Reignite Limited

from the desk of our CEO: VASA SYNDROME

❓ What does Customer Success REALLY mean ❓

A summer day in Melbourne. 🌞 🦘

A darkened room fully of 100+ SAP related Project Managers & implementation consultants. 👨‍💼 👩‍💼 👷‍♂️ 👷‍♀️

And me at the back 😶‍🌫️ representing Customer Success Manager for cloud offerings.

A great presentation 📽️ about “The Vasa” - a case study in Project Management and Change Management. (Anyone not familiar I do recommend you research it)

🔄 Long story short :1628, Swedish need naval domination, new warship, long complex project, changes akimbo, eventually launched successfully with great fanfare, sailed about 1000M into Stockholm Harbour, first sign of wind it capsized and sank.⚓

At the end of the presentation the presenter asked “So, was this project successful?”❓

The 100+ people all stated variants of “Yes ...the project was delivered” all nodding sagely. ✅ 😍

As someone with a cloud engagement and customer centric mindset, I tried to control myself…😯 🫢 🙀

…but couldn’t… 🤬 😡 🤬
..so I pulled the pin and lobbed the gr***de from the back…💣

“How can you say it was successful? – all it did was keep the builders busy & paid, the customer didn’t get any value, the outcome was not fit for the purpose the exercise was started for” ⁉️
At this point 100+ faces turned to look at me like I was the little boy yelling at the naked emperor… 👦
..”Who let him in" and "What a stupid comment” was the general groupthink response…😏 🤫 🤭
This is when I coined the term many people have heard me use: VASA SYNDROME

…shorthand for the myopic focus on the technical and tactical delivery "WHAT" that loses sight of "WHY" the thing is being done in the first place…” falling in love with the project” “just following orders” that still even now happens too often… (just read Linkedin!) 🙈 🙉 🙊

…and in my view the opposite mindset to what modern cloud Customer value driven continuous engagement needs to be…particularly in our massively VUCA environment 👩‍💻 👨‍💻

It’s NOT HOW the Vasa project was run and the mistakes and poor practices that APPALLED me (that still happens all the time and can be managed)

… it was the fact that the “experienced project delivery people” had a mindset that believed this was a successful project because (and I quote) …. “It was delivered”, “Our only job is to deliver the project” 🐓 (couldnt find ostrich!)

Changing this mindset in resistant people is the thing I have spent 25+ years honing approaches for. 💎

🤝 CONTACT US to discuss how – I’m always open to thoughts & opinions.

TRUST between PEOPLE is the foundation for all effective & sustainable Business and Personal Relationships 🤝

Between you and your customer 🙋
Between you and your leadership ➡️
Between you and your family... 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒

It is the foundation of everything that matters. 💎

Contact us to find out how we can help you
boost trust and hence boost your business and personal value and success.

see more at our website : www.reigniteservices.com

Would you have signed The Beatles in 1962? 🎸 🎸 🎸 🥁

The Decca decision not to sign them has gone down as one of the worst in business history. 🤦

At Reignite we believe in optimising the whole complex system of a business rather than only local disjoint optimisation. The objective is to ensure success by developing and maximising your Value. 💎 💎

A thought provoking 30 minutes from Rory Sutherland and worth taking a break to listen and watch. It covers much more than the title would suggest

Why making sure that you balance “exploit and explore” 🐝 into a combined “unity of opposites” ⚖️ is so vital to short term and long-term business success.

“To optimise the whole, you must suboptimize the parts” and “Business is fat-tailed”

It also suggests that organisations that are “in thrall to the shareholder value movement” ‼️ and focused almost exclusively on “exploit” 💰 & “internal efficiency numbers” 🏦 only are likely to not survive. 💣

This could be the most important 30 minutes for your business….. ✅

Rory Sutherland - Soft Power in a Hard World | Nudgestock 2025 The world is becoming at best a much bossier place, and at worst the site of major oppression and coercion. Rory's opening talk will explore how in such a wo...