25 Special Challenges

SUPPOSE YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE NEEDED A brain surgeon. No, really—try to imagine that situation. Or maybe treatment for cancer. Something extremely serious.

How would you go about choosing a doctor?

Here’s what you wouldn’t do. You wouldn’t put a spreadsheet on the Web and invite submissions from doctors and medical groups who might be interested in providing brain surgery services to your family. And you wouldn’t then take all of the spreadsheets and add up the various checkboxes and pricing information to decide which physician you’re going to choose.

And yet all kinds of businesses and government agencies make buying decisions that way. Admittedly, they’re not hiring a brain surgeon, but they are making choices that ...

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