The question above reminds me of my first business travel to South Korea. I was on a special assignment to help execute my company’s first major contract (“1xEVDO”) in South-East Asia. The agreement with the client entailed the test launch of a product and then a scale-up to greater volumes – should the test be successful. The client was known to be very demanding.
A team of engineers from our co. had already been sent to the client location and was in the process of executing Stage I (Test Launch); however results were far from satisfactory. The client was getting impatient and had started to lose faith in the product; we thus faced the challenge of quickly solving the problem.
We met the client immediately upon arrival and managed to gain a 3-day time-frame (the ideal duration being a week at least) for ensuring smooth performance. Within 5 hrs of grouping, we narrowed down on the key problem areas. We succeeded at fixing all network issues in less than 3 days and won over the client!
The assignment was my first direct interaction with a far-off, international client. It taught me the attitude of being very supportive to the customer and taking decisions quickly. I also had the opportunity to work in a totally new culture, relate to the client’s team and adapt to their work environment.
The client has assigned various projects to us to date and we have developed multiple releases of the product for them.