What about that second client?

In weeks past I have referred to a second client where I'm providing high-level management strategy. Things got very odd recently and I wanted to give you a quick rundown.

When we started, the client had a proposal in hand to have a 3rd party take his system and rewrite it from scratch. I was brought in to evaluate the proposal and see if it made sense. Turns out the only way it really made sense was if he wanted to shut down his current system and get rid of his staff. Which may not have been a BAD idea, but it needed to be a primary driver in his decision making, not a tangent effect. In this case, we're really talking about one guy - B - who had been with the company for 5 years.

He decided those weeks ago he wasn't prepared to make that choice, so we worked with him on a big plan to incorporate the best parts of the proposal INTO his current system. We worked with his team to identify their weak areas, and to bring in new staff to help with the new development.

This led to some stress, since my new job at the primary client is pretty dang stressful, and it wasn't going to be easy for me to actually MANAGE a redevelopment project in the middle of everything else. Honestly, for me, the outsource would have been better for my time... but the client comes first. Happily my Dad was able to step in and get all of the detail level coordination work going. We were just about to launch the new project... when....

Out of the blue last week, B decided to take a "mental health week" off. Yesterday, he resigned. Add to this, he stated his intent to form a new company on his own, and take the other staff along with him. Suddenly, the entire landscape has changed, and we're back to 6 weeks ago, evaluating the original "outsource" proposal, without the barrier of having to protect the legacy guy.

Of course the Client is panicked, but we're working him through it.

It would have been so much easier if this guy had quit weeks ago and we wouldn't have had to do all of this "Plan B" action... but whatchagonnado?

And that's the other client.