The Paul Masson brand is best remembered for its 1970s marketing association with Orson Welles, who promised for Masson: “We will sell no wine before its time.” An infamous outtake for one commercial from the Orson Welles campaign features Welles attempting to deliver his lines while very severely inebriated. From Wikipedia.
Recently, one of our best clients called to discuss an organization issue. The leadership was planning to terminate a key manager who was not meeting the expectations of the job. The partners, however, had different ideas as to how to fill the void to be created. Two of the partners were behind the promotion of a highly respected, but inexperienced employee. The CEO had another point of view, so he looked to me to provide an unbiased, third-party evaluation. His specific request was for a written report justifying our position.
The client company, a relatively new business, well-funded, is headed by accomplished industry professionals. They have a proven concept and are moving into a period of rapid growth. In order to be successful it was our view that their key positions must be staffed with self-starters with proof of concept or rely on out-sourced solutions.
Our first reaction was great pleasure to know that our firm was held in such high esteem to be chosen to complete this assignment. Our next reaction was the realization that this request presented risk to our ongoing relationship. We would be touching on the political dynamics within our client’s culture. Our goal is to give the client our very best advice packaged in a way that is useful and accepted by all parties involved, a win-win-win. We were looking for a solution that would be a factual aid to the client’s decision; that would result in meaningful career counsel for their internal candidate; and which would demonstrate our integrity, protecting our long term relationship. After all, isn’t that the goal of any engagement? Especially since we focus on finding solutions that will ensure our clients long-term viability.