The cable powering my electric kettle became faulty, and I strolled down to a nearby electronic store to procure one. After identifying the cable in a cluster of other new cables, the elderly sales lady immediately said, “that is China but this is Tokunbo” – she was pointing to an obviously fairly-used cable in her right hand. Since I knew the advantage of redundancy first-hand, I bought both the China and Tokunbo cable, with the Tokunbo matching a 60% increase in China’s price tag.
I plugged the China cable to the electric kettle, and the red indicator light came on to signify its working status. After about 5 minutes of distracting myself with the workstation, I got back to the electric kettle to discover that the switch was on but the indicator light was off. I noticed that the China cable was very hot and was no longer working. When I replaced it with the Tokunbo cable, the indicator light came back on and I have been using it for the past two years.
The gigantic ROI on the Tokunbo cable with a 60% price increase is an interesting discussion on the concept of the customer’s procurement choices and the supplier’s product offerings. When funds are limited, customer purchases are not influenced by low prices alone, but they are forced to consider stability and durability in their final buy decision. The anecdote below paints a good picture of the intricacies of a buy decision process.
In September 2019, Lanre (picture above and not my student as at the time) was ready to take the PMP Examination in a few days. He got my attention to my LinkedIn DM, and he expressed his confidence in my counsel concerning writing the exam. I was initially taken aback at such credence from a stranger then I realized from his surname that his wife has publicized using my first published book (JOBFinder) to get her first job in PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
After listening to him, I was able to identify his process errors and gauge his level of exam preparation. I told him to postpone the taking of the exam. Although it cost him seventy United States Dollars to push forward the examination, he listened to my point of view, and he re-registered for a scheduled training session with my firm. Since pictures communicate better than texts, the result of his decision can be elucidated in the picture above.
From empirical observation, the PMP Exam has a historical data of filtering out 66.67% PMP candidates at first try. Hence, it is vital to ensure a positive return on every Naira invested in your professional growth and journey. To learn more about our scheduled PMP training, kindly use the link here. To contact me regarding any query on Project Management career, such as Project Management software, Business Analysis coaching, and Lean Six Sigma certification preparation, kindly use the link here.
