Page 188 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

go ahead and lose a $60 million account or a $100 million account. Lose a
couple of them, and see what happens.
I learned about the power of clients as a kid of seven or eight. There
was an old Italian lady who used to come into my family’s grocery store.
She always wore black. She lived in a dark little green house with lots of
trees in the overgrown yard. She bought a lot of herbs, and the older kids
were convinced that she was brewing up potions with them. They used to
talk about her as a witch, and I was scared of her.
One day she called and said she wanted some groceries delivered. My
mother couldn’t leave the store, so the lady said, “Well, I saw David there
this morning. Have him bring them.”
I refused.“I won’t go there,”I said. I wasn’t deliberately defying my par-
ents; I literally was too afraid to go to her house.
Although I couldn’t imagine that my parents would punish me for not
wanting to bring groceries to the witch, they were so upset that they
grounded me. It was the first time I realized the power of someone who
gives a business money, even in that kind of rudimentary fashion.
That was good training. Clients and donors can be quite unpredictable
and frightening. They bring the gold, so
they don’t have to adhere to any rules of
CLIENTS AND civilized society.And they are dangerous
DONORS CAN BE because they have access.
QUITE Remember, the long-standing clients
UNPREDICTABLE or contributors in an organization often
AND FRIGHTENING. know your bosses. They may be assigned
THEY BRING THE to your world now, but it’s possible that
GOLD, SO THEY your boss used to take care of their
DON’T HAVE TO account, or has gone to their conven-
ADHERE TO ANY tions as a guest, or belongs to the same
RULES OF country club they do.
CIVILIZED SOCIETY. Even if they haven’t been around
long, given the level of competition in

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