I still remember the cold April night I came to visit This Account as I relocated from US to India. I was returning to India after four years in the US. My next assignment in India was to manage this account. Everyone I spoke to or heard about this assignment and who had any background of the customer told me to back off. Any account but this they said. Anyhow, I had little choice and hence despite its challenges and against all well meaning advise I decided to take it up.
The manager who was managing it on site was my ex manager in the west coast and so I felt a little assured. The Client managers I met were largely indifferent and I felt a strain between them and us.
I returned to India and took charge. I went straight into fire with one of the large programs on the boil. There were daily calls and shouting screaming going on. Right then our management forced a change and brought in new management. The new management was given a free hand to fix the problem and we brought the project back on track.
Yet that did not mend things between us and the client. We would discuss everyday after the bloody calls finish, what would it take for them to trust us. The single biggest problem between us was trust. Despite delivering to agreed milestones and timelines they would not trust us. And thus we laboured through to production release. The next day of going live they ramped down the team. That's when we knew this relationship is not going to last.
Earlier this year these fears were confirmed. They floated an RFP and that was that. Ironically they did that at a time when our delivery was at its best. We did some spectacular work this year and it went completely unnoticed.
I had come to NYC seeking continuity for our resources and what I got was cold shoulder. And so we reach end of the road. 2.5 years is all it lasted. There is a lot to it but then what's the point. It's gone...
