Churchill would've stirred up the IT business

WE'VE ALL GOT a business book idea in us, haven’t we?

Most of our ideas never see the light of day though. But Stuart Finlay, channel sales manager at Thus, is different. He’s published his motivational bible What would Churchill Do? himself.

The logic? Winston was a great leader. Surely his war time strategy could be put into a modern business context.

Good try Stuart,we say.

But we’ve got a nagging doubt.

We can’t see Churchill as an IT salesman. Can you imagine how Winston’s ideas would go across at a brainstorming meeting? Especially if he turned up for work in a bowler hat?

It may not be true of other countries, but they don’t take kindly to individuality in many UK technology outfits. Some telecoms firms won’t even employ anyone whose name isn’t Darren, let alone a bowler hat-wearing, cigar-smoking, posh white bloke called Winston.

And Churchill was rubbish at closing deals. Look at the disastrous settlement he made on Britain’s debt to the US. If he brought home a deal like that to certain IT sales managers, they’d make him wear a dress for the rest of the day, even if Winston was suffering from a ‘black dog day’ (the name he gave to his severe depression.)

Can you imagine Winston working in telesales? "I have nothing to offer you but blood, sweat and tears….. and a scalable end to end converged voice and data solution."

As Winston said once: "A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject." Sounds like most salesmen to us. µ