How - Dov Seidman [109]
David and I sat down recently at LRN’s New York offices to recall the history of our relationship, a journey that for both of us has proven a profound and meaningful experience. Though to this point in the book I have not shared many stories directly about LRN, and certainly none as long as this, I want to detour from the narrative to relate, with David’s help, a story that truly tested many of the values and principles I hold deeply, and that I think also illuminates many of the ideas we have been discussing in this part.
During his search for solutions, David contacted LRN, and we began a series of informal discussions and information sharing. Altria, as the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris, is a company facing reputational challenges because, in the eyes of many, it misled its customers about products and betrayed their trust. But LRN is not in the WHAT business; it’s in the business of HOW, and when companies reach out to us, it is because they want to embark on or further their journey toward getting their HOWS right. When David contacted us, I saw a genuine opportunity for constructive engagement with an organization and its 190,000 or so people around HOW they conduct their business and pursue their goals. Through David’s leadership, Altria seemed to be committed to rebuilding trust by getting more of its HOWS right.
So after a time of general evaluation, David began a very formal process, contacting potential vendors like us to make capabilities presentations. At that point, LRN was seven years old, a leader in our field but still growing. David was one of the leaders in the field crafting a very rigorous, comparative, and thorough process of deciding what Altria would purchase and with whom the firm would form a relationship. He set up a selection committee and issued formal requirements, which he sent to all potential bidders or partners. Though we were working with many large companies at the time, many of our relationships were not won in formal, competitive beauty contests; they just kind of happened. Early in the millennium, though, things were changing rapidly for us, and as markets mature, systems formalize. Still, to us Altria was a Goliath, and establishing a relationship would have meant a lot to the growth of our business.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, six months earlier David had hired a small consulting firm to generally advise Altria in the area of compliance and, specifically, to help spearhead this selection process. Soon thereafter, a member of the LRN sales and services team brought to my attention that the principals of this advisory firm had a major stake in one of the vendors competing against us to supply the online training. “They were transparent about that,” David told me, “and I believe it was as much an advantage to us as a conflict. Altria is a hundred-billion-dollar corporation and always does what’s in its best interests. These partners had a lot of knowledge about the industry that could help us get up to speed, and I knew to ask about and assess their bias. The level of formality and structure in our process gave me even more comfort. We had a committee, we had a very elaborate process, we had standards and criteria, and we had lots of people who were going to be a part of the decision making who had absolutely no business relationship with or stake in this advisory firm.”
LRN had invested a great deal of time and resources in getting to know David and his team. We were proud of our solution, felt that we could be a good partner for Altria, and had developed a lot of excitement around trying to become its partner. But the presence of these advisors seemed to