Karl FeilderGround Zero
London needs to buck up its ideas in the IT market
London, the City. The world's centre of finance, according to
some.
As the grey skies parted to show a few feeble rays of sunlight
borrowed from warmer climes, my black taxi halted in front of the
venerable institution. It shall remain nameless to protect the
certainly-not-innocent. (Or at least to save me the inevitable,
foundless but tedious, libel charge).
I paid the taxi driver and walked calmly towards the polished
granite facade. You could smell the money in the air and see sharp
monochrome suits gliding past on Italian leather soles. The
elevator was expensively tailored and the meeting room was swish.
They even had nice biscuits!
That morning the crumpled newspapers on the train were full with
stories of the new Stock Exchange TechMark, and the Nasdaq desire
to open up in London. And editorial pieces were explaining how this
was just what was needed to propel UK investors into the New York
hyper league of stock market paper profits.
The investment bankers entered the room. This was our third
meeting, and it was all smiles. We had satisfied their initial
probes, and they seemed to understand what we were about. I was
then introduced to "The Junior" - a quiet chap who looked like he
had just left school. With such august company of vice presidents
and senior fund managers, I was a little surprised to see him
there.
And suddenly it became clear. "The Junior", who also doubled up
as their internal network administrator, had recently obtained his
MCSE. Whoopee-do. He was an NT specialist, but I soon found out he
was as junior as he looked. He had never heard of Token Ring or
Ethernet bridging. And Windows 3.11 - ancient history, irrelevant
and best ignored. And his role in the meeting? To pass technical
judgement on my worldwide business.
Now, you can call me old fashioned, call me arrogant, but there
was no way that "The Junior" had any concept of the global software
industry. How could he judge the effectiveness of our marketing
strategy in Japan, or South Africa, or even the Home Counties?
Technical due diligence? Give me a break.
But the big lesson of the day for both me and this City
institution, was their decision cycle. They told me to expect an
initial reply within a fortnight, and that their investment
committee would meet in a month or so, to decide whether they
should proceed. In that time I released two new products, met 15
proper IT investors, and opened up a new market.
So, London, I bid you adieu. Maybe your City is the centre of
world finance, but with a lack of real IT analysts, and snail-like
decision making, you will miss out, big time. And as for "The
Junior" - good luck! I'm sure you're a nice chap and you'll realise
soon enough that the grass (and the money) is a lot greener
elsewhere.
Karl Feilder is founder of Greenwich Mean Time, developer of
the Check 2000 range of PC millennium tools