August 2013: Keeping Up Appearances

I recently met two employees for lunch from a well-established, buy-side-focused technology vendor. Once we'd dispensed with the usual small-talk ─ an important yet totally redundant part of any business meeting ritual that tends to plumb the depths of banality, given that the subject matter often focuses on the weather, the state of the global economy, and on particularly bad days, celebrity culture ─ we got on to the topic of the firm and its technology.

As previously mentioned, it is well