Tuesday evening was magical - the All Star Game tribute to Yankee Stadium with 49 Hall of Famers there to honor and be honored along with today's best players. The great extra-innings game afterwards was almost a side show.
But the conversations at the bar where I watched the game blended three different perspectives - a) the purist, extremely demanding definition of who gets in the Hall of Fame. Baseball writers, on average, vote for only 7 Hall candidates each year (from hundreds who could qualify), and of those only the players who get at least 75% of those ballots qualify. It took Goose Gossage, a sure shot in many minds and the only player to qualify this year, 8 tries to get there; b) the popularity contest which often decides which of the current players get to play in the All-Star game. Yes, my area Tampa Bay stuffed the ballots to get our rookie, Evan Longoria a place in the game. No apologies - we voted early and often and it was legal; and c) the third that paparazzis live for. Did Willie Mays snub Josh Hamilton during the ceremonies? Is A-Rod having an affair with Madonna? Did Yogi get more cheers than Jeter?
Thursday afternoon, I heard Ed Caso of Wachovia host Scott Wilson and Doug Brown as they explained the methodology and the results of their BlackBook survey of Top 50 Outsourcing firms. (You can hear the replay for a few more days at 1-800-642-1687 or 1-706-645-9291 pass code # 54588395)
And the contrast to the game was spooky as the call blended the same 3 perspectives a) The purist, demanding perspective - at least 10 customer scores are needed for a firm to qualify for the list, the 26 KPIs that make up the score, how only 50 out of their database of 4,200 outsourcing firms makes it to the annual list b) The populist one: Even the 46th ranked firm, IBM had a mean score of 9.255 out of a possible score of 10 when the market reality is the outsourcing industry is littered with failed projects and early termination of contracts that no firm can report such a high ratio of delighted clients c) The paparazzi chatter - like the ones BusinessWeek raised about Wilson-Brown and Scott and Doug had to unfortunately defend during Ed's call.
I walked away from Tuesday with more admiration for the game. I walked away Thursday afternoon with more admiration for the outsourcing market. When the biggest player has single digit market share, you know Adam Smith is keeping the players honest.
In fact, it makes the barroom gossip that much more relaxing and enjoyable...
