Seth’s Blog: The Verizon guy who turned down the iPhone

Isn’t it amazing where a bit of passion and belief will get you? I guess sometimes, you just have to be in the right place in your head to seize the right opportunity, to just simply follow one’s gut.

The iPhone/AT&T deal is almost certainly the exception that proves Godin’s law of bizdev: No is the default answer. The spreadsheets and the marketing team and the CFO and the lawyers have no trouble at all defending the status quo, because, it’s their status quo. They created it and they like it that way. Bizdev deals like this almost always fail because the potential for upside seems too small compared to the mammoth disruption that organizations imagine will beset them.

There’s also a mantra that I hold close to my own heart - don’t do bad business. It appears that Verizon couldn’t agree to the terms that Apple offered. If this is the case, it’s almost certain that Verizon is better off: there’s a strong possibility that it would have ended in discontent on one side or the other. Or both. Or worse.