It was my early days in the consultancy, my team was just getting formed.
We had an opportunity to participate in a competitive pitch for a promising startup.
Prima facie, our chances of winning wasn’t great as we were competing against the mighty MNC consultancies.
But we were determined to give our best and winning this pitch was important for our existence. We did some deep research, spoke to many stakeholder communities, collaborated with whomever we could and gave our best shot.
The result – we won, against the best in the industry.
I was quite intrigued to know what exactly happened and hence asked the founder.
He said other firms didn’t seem to have tried to understand the product as much. The pitch was a template and the local branch office team made their presentation.
What we realized that the competition had not taken the pitch quite seriously, they probably thought they would win only basis their credentials and they lost.
The lesson – after experiencing success in any endeavour, we cannot rest on our laurels. Success can lead to arrogance and mental and physical laziness.
Many organizations fail after they succeed because they think assume they own success and forget that it needs proof each time.