‘System architecting under extreme circumstances’ is how you could describe Guido de Boer’s job at Mapper over the past fourteen years. Part 3 in a series of interviews in which he shares with Bits&Chips his unconventional view on developing systems, in the run-up to his keynote at the Dutch System Architecting Conference on 20 June.
High tech start-ups often find themselves in a predicament. Investors insist on outsourcing, but some things just can’t be outsourced. Once the decision for outsourcing has been made, considerable challenges await. The biggest disaster is the supplier who says “I’ll make that for you” but who won’t keep his promise.
Guido de Boer learned it the hard way. His motto: never choose a supplier who promises to deliver what you ask for. “That should set alarm bells ringing. In today’s manufacturing culture, it’s best to choose the supplier who doesn’t want to deliver what you ask for. Who simply says: ‘No, I won’t do that.’ We actually did that at Mapper. We applied for quotes and if a supplier said ‘You’re completely crazy. I can’t do that within this timeframe and budget’, we went on to talk to the guy. Those who said ‘I can do it’, we ignored. That was a very successful strategy for us.”
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