The problem that you’re wrestling with is seldom the real problem. Finding the root makes all the difference. Here are some ideas to help.
“Bob, can you come up with a solution to our wireless problem?” All prospective wireless clients ask me this. And my answer is always the same.
“Oh, I can definitely give you a solution to your problem, but you may not want to pay for it.”
At first, they think I’m talking about my fee, but I’m not. That’s usually the least expensive part. The problem is that they don’t want to face the real problem. A story may help to explain.
When I was Director of National System Development for one of America’s largest cellular carriers, our RF Engineers were located in cubicles just a few feet away from my office. We all knew each other pretty well, and they were comfortable talking to me about technical issues.
I was returning from the breakroom with a cup of coffee, headed to my office with its wall-to-wall windows. As I meandered through the cubicle maze, I noticed that Pablo (not his real name, of course) was staring intently at his computer screen. I stopped and asked what he was concentrating on so hard. He said, “I have to come up with a new channel plan for this city.” We were in Seattle, but the market he was responsible for was in West Texas. Then he asked for my assistance. I set down my cup and we both focused on the problem. I asked some questions, and he displayed the relevant information on screen. We looked at the maps together. We looked at the call statistics, including the ugly stuff: dropped calls and uncompleted calls.
Finally, I said, “Pablo, I think you know what the solution is.”
He raised his eyebrows and said, “No I don’t; please tell me!”
I said, “You can’t get the call statistics into acceptable range with a new channel plan. You’re going to need to add at least one new cell site, and probably two.” Each new cell site of this type would cost somewhere upwards of $250,000.
Pablo shook his head. “No, I’m not going to propose that.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because the Vice President of Engineering and Operations won’t approve the money. This year’s budget has already been set.”
He was right, of course. We both knew the Eng/Ops VP’s way of running the business, and he would never sacrifice his bonus for the sake of a better customer experience. There would be no money for even one additional unbudgeted cell site this year, even though the problem was immediate, and the sales force was dealing with complaints on a daily basis. So I left Pablo to his private mathematical hell, and returned to the logistical hell that awaited me at my desk.
By the way, before you blame Pablo for not projecting the growth accurately and thereby preventing the problem from occurring in the first place, you need to know that communications between Sales and Engineering was abysmal. We never knew when they were going to run a sale, or drop prices, or release a new product, or launch a new ad campaign, or… and the regional growth charts were up and down in a random pattern that resembled the price of Bitcoin. So, no. Pablo did his best to plan for growth, and he was not responsible for any shortfalls. (He would be blamed, of course. But that’s another story).
Implementing the solution always carries a cost.
And with that story as background, we’re ready to turn our attention to the focal point of this article. I said at the beginning that people ask me, “Can you come up with a solution to our wireless problem?”
I always answer the same way, by saying, “Oh, I can definitely give you a solution to your problem, but you may not want to pay for it.”
Do you see? The consultant’s fee isn’t the problem. The problem is that implementing the solution always carries a cost. The solution to the problem with uncompleted calls in a city in West Texas wasn’t a new channel plan; it was a new cell site. But the owners wouldn’t pay for the solution.
This principle is true in just about any business. It’s not confined to the wireless telecommunications industry. Here’s another real example, this time from an independent coffee shop.
A couple bought a coffee shop from a retiring owner. The young couple poured their heart and soul into that store. They redecorated. They advertised. They added a few new items to the menu. They were doing great!
Time passed. More and more coffee shops and drive-through espresso stands were built in the same neighborhood. The couple still had a viable business, but with the decreased market share resulting from over-saturation, their profit margin was razor thin. And then, tragedy struck.
The PCI DSS laws changed. PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. They had a contract for their cash registers and business software, and it included credit card processing. They thought that it would make sense to save money by entering into a multi-year contract at a lower rate. But with the new PCI DSS laws, they learned that their old computers were no longer compliant. With their slim profit margins, they found that the upgrade expenses for a new computer system and the new custom software would be more than they could afford. They were forced to sell their coffee shop to a new owner who had the financial resources to invest in its continued growth.
I’ll repeat my point: implementing the solution always carries a cost.
It’s not about the solution. It’s about the cost.
Now, this is where we come to you, and your problem. I want you to consider the possibility that the problem isn’t what you think it is. You’re thinking that the problem is unsolvable, when the reality is that you, like Pablo and the couple with the coffee shop, already know the solution to that problem. That problem isn’t really your problem. The real problem is the cost of the solution.
- You’re in a dead-end job, and you want a better life. The solution is to get trained in doing what you really what to do – but the college courses cost more than you think you can afford.
- Your boss/spouse/significant other is abusive. The solution is to get out of that job/relationship – but the cost of making big changes is more than you can afford.
Are you getting the idea? You know what you need to do.
You hear this all the time: “The answer is within you. Listen to your heart, and you’ll know what to do.” Very often, it’s true. What stops us is not the problem, but the cost of the solution. We waste our time and spin our wheels trying to find a solution we can afford; a solution we’re willing to pay for. You need to pause, take a breath, and say, “I know the answer. I’ve known the answer for quite a while now. What I need to do now is focus on how to pay the price.”
Instead of staring at the original problem, focus on the real problem: how to pay the price for what you need and want. You can do this. Once you start looking where you need to look, you’ll start discovering the solutions you need to find. Because, just like the first problem that you focused on for so long, paying the price is a problem with a solution.
–Bob Young
(Originally published on March 19, 2019 – Republished here on March 20, 2024)