The Tao of Steve

We could say that this blog is a combination of popular culture and business.  After this weeks discussion on marketing, sales and branding I thought about my time in marketing, business development and sales.  I've been part of two successful start ups in the defense technology services business and have also been a Sr. VP of Business Development for a huge defense firm.  The difference is amazing.

My company has a mantra that is borrowed from a movie called "The Tao of Steve".  For those who haven't seen this flick it is a low budget romantic comedy about a grungy, overweight loser who has amazing success with women.  He codified his approach as "The Tao of Steve", which consists of three rules.

1) Suppress your desire

2) Be excellent in her presence

3) Be unavailable

The second rule is the core of the BD approach I have always succeeded with.  Be excellent in their presence.  Simple, perhaps elitist, but effective.  Always exceeding not only expectations of customers but of everyone you engage.

This is compared with my gig in Big Defense.  What a disaster.  I summarize the approach as "We are at least as good and might be a little cheaper, but we'll claim to be exceedingly skilled and cost effective".  I never figured out how to sell that and resigned within a few months.  The marketing strategy simply consisted of identifying whatever big targets were somewhere in the vicinity of the expertise of the company and trying to win it.  BTW - This group, during the few years after I departed shrank about 10-15% per year, and wound up being absorbed into another unit after 3 or 4 years.

So what is the point?  Not sure.  I think the Tao of Steve can be applied in a business (not just as a business development strategy) by changing it just a bit

1) Don't go directly for the sale.  The point is to do good work.  If you do, good things happen.

2) Be excellent in everything, always.

3) Being unavailable is best translated as "make sure you get paid for the high quality service you are providing".  Too many service companies get into trouble by underbidding because they need the work, or are trying to justify a strategic win, etc.  It almost always is a bad choice.

This may not work for all companies or even for large companies that have a hard time distinguishing themselves from anyone else, but it sure works in the world I've lived in for 20 years.

Another mantra is our core mission statement - Have fun, Do good work, Make good money.  Simple, and to the point!

Comments

[Dianne Foster]

Wayne,
Sadly, not too many companies heed some of these suggestions.

When I visited my Dad's birthplace in Fon du Lac WI, I found a sidewalk (they lived on the corner of Main Street and East Rees) that had been laid down in 1912 and was as solid as the day it was put down, and this sidewalk had been through almost 100 years of WI winters. I figure my Dad played on it with his 5 sisters and it was neat to stand there and contemplate them as children. My siblings and I had played on it too in the 1940s when my parents brought us home for Aunt Bernadette and Uncle Sylvester's wedding after the war.

The old Victorian house built by my grandparents the same year, was also standing, although it was painted a bilious blue which does nothing for the fretwork.

I used to love to climb in the laundry chute when my sibs and I played 'hide and seek.' Once, I found a stack of newspapers in the basement, some dating back to 1912. Grandpa had saved the papers for lighting his coal furnace, but a couple of them had been set aside. These papers were from the Milwaukee Journal, and one had TITANIC SINKS on the front page, with a list of passengers who were on the ship. Another had VON HINDIN BERG DESTROYED.

My neighbor up the street works for the National Archives and her next door neighbor works for the Smithsonian. Both have purchased older homes in our neighborhood, and both homes have the same age and look as my grandparents old home. The archivist neighbor knows the history of her house and every one of the houses in our historic neighborhood which is listed on some register or other.

All around us are folks renovating and restoring old houses, plus a few idiots tearing them down to build Mcmansions.

Given the state of some things erected today, I wonder what will be around in 100 years to recycle?

[Kevin]

Wayne,
Couldn't agree more. Being excellent is one of the best BD strategies out there. I'm on my one (and only) start up after 20 years with beltway bandits both large and small. Knock on wood, but we've been doing great for 5 years, have never competed on price, and always focus on providing a few great people with the right skills.

The part you - and almost all of the class readings - leave out, is the role of government in all this. Just yesterday, I saw more bold-faced lies published in the open press yesterday about a major procurement that everyone knows has gone completely off the rails. It was clear that the Government and contractor had not only worked together to produce a multi-billion dollar disaster, but that they were now both obliged to pretend that the effort was really a success.

As long as the folks on the defense, intelligence, and appropriations committees have to raise millions of dollars to keep their jobs, the fastest way to maintaining and expanding - if not initially obtaining - very large defense contracts is to work the hill. All the big boys have big legislative liaison offices, internal PACs, and former big dog govvies that keep it rolling in.

This isn't new. Teapot Dome, United Fruit, the Crater of Diamonds State Park, etc. are but a few examples of historical Gov't - Industry collaborations in other industries. But barring this kind of skullduggery - yes, just doing an extraordinary job does pay off in the long run, at least for the little guys. And I would like to second your enthusiasm for being one of the little guys!

Cheers - Kevin

[Dianne Foster]

Kevin, Don't get me started on government contracts. The 'reinventing government' movement which began in the 1980s has completely altered the face of government. In some ways it was for the best (like the introduction of PCs for desk tops), but in other ways it has been nothing but a boondoggle.

I am all for small firms being hired to do jobs beyond the scope of a hide-bound government agency (not all agencies can do all things), however, contracting out to for the sake of being able to fill a requirement set up by WH staff such as "jobs contracted out" (saves money??) led to a demise in the professionalism and skill of Civil Servants to say nothing of honesty, itegrity, etc. For example, most of the contractors the Census Bureau hired were ex-employees, who essentially were double-dipping (i.e., nice retirement pay and then some from the contractor employer).

I am of course speaking from my own experience, I know very little about the military operations, which have been using contracts forever. My son, who is a project officer at San Diego tells me they are operating under a CR again, so I guess this Congress is no better than any other with the appropriations process, which is their job.

Tea Pot Dome scandal? We moved beyond that level of corruption years ago.

[Lindsey Bestebreurtje]

Is this making anyone else think of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? "Be excellent to each other."

Anyways... I'm not sure that I really understand how "be unavailable" translates in business to "make sure you get paid for the high quality service you are providing". I think that it may translate to something closer to always being available for a client's needs but make sure that they also know how busy you are. It shouldn't seem like you are always free sitting around in your office, whether or not that is true it should never SEEM that way. So maybe it translates to another 90's movie quote "I'm right on top of that Rose!"