Wilson Yang’s Inner Circle

I come across this letter from a friend, I think this type of letter should Never be sent into the public. It should be re-considered before sending it. It may make the person who sent it emotional satisfied but suffer from the undesirable consequences. I am not saying that Steve Ballmer will do something bad to Mandriva, I am saying that business is completive in its nature. If small business wants to win the game, we must think more creatively and find our ways to profitability. Not sitting there and expecting things to happen in our ways. Once upon a time, most of Giants like Apple, MS, Dell were tiny, but the entrepreneurial Spirit made these companies into today’s giants. If you have the determination to become a giant as well, you should not expect life is easier, in fact you should be grateful and thankful to MS’ sales rep to convince your partner to change their minds. If you come down and rethink and learn the lessons from this deal, I believe you and your company will become better and more competitive in your next deal.

People who expect life is easier are lazy people. Instead, we should expect ourselves and our business are getting better and better each and everyday. God blesses you.

PS: This is the original letter.

Dear Steve,

Hi, this is François, from Mandriva.

I’m sure we are way too small for you to have heard of us. You know, we are one of these Linux company who is working hard to make its place in the market. We publish a Linux Distro, called Mandriva Linux. Mandriva Linux 2008, our last edition, has a pretty good review and we’re proud of it. You should try it, I’m sure you’d like it. We also happen to be one of the Linux companies that did not sign an agreement with your company (nobody’s perfect).

We recently closed a deal with the Nigerian Government. Maybe you heard about it, Steve. They were looking for an affordable hardware+software solution for their schools. The initial batch was 17,000 machines. We had a good deal to respond to their need: the Classmate PC from Intel, with a customized Mandriva Linux solution. We presented the solution to the local government, they liked the machine, they liked our system, they liked what we offered them, especially the fact that it was open, and that we could customize it for their country and so on.

Then, your people get in the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. Your team fought and fought again the deal, but still the customer was happy with the CMPC and Mandriva.

We actually closed the deal, we took the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. To conclude, we did our job. And, the machine are being delivered right now.

Now, we hear a different story from the customer : “we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward.”

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.

Of course, I will keep fighting this one and the next one, and the next one. You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics you and I, but I still believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win too.

cheers

François