Send Gurus, Guns and Money – Or Just One Trusted Advisor

There’s fierce shouting coming from behind the boardroom door. “Are you the lion, or are you the Christian?” To which Mr. Singh, obviously a Sikh and the head of all IT for a very large consumer goods retailer in the UK, simply replies: “Neither.” Mr. Singh is losing his patience, mind you not his temper, for it was his idea to stage this team event under the auspices of one self-proclaimed yet highly-regarded (and very highly paid) ‘IT leadership’ guru. After we’ve determined that eating others, as a leadership strategy, is almost always preferable to getting eaten (unless, of course, you’re a radical pacifist or vegetarian, ave, great guru, morituri te salutant), we further learn that the world is a rocky place, and that we can either “wrap our feet in leather, or we can wrap the whole world in leather,” and that it’s entirely our choice to make – a parable I presume that hints at finding practical solutions over tackling huge and intractable problems. There’s no denying the wisdom in that. After we’ve cycled through the recycled learnings of the Greek Atomists, that time for instance is like a river for one cannot touch the same water twice, and that the tortoise paradoxically outruns the hare, we’re then shouting out mantras in chorus, pronouncing our lust for lifelong learning and career advancement; and finally, we’re now jumping into the river of life, feet first and from the boardroom table; and if looks could kill, there’d be one less IT leadership guru in this world.

The repurposed reference to the great Indian warrior deity Lord Rama whom the Bhāgavata Purāṇa describes as fairly even-keeled, that is “unfazed in defeat and unexcited in victory” (but who’d habitually shatter his opponents into a thousand pieces with a mere flick of his left pinky) is thankfully lost on Mr. Singh’s team which prides itself on achieving and celebrating success and does its best to avoid failure and will take it to heart when it happens. I marvel at Singh’s self-restraint not to whip out his pocket scimitar to slice through the guru babble and to end this expensive farce. The farewell quote from Sri Guru Granth Sahib couldn’t come soon enough: “Applying oneself to the service of the Guru, the mind is purified, and peace is obtained.” And the wallet is drained.

Farewell to gurus and other hired guns and the money they cost (apologies, Warren Zevon, your lyrics never forgotten) and welcome you, Trusted Advisor.

I’ve known Mr. Singh for over a decade and have followed his ascent in the world of corporate IT leadership across his employment at three blue-chip firms over the years. In other words, I’ve “followed him around” from company to company, first as a services provider, then as strategic partner, and now as a “Trusted Advisor.” I here offer my own definition of what has clearly become an industry meme: the Trusted Advisor is a highly-informed company-outsider who has earned the trust of an insider by giving impartial advice (at the risk of not always selling one’s wares), being a sounding board as much as an idea coach, and an innovative problem solver who treats the client’s problems as his own. Like talk is cheap, advice, freely given is of course just that, free and is easily bestowed. Advice, however, becomes trusted and valuable when it stems from a history of commitment, excellence, and some form of (vendor) neutrality. The client and the Trusted Advisor will have taken a long journey together (with their shares of triumphs and disappointments along the way); there are no shortcuts to establishing that level of trust, for it takes a long time to build up, and it can easily vanish in an instance at the first sign of stupidity or betrayal. You’ll be entering many a business development cul-de-sac, with the cost of doing business an unknown variable, you don’t count and never show off your battle scars, and you must have or at least exhibit Old Testamental patience. Once you’ve obtained that status, the benefits are immeasurable. I no longer sell anything to Mr. Singh, I don’t have to; rather I am very proud to be getting “called into” some of his numerous IT challenges where, more often than not, our company can offer up a highly competent and trustworthy solution.

In fact, I’m also proud to say that Talent Trust, our company which assists clients meet their staffing needs by provisioning highly skilled IT professionals located offshore, operates by the same principle of being a Trusted Advisor to both our customers and our supply partners. Our clients manage their Talent Trust-sourced IT professionals as if they were their own, geographically dispersed employees. Working with remote third-party resources requires – what of course? – trust. Building that trust – a strong sense of reliability and confidence in predictable performance – takes time. Again, there are no shortcuts and no substitute for “trial and error” and no shunning the ol’ battle scars. That is why Talent Trust was formed ten years ago with the goal of aggregating the best and most trustworthy midmarket IT firms, nearshore and offshore, with a focus on finding entrepreneurial boutiques and niche experts. We have vetted and worked with hundreds of these firms and, over time and with experience, have distilled our supply base to fifty trusted partners and active members of the Talent Trust Alliance. The Alliance has the combined technical capabilities and geographic diversity to meet most client needs for IT skills in all major time zones.

Most Talent Trust Alliance partners are certified by one or more of the major industry players: Cisco, EMC, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAP, and Sun. Furthermore, Alliance members are subject to continuous monitoring, frequent audits, and Talent Trust’s hands-on, in-country quality assurance program. Our IT professionals are the full-time employees of Talent Trust Alliance member firms – never freelancers. As such, they are not dissimilar to the high-end candidates a client would consider for a permanent staff role. Most are degree qualified software engineers and computer programmers with domain specialization and professional certification as well as strong English language- and communication skills. They are screened, recruited, and trained by an Alliance member in their country (e.g., Argentina); and they work as salaried employees at the Alliance member’s professional office (say in Buenos Aires) which is equipped with the necessary infrastructure / bandwidth, hardware, and software to work in a distributed environment. Many of our IT professionals have years of ongoing experience working with U.S.-based clients in a remote capacity. All our IT professionals are fully vetted and individually screened to match a client’s requisition – not just by their Talent Trust Alliance employer but also by our U.S.-based account management team.

For more information I invite you to check out: http://www.talenttrust.com/ We are a U.S. company with headquarters in Silicon Valley and have a ten-year history of being Trusted Advisors to a broad range of clients, from startups, medium-sized businesses, to Fortune 100 enterprises. And lest you wonder, no guru babble spoken here.