Book Review: Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors, by William West

For more than two decades, William West hasworked with many of the world’s most admired companies, either as an internal employeeor as an external development partner. He recently distilled this extensiveexperience into a recent article in Learning Solutions Magazine and a new book by the same name. Seven Attributes of Highly EffectiveDevelopment Vendors is a must-read for those responsible for vendorselection and for vendors alike.  

The genesis of the Seven Attributes

From the book’s outset, West clearly declaresthat he’s been fortunate over the course of his career. Even the book’sendorsements, written by West’s colleagues and clients, read like a who’s whoof companies with large and successful L&D departments. Among othertriumphs, West’s good fortune allowed him to build a successful eLearningcompany, Option Six, where he formed long-lasting partnerships, producedresults that led to what he calls “enthusiastic approval,” and really refinedthe characteristics that make a true difference in an outsourcing relationship.

The concept of the Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Vendors (Figure 1) actuallycame about as West prepared to speak at a CLO Symposium in 2013. Reflecting onthe major successes and unfortunate failures he witnessed in training-developmentoutsourcing, William West has, perhaps for the first time, defined the key qualitiesthat are required to build successful client-vendor relationships that canproduce stellar results. Put simply, and in order of importance, West’s sevenattributes of highly effective development vendors are: experience, methodology,infrastructure, process, technology, talent, and innovation.

Figure 1: The seven attributes of highly effective developmentvendors

Putting the book to work for you

It’s a rare day when a training developmentteam has enough time and ample budget to actually do everything that needs doing. And for a myriad of reasons, we canprobably all agree that training development outsourcing is here to stay. Unfortunately,as West argues, the success rate of these outsourcing relationships is abysmal.Regardless of the scope of your needs and reach of your initiatives, how do youknow which vendors will be there when the rubber meets the road to get yourjobs done … and get them done well?

If you’re tasked with answering thesequestions, or if you’re a training-development vendor looking to hone yourbusiness and craft, then you might consider adding Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors to yoursummer reading list. The book is a quick and enjoyable read and is divided intothree main sections. The first section, Chapters 1 and 2, sets the stage withplentiful stories and examples from West’s own experiences. The second section,Chapters 3 through 9, offers an extensive and detailed look under the hood ateach of the seven attributes. West provides a thorough discussion of each withreinforcement through good, bad, and just plain ugly examples. The thirdsection, Chapters 10 and 11, sheds light on the RFP and proposal processes,from both the vendor and provider’s perspectives, and general pricingstrategies.

At their most basic, you can consider theattributes as follows:

• Experience: How well does the vendor’s experience align with your company’sneeds?
• Methodology: What instructional-design methodology doesthe vendor follow? And how well does it apply to what your company needs?
• Infrastructure: How well can the vendor scale to meet yourcompany’s needs without sacrificing quality?
• Process: How will the vendor’s process(es) lead to an effective developmenteffort?
• Technology: What tools does the vendor use to develop, track, and manage theproject?
• Talent: What are the skills and qualifications of the vendor’s staffmembers who will be dedicated to your company’s project(s)?
• Innovation: How does the vendor incorporate novel techniques into theirworkflows? How do they give back to the industry?

Having personally held both roles in theclient-vendor relationship, I can say with confidence that West’s book offerssharp wisdom and keen insight, no matter your function. First, as he pointsout, you can and should apply the seven attributes to any vendor, regardless ofthe size of their operation. (And, of course, one can even make the argumentthat you could successfully apply the attributes to a traditional “internal”L&D team as well, but I digress.) Second, the numerous questions that Westprovides throughout the book will be invaluable to readers in assessing eachindividual attribute, as well as to help guide their RFP processes.

Why should you read the book?

Make no mistake, William West provides plentyof anecdotes from his experiences that can leave you downright depressed aboutthe state of our industry. With the seven attributes, however, he providesreaders with an attainable blueprint of future success. By the way, Westdefines success as, “The equilibrium when the client has his vision realizedand the vendor makes a profit.” Both sides of the equation are equallyimportant, and although he wrote the book primarily for those responsible forhiring vendors, it would be well worth the read for vendors so they may learnand heed William West’s sage guidance as well.

Bibliographic information

West, William. Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors: Secrets toEstablishing a Successful Client/Vendor Relationship. Quantum7 Publishing, 2014.