Selling Vodka or selling security solutions ... an analogy.

As I was waiting in line @ the nightshop I was pondering and it hit me hard. In front of me was a man, drunk as a skunk, completely wasted. He needed 10 minutes to collect his change from the counter after buying a bottle of Vodka. This was one of those moments ... Why did this shop clerk sell 75cl of Vodka to a person that was clearly completely unaware of himself ? I know there are laws here in Belgium that should prevent this from happening but Belgian law is a little like a corporate security policy, there's a vast amount of paper covering Belgian law, but there's not a lot of it that's actually enforced.

The analogy is clear. As a reseller or an integrator, we try to deliver quality service to our customer. That's our added value, it's basically who we are, what makes us different from the shop next door. Or does it ?

I feel, more often than not, that the quality that sets us apart is sacrificed for the sell. While we realize that a certain product (within our portfolio) is not as good a match as another product we don't master, and it may fit the requirements today but maybe not 1,5 years from now, it will get sold. And the customer will have to live with the consequences. This doesn't hurt the relationship because the project definition doesn't mention those future requirements and 1,5 years from now ... Mr X will probably not think about that past project, so everything is a-ok.

To me it isn't. While we tout that "IT should align with the bizniz" and "We, as integrator Y, think of YOUR business first", we don't very often put our money where our mouth is. The sell counts, it adds to todays bottom line of OUR business, the fact that the customer will have to overhaul that specific part of his infrastructure/solution in 24 months or something, buying new gadgets, training his people, aligning the new stuff once again with his business (or worst, aligning his business with his new stuff) ... might be the least of our worries.

Is ethic important to you while doing business? Especially security business ? What's your thoughts ?

My thoughts : ethics in doing security business is #1 , making money is one thing, making money and jeopardizing businesses is something completely different.