Early in my career, I was selling optimization software to a large industrial company. The CFO arranged a meeting with several senior vice presidents whose divisions would be affected by the system. None could approve the purchase alone, but any of them could probably stop it.
The Problem Behind the Problem
I opened with the corporate benefit: the software could increase overall profitability. The executives immediately asked how it would affect their individual operations.
Their incentives conflicted. One executive was rewarded for increasing production volume; another was rewarded for limiting processing costs. More production improved the first metric while raising the second executive's costs. Maintenance created a similar timing problem: deferring work could improve this year's number and create a larger failure later.
These were capable, long-tenured executives behaving rationally under the compensation system the company had designed.
The proposed software created additional personal risk. An executive who sponsored a successful project might receive little benefit. A failed project could reduce a bonus or damage a career. Saying no was safer.
The Sales Process
The executives wanted to know which operating decisions the optimizer would change. I could not answer honestly without their data. The system was designed to evaluate the economics and constraints, not confirm a predetermined conclusion.
During the discussion, one executive recognized that a possible recommendation would support his position in an ongoing dispute with a colleague. His attitude changed immediately, and the proposal advanced.
Map Each Person’s Interests
The engagement taught me to map the decision system as carefully as the operating system. A company may benefit economically from a project while every individual approver has a reason to resist it.
For enterprise innovation, "the organization" does not make the decision. People do, and each person has a different definition of success, compensation plan, risk, and relationship to the proposed change. Until those incentives are understood, the sales process itself has not been optimized.
