay more for it. It may be
very, very hard to provide a better service than the person who comes in
at night and washes the cups and cleans the floors. I don't want to
compete in that area. I'd rather do something that has a higher hourly
rate.

>In your example, it seems that you should simply scan the press to see
>what is the highest paid service, check the econo model and call the trade
>school. However, without determining if those high paid skills are really
>what your customer needs, couldn't you end up with a new skill set and
>nobody to sell them too?

I don't agree that my model implies this at all. It doesn't preclude
long term strategic positioning.

>>There's only one reason to be in business, and that's to make money.
>>Sordid, maybe, but true.
>
>Absolutely. One reason I have always enjoyed doing business with IBM is
>that they never made any pretense otherwise. They wanted my money. To get
>it, they were willing to do whatever it took, including providing the best
>possible technical solution to my needs. The don't always get it right,
>but they don't ever stop chasing the cash.
>
>I think the secret is to learn that if you really want the cash, you need
>to get the customer to want to give it to you. One way to do that is to
>provide a service that is worth more to him than that cash is. So, pay
>attention to what your customer wants/needs.

Chris, we're talking the same language.

Dave Kahn - TCO, Tengiz, Kazakstan
=========

e-mail:  kahn@tengizchevroil.com    (until September 30th)
         dkahn@cix.compulink.co.uk  (from  October 1st)
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