InformationWeek

The Secret CIO: Everybody Wants To Partner

But suppliers show that they don't have a clue about what that means

Herbert W. Lovelace
Issue column appeared: March 18, 1996

Both AT&T and IBM took me to lunch this week to discuss long-range planning. IBM, which has forgotten marketing, picked a noisy restaurant where it was impossible to hear what its people wanted. AT&T, which is still learning, shepherded me to an upscale place where their pitch was a distraction from the quality food and wine.

Both of these bastions of Amer ican business acumen--remember that T.J. Watson and Theodore Vale were the prototype industrialists, to be envied and emulated--seemed mired in the 1960s. They were spending their hard-earned sales budgets asking me how they should interview our senior management in order to learn where our business is going. They wanted, they said, to build on the partnerships that were so important to our relationship.

It was easier to explain reality to IBM because the food was poor, and harder to do so with AT&T because we were drinking a superior California Sterling Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

I did not dwell on their veneration of our "partnership." It is not my habit to question an individual's religious beliefs, no matter how flawed their factual content. After all, what value is there to my company in dissuading IBM and AT&T of their conviction that-because we treat them fairly-they are more than just suppliers to us? My aim was to help them support us better and, because I like the people involved personally, to try to help them remain gainfully employed.

I said I had no problem with their speaking to our big users. I did point out to IBM that although Kratmeyer, our head of international operations, was just getting over his unhappiness with their inability to reduce international AS/400 pricing to U.S. levels, they should feel free to visit him. To AT&T, I suggested that Gornish, our chief financial officer, was still surly over the delay in installing T1 lines to carry consolidated financial information to headquarters- but perhaps he would not snarl at them if they called. I learned this ploy about assuming guilt exists from political sa-
tirist Mark Russell, who says before giving a corporate speech that he always tells the CEO he will not mention the big lawsuit. The CEO is very grateful, even though Russell has no idea whether a suit is pending.

Getting The Point
When I had their attention and felt comfortable that they would be careful a bout talking to anyone at my company without telling me, I tried to communicate some common sense.

I first gave them some platitudes about our business. I explained that we needed to improve customer service, strive diligently to be the low-cost producer, deliver faster, and differentiate our products so we can rise above commodity pricing. They smiled warmly and nodded attentively.
I then gave them the answer to their question-how to build relationships-while doubting they would understand.

I explained that with today's rapidly changing business world, corporate planning was inexact and we ourselves wished we knew where our business was going. I told them the only partnerships of value to us were those that enhance quick decisions and implementation.

I said the companies with the fastest response to unanticipated challenges would be the survivors, and that's what they should gear up to support.

I still think they just don't get it, but it was worth a try.

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