Back in August 2020, I posted a blog about SOAR stories. SOAR stories are a fantastic way to reflect on Situations that seemed challenging at the time because of certain Obstacles. In order to succeed, you took Action and the Result was something you can be proud of, and which contributed to who you are today. It built character.
You many think that these stories mean nothing. After all, they are just stories. However, ALL stories have a meaning; ALL stories disclose something about the characters in them. The character-traits are what keep people interested and yearning for more.
The story is only one part of what makes doing this exercise valuable. The more important part is rediscovering who you are at your core and what attributes distinguish you from others when faced with challenges.
I'd like to continue sharing some of my personal SOAR stories and the characteristics that they exhibit.
What are some of your SOAR stories? If you can't see your inner #basass, we can work together to rediscover it! I'd love to hear them and publish them on this blog!
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I worked as a Business Dev/Program Manager for a 3rd-party vendor responsible for growing the Standards Peripheral business and assisting employees with non-Standard PC purchases for a globally-known software company. The “Standards” are products which are approved and recommended by the company for their employees to purchase for work-related use. Any deviation from using the approved and recommended products is considered “non-Standard” and requires additional approval by managers and finance.
Vendor Challenge : slow growth, employees’ lack of the Standard Peripheral program awareness, inability to get product in a timely manner (custom equipment took longer to build).
Company Challenge : Employees were going outside of the process to purchase non-Standard equipment; increased cost to purchase custom units; internal lack of awareness for business needs (availability, time to receive)
I created a program to educate the Business Group Admins on the product and service offerings of Standard Peripheral products to help guide buyers (employees) with purchases of these “standard” products, and met with the business group hardware purchasers to address their needs and satisfaction levels with the service provider.
I also coordinated “road shows” with various peripheral partners to showcase their technology across multiple campus cafes (PCs, monitors, keyboards, mice, external drives, etc.).
With program awareness and buy-in from admins, purchasing managers and VPs, the results were a 164% growth in program spend for the vendor by purchasing Standard products through the vendor, and $800K in savings for the company in less than one year.
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