Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim

Step up When It Counts

We spent the day there, and in the evening Mr. Princeton took Bella, Jackson, and me down to this city via boat. In the evening I went out to have a beer with Jackson and really connected with them; but, when we returned, we started talking to Mr. Princeton and it turned out that the technology problem was huge. LoyalPlus had a huge issue with its current IT situation.

Seeing that it was in such a bind and the fact that I’d been there for a couple of weeks, I really felt for the people working there. I knew that if this technology was not working, their entire company could go under. I volunteered to help Mr. Princeton.

I got sharked here; sharks touch a heart before they ask for a hand, so it’s a technique. They managed to touch my heart quite a bit; even though I had no interest in helping them, I ended up helping them.I treated it as a consulting gig and offered them a complete end solution. I went directly to the stakeholders, the ones who paid the bills. It’s important to know what they felt the problem was and built the solution based on that.

A good consultant is one that really cares about the problem he is trying to solve.  This can be expressed by how attentively you listen and how you present yourself during meetings. A technique I like to use is to enter the meeting with pen and pad, dressed professionally.  Treat the meeting like your customer is a celebrity and you are interviewing them for a magazine.  Spend your time listening to what they feel is the problem, and when the time is right, present yourself as a solution to that problem.

When you land the contract set very clear milestones of where, how and what will be made by a certain date. This is what I did with LoyalPlus. I promised to build a mobile interface that consisted of an application on an IOS device that allows you to scan and accumulate points, and spend points whenever you go shopping; a loyalty program.

Once I’d interviewed the stake holders and fully understood the problem, I committed to the project 100%.  I was in the office at 8 a.m. and worked until late into the evening.  For my efforts, the entire company took notice.  Mr. Gold and many of the other directors in the company took time to come give me praise and encouragement.

I ended up finishing a prototype within a week, and upon demoing the results, the directors and Mr. Gold were quite impressed.  I was able to win future contracts because of this show of dedication and professionalism.