Julie received a recall notice in the mail today for a piece of equipment she uses in her business. Actually, the recall was for a component part (a spring) of said equipment. Anyone who has owned a car or large appliance of some kind (got one on the dishwasher a couple of weeks ago) is familiar with the notices that come out.
Dear Valued Customer,
We have identified a potential problem…. Our records show that you purchased…. To date, the problem has only occurred 5 times out of the 50,000+ that have been sold…. While the risk is low, we are replacing…..
Very straightforward for a purchase of hardware. (We know that it doesn’t happen for software, that’s what patches and updates are for.)
What about management consulting engagements? What happens when the process you’ve helped a customer implement is shown to be “faulty,” and could actually hurt the company instead of help it? What if this happens a year or more after you’ve finished an engagement? Or is this more like an “upgrade,” something that should be treated as a follow up to something you’ve done in the past?
I guess you could have minor version upgrades (KM v1.0 to KM v1.1) or major upgrades (KM v1.0 to KM v2.0).
Just some rambling thoughts….
no straight lines 