Hi guys. first post here. I'm confused about whether to use a certain experience for this essay. I think it could make a good story but I need second opinions.
I was leading a product launch for certain heavy duty trucks in our country, and for that I met with a lot of stakeholders in the various industry that were our targets. These included government agencies that operated their own mining operations. After one such meeting, I was approached by one of the officials and he asked me to prepare a document that they could use to advertise for a tender for heavy duty trucks. Unfortunately this is not uncommon in our country, where government tenders are preplanned with certain parties. I relayed their wishes to my boss, the CEO of the company, who himself had spent time in the bureaucracy. We had an order worth almost half a million dollars, but we had to technically break the law to get it. He had no problems with going through with it.
Failure to comply could have us lose the order even though we had the best product available in the market. After some mental wrangling, I suggested my boss to give me some time to find another way. I figured oftentimes the reason such offers are made from government agencies is that the officials in charge are not knowledgeable in the subject matter they are managing, especially when it comes to new technology. This was especially true with our trucks as before these, normal road going trucks reinforced locally were being used in almost all dangerous mining operations. So I contacted the official and told him that instead of complying with his request, I would like to hold a capacity building workshop, where we would explain in depth the risks from a truck drivers perspective as well as the technology that could help make their jobs easier and safer and more profitable for their operators. I had the added benefit that I invited many other industry stakeholders to the workshop as well. It went very well and we won the bid fair and square as a result. We also generated a lot of interest with the other participants of the workshop, some of whom had turned down our sales teams before, which eventually led to a few other orders as well.
What do you say?
I was leading a product launch for certain heavy duty trucks in our country, and for that I met with a lot of stakeholders in the various industry that were our targets. These included government agencies that operated their own mining operations. After one such meeting, I was approached by one of the officials and he asked me to prepare a document that they could use to advertise for a tender for heavy duty trucks. Unfortunately this is not uncommon in our country, where government tenders are preplanned with certain parties. I relayed their wishes to my boss, the CEO of the company, who himself had spent time in the bureaucracy. We had an order worth almost half a million dollars, but we had to technically break the law to get it. He had no problems with going through with it.
Failure to comply could have us lose the order even though we had the best product available in the market. After some mental wrangling, I suggested my boss to give me some time to find another way. I figured oftentimes the reason such offers are made from government agencies is that the officials in charge are not knowledgeable in the subject matter they are managing, especially when it comes to new technology. This was especially true with our trucks as before these, normal road going trucks reinforced locally were being used in almost all dangerous mining operations. So I contacted the official and told him that instead of complying with his request, I would like to hold a capacity building workshop, where we would explain in depth the risks from a truck drivers perspective as well as the technology that could help make their jobs easier and safer and more profitable for their operators. I had the added benefit that I invited many other industry stakeholders to the workshop as well. It went very well and we won the bid fair and square as a result. We also generated a lot of interest with the other participants of the workshop, some of whom had turned down our sales teams before, which eventually led to a few other orders as well.
What do you say?
