Michael Jordan's Weblog

In recent news [NYT] it was reported that an art collector in Japan forced two competing vendors into a Rock Paper Scissors contest, the winner of which would get the contract. We didn't cover this technique in b-school, but as an avid observer of RFP processes and vendor management, I can appreciate the simplicity of this scheme. Oftentimes companies over-complicate their bidding processes.

Why Rock Paper Scissors ("RPS"), though? Why not chess? Or backgammon? Or...if a team effort is required on the part of the vendor, why not a softball game? Who came up with this idea?

Speaking of RPS, did you know there is a "World RPS Society"? I find this amazing but I guess it makes sense. Why shouldn't there be rules and championships for RPS? A friend of mine recently took the job of the U.S. Squash Association (Squash as in the sport, not the vegetable). I thought that was an unusual organization until I thought about it a bit. Truly a user-based, member-ship based organization, not just a commercially driven enterprise like, say, the USGA.

Rock on, RPS! Maybe we'll get a chance to use this in Sun's vendor selection process. And, if ever required by one of our customers to compete on this front, I'll be happy to represent the Sun side.