Have you ever been caught up in a situation, not of your own making, where you appear to be the fall guy? It happened to me several years ago in dealing with a major auto company.
It was over a proposal request that had already been approved.
The project involved a series of new vehicle introductions across the country.
I had helped develop the proposal.
The production company I worked with was confident they would win it.
They had successfully managed the annual new vehicle launch a few weeks earlier, with which I was involved.
It was traditional for the auto company to first do this major launch, then head out and do regional launches.
I think what happened is that the proposal was asked for and approved, not by senior management, but at an executive assistant level of sales and marketing - people who had rubber stamped this kind of proposal in the past.
A quick lesson here: It's key that senior management not only approves a major proposal request going to bid, but also approve the winning bid itself.
If senior management has not been involved, there's less assurance that things will move smoothly if any issues arise.
As you can probably gather, issues arose.
Senior management, concerned about their bottom line, wondered whether these regional introductions were worth the investment.
Money was tight and the economy not that positive.
A meeting had already been called to discuss the implementation of the proposal.
I was asked to attend along with a production company assistant.
Neither of us had expected senior auto executives to be present.
For them, the meeting was not about how these regional shows should proceed, but whether they should even take place.
I confess that I had wondered the same thing.
They asked me what I thought.
It's an awkward position to be in.
I was caught between loyalties - the production company on one hand and these executives on the other - with no senior representative from the production company to intervene.
I told the executives that this was their decision, not mine.
They decided to cancel the regional shows and reimburse the production company for the work done to date.
When the production company learned of this decision, they were upset that I had not gone to bat for them, to persuade the executives that the regional shows should go ahead as per the contract.
Although I knew there was nothing I could have done, it remains a difficult situation, endangering relationships.
What's the lesson here? Attempt to avoid the situation in the first place by ensuring senior management approval.
Even with that in place, client executives might still decide that a project is not viable and cancel it.
In that case, as long as work to date is reimbursed, integrity is largely maintained.
From my perspective, however, you don't ever want to get caught in that position.