“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”

Or maybe McKinsey. Or SAFe. Or Scrum.

The implication being, of course, that choosing a competitor, may get you fired.

Why might that be?

Taking the claim at face value, I think there are only two possible explanations:

1. Buying IBM (or contracting McKinsey, or adopting SAFe or Scrum) never fails. Therefore nobody would ever be fired for making the choice.
2. When IBM (or McKinsey, or SAFe or Scrum) does fail, it’s seen as beyond reproach. Therefore nobody would ever be fired for making the choice.

Now I think we can assume that the former is what people usually are trying to imply with such a phrase—especially if they’re employing it to sell their own products.

But nothing never fails. At least not in the complex world of business.

So this leaves the second option. People aren’t fired for making these choices, despite the choice failing.

Is that really rational? Not that I want to advocate people being fired… that’s not it at all.

Rather, I think it’s rather silly to consider any of these (or any other company) as beyond reproach.

Let’s judge these companies and approaches on their merits. Not on public sentiment. Or worse, the company’s own marketing.