Bearding the Lion
Let us start with how exactly one “beards”. Does it mean growing out your whiskers? I’m guessing not since, try as you might, I doubt anyone can force any beast to grow whiskers. Does it mean to grab the beard of the beast to annoy the shit out of It? I also doubt that. Grabbing a beast’s facial hair seems both difficult to accomplish given that it’s best weapon is probably its teeth and getting your hands that close as a shrek would be ill-advised. The explanation that most appeals to me is that bearding someone is meant to describe coming face-to-face with a beast to the point where you can notice it’s facial hair. That describes a scary situation, especially if it happens in the darkness of the beast’s very own home ground, his den. It is something you would not do lightly and is filled with danger, but is presumably something you feel must happen in the way confronting situations are sometimes necessary.
In this instance, the lion is a huge German company. His den is here in the European Community, not only the place where the lion does its dominant business and has high levels of economic, political and overall presence dominance, but is also the place of origin (not oranges) of the core technology that we, a puny start-up, seek to displace and disrupt. The truth is that the technology has been overwhelmed by ecological (climate change) realities, but ours appears to be one of the few technologies that can displace its 110-year market dominance with any sort of economic sense. The den is not dark and dense, but the EU has a political climate that is specific to its 28 member states and their particular peculiarities. We are mostly not European, but we have European investors who tell us they understand the footing in the den.
This will not be the first lion we beard in this den. My view is that these lions are less combatants of ours and more potential strategic partners or eventual acquirers. When I began this safari eighteen months ago the party line was that we were crossing this veldt all by ourselves because no one else knew the science like we knew the science. Lions be damned. It turns out we know a lot about the science and we have found no one who knows it better, but that’s a far stretch from knowing everything about it. As for the lions, they still roam the veldt freely and seem totally unconcerned about our presence, though they have taken a decided interest in us. They are as strong and dominant as they have ever been.They would go so far as to say they are glad we have joined their menagerie and are quite hopeful that we can solve the scientific puzzle that their commercial posture does not give them the luxury to address.
I once saw an ad for Anderson Consulting about the lions getting outsmarted by the wildebeests, who have found some new technology in ATV’s and have succeeded in outrunning the lions accordingly. The lions seek out advice from Anderson and the next thing you know the wildebeests are stopping short of a gas pump where the lions are casually lounging waiting for them. I loved that ad because it spoke the value of strategic intelligence even in the face of game-changing technology.
What we have learned over the past eighteen months and what I have suspected from the start is that the veldt is a hard place and crossing it successfully to dominance is a huge challenge. Prevailing over lions is a non-trivial act and trying to run this race as though speed is of the essence is not necessarily either possible or preferable. The smart money recognizes the power of the veldt and the dominance of the lions. There may be opportunities to disrupt and displace the lions and become king of the jungle (mixing African metaphors), but that is only one way to prevail. Partnering with the lions or bowing gracefully to their dominance and allowing yourself to join their pride may be a better path or even a necessary step for survival.
Here is what I want to achieve when facing the lion in his den. I have brought my chief scientist so there is the establishment of our bona fides. I know what we can and cannot do at this stage and we know what the market needs to feel optimistic about our value added. We will explain what we do, where we are positioned, how long it will take and the ecosystem we have built to make it across the veldt. We will explain to the lion that we have no interest in it’s food supply, but rather in making it an even more dominant hunter in its own land. The goal will be to be credible, interesting and worthy of further investigation.
If we get that done we will have done all we can. We do not want to threaten the lion. We do not want to disrespect the lion. We do not want to be so prideful that we appear difficult with which to work. A follow-up visit to our labs would be ideal. Creating some commercial buzz about us has value and no one can do that better than the lions. If they decide we are worthy of recognition, all the other beasts of the savanna are likely to sit up and take notice. We do not want to be merely famous, we want our technology to be, as the U.S. Army proclaims about its soldiers, all that it can be. We want our technology to be implemented and accepted enough so that the funding exists for it to reach optimization.
After 110 years of the world suffering the negative effects of the old technology, a technology which some people would argue changed the world mostly for the better at the direction of and to the benefits of the lions that rule the roost, the world deserves a better solution. If that can happen most easily with the help of the lions, then that is what’s best. We will reach our highest and best use in this enterprise if we can get the lions to adopt our technology and adopt it as its own. We do not need to rule the veldt, we need to help improve the veldt. So we will beard the lion in its den and hope for the best, including not being eaten too soon.