|
There are big, monumental, screw-ups…. Or “cagadas”. And then there are cagadas so big that someone should build a monument to them. The kind that doesn’t just destroy a project. It changes an industry. I’m thinking now about that traffic model that cost a traffic advisor millions and millions because its forecasts were more optimistic than Putin’s three days “special military operation” in Ukraine. That mistake changed the way PPPs with traffic risk were viewed. Contractually. Financially. Politically. And let’s not even talk about PI insurance… Forever… But well... New times. New disasters. Imagine this. A major infrastructure project. Critical for a country. Hundreds of millions, maybe billions, at stake. And suddenly there is a data breach. Why? Because some genius, an “iluminado”, decided to share passwords with other freaks in public forums in the internet… Sites full of software people, data analytics, AI guys and other similar freaks. The kind of cagadas that makes a cybersecurity officer cry into his gluten-free muffin. Then someone gets access. Not to a random file. To everything. Project documents. Design information. Commercial data. Security-sensitive details. The kind of information you really, really don’t want floating around. And then the client receives the message. “Pay the ransom”. Con dos cojones… or with 2 balls… Imagine the face. Imagine the room. Because the worst part is not even the breach. The worst part is that maybe the only reason you found out is because someone asked for money. If they had stayed quiet? Good luck, my friend. Wait for the next terrorist using the information to kick you in the b@lls. Now imagine you are in a joint venture. And the “iluminado” was not in your company. He was in your partner’s team. You had your checks and balances. You even warned them. You suggested controls. But they didn’t do it. And now the client does not care. The client does not care if it was you. Your partner. The iluminado. The phase of the moon. Or tres pimientos en vinagre… Or 3 pepers in vinegar… They just want blood. And then the lawyers arrive. Of course they do. Lawyers from every corner of the planet rubbing their hands like children on Christmas morning. The client screaming. The contractors screaming. The banks screaming. The designers screaming. The insurers screaming. And the lawyers arriving in swarms. Like flies to…you know… the “cagada” (sh*t in Spanish, by the way). Well. You get the picture. Now imagine you are in that team. In that room. The room where the decision has to be made. Not in a seminar. Not in a LinkedIn post. In the real room. With the smelly cagada on the table. With legal exposure. Financial exposure. Political exposure. Reputational exposure. “What the hell do we do now?” Well. I can give you a few ideas. But for that… you better enter in The Room. Click below and get in. ​The Room​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics did one of those experiments that sounds stupid… Not because you probably pay them with your taxes… But because you realise it explains half of the disasters in business. They took people to a forest. Then they gave them a simple instruction: “Walk in a straight line.” That’s it. No MBA. No strategy deck. No 147-page governance framework. Just walk straight. C’mon you can do it! Several participants were convinced they had done...
There is a famous story about President John F. Kennedy visiting NASA in 1961. While touring the facility, he met a janitor mopping the floor. Kennedy asked him what he did at NASA. “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” Beautiful… Maybe too beautiful to be true. But who cares… the point is brutal. Now, no question how, a few years later, NASA sent three men to the moon using computers weaker than my kid’s lullaby machine. One team. For real. One objective. For real. Not because of an org...
Your team is not weak. Your leadership is. You can hire the best people in the market. The sharpest commercial director. The most experienced technical lead. The planner who can see delays before they are even born. The lawyer who reads contracts like other people read Netflix subtitles. All beautiful. Wonderful. Very LinkedIn. But if you don’t empower them… If they need permission to breathe… If every decision has to go through seven committees, four “alignment sessions”, two steering groups...