In this case, turned out to be surprisingly easy. Or so Krishna thought for the first three weeks. He had bumped into Dhritarashtra at the Max Hospital in Gurgaon. And Krishna remembered seeing him occasionally when he was out with his dogs on his morning walks, so quite obviously he lived somewhere in the same neighbourhood. It was easy to start the conversation.
"All well?", Krishna enquired.
"Just brought my Dad for a routine check-up", he said. Nothing serious, except that he was pushing eighty and was diabetic, so he had to come in at least quarterly for a review. Krishna and Dhritarashtra got chatting while sitting in the OPD waiting area. The crowd was still sparse, so they could converse easily.
"Mr Dhritarashtra, I was wondering whether you could use project management training or services at your company. Are you certified ISO or CMMI?"
"Not certified. As a matter of fact we have deliberately kept the startup culture. But we could use some training on formal project management", said Dhritarashtra.
Now Dhritarashtra was usually a man of a few words, but in this instance he poured his heart out as to how much of a mess things were, that projects were always running over schedule, the right talent was not always available when needed, people were stretched and pulling sixty to seventy hour weeks for months on end and that he was at his wits end, what with all the constant fire-fighting.
He was quick to clarify that the company had grown to two and a half thousand people and yet there was a deliberate attempt to maintain the startup culture. There were pros and cons of course, but of late with revenue dropping in three of the four major product lines, he had begun to wonder whether some level of formalism was essential for the next stage of growth.
Krishna did not want to commit until he had had a chance to take a look first hand, so he ended with saying that he would like to meet the team and have a chat, for about an hour or so, to enable him to assess the situation and prepare a formal proposal.
"All well?", Krishna enquired.
"Just brought my Dad for a routine check-up", he said. Nothing serious, except that he was pushing eighty and was diabetic, so he had to come in at least quarterly for a review. Krishna and Dhritarashtra got chatting while sitting in the OPD waiting area. The crowd was still sparse, so they could converse easily.
"Mr Dhritarashtra, I was wondering whether you could use project management training or services at your company. Are you certified ISO or CMMI?"
"Not certified. As a matter of fact we have deliberately kept the startup culture. But we could use some training on formal project management", said Dhritarashtra.
Now Dhritarashtra was usually a man of a few words, but in this instance he poured his heart out as to how much of a mess things were, that projects were always running over schedule, the right talent was not always available when needed, people were stretched and pulling sixty to seventy hour weeks for months on end and that he was at his wits end, what with all the constant fire-fighting.
He was quick to clarify that the company had grown to two and a half thousand people and yet there was a deliberate attempt to maintain the startup culture. There were pros and cons of course, but of late with revenue dropping in three of the four major product lines, he had begun to wonder whether some level of formalism was essential for the next stage of growth.
Krishna did not want to commit until he had had a chance to take a look first hand, so he ended with saying that he would like to meet the team and have a chat, for about an hour or so, to enable him to assess the situation and prepare a formal proposal.
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