Iress : A moveable feast

That evening we realised we'd made a mistake at the first sip. It was good fortune that my friend had chosen to chronicle, draw and photograph nearly every experience we had that week and with this being before smartphones we were able to delve straight into our handwritten 'research'. Re-analysing the data over an average drink in a lovely bar we realised we'd made two mistakes, we'd over-weighted the welcoming nature of the bar staff and assessments on viscosity were totally irrelevant. A quick recalibration and recalculation followed and soon found ourselves enjoying a much better drink in a totally different establishment, thus concluding a great week and providing me with a life long lesson on due diligence.

When I started in the industry due diligence questionnaires were few and far between but in the decades that followed the frequency and scale of due diligence has grown beyond measure. Whilst the old days of due diligence occurring over a few drinks were fun, the modern day approach is infinitely better but most processes are not without their flaws much like my exploration above.

Time is a critical factor, there was no way for us to assess the best drink in the entire city with two people and a week, so while time can be an important factor, sufficient time to complete a thorough process is better than speed. But it's our mistakes about choice of establishment and viscosity that taught me the most.

The distraction of a friendly welcome is an easy trap to fall into, as is the distraction of shiny vapourware. Clearly in some instances something shiny is the goal but the majority of the time the long term benefits of technology come from its ability to perform the task effectively, shine fades and when it does, problems occur unless there is quality behind it.