Chapter 7 Cronos Crisis – The Beginning of Time

Ben Hope sat at his desk, staring at the requirements documentation in Confluence. His brow furrowed in concentration as he reviewed the detailed user stories painstakingly compiled over a week of discovery sessions with Cronos. Maya sat across from him, scrolling through her laptop, her face bright with enthusiasm. She had been instrumental in documenting the process, capturing every conversation with precision. Everything seemed perfect.

"By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail," Ben muttered, his favourite quote that he repeated whenever things got complex. His career as a project manager and business analyst had drilled this mantra into him.

Maya smiled, looking up. “Ben, I think we’ve covered all the bases. Cronos signed off on everything. We’re golden.”

“Let’s hope so,” he said, not allowing himself to relax just yet. The project was huge, GreenStream's biggest deal yet, with a luxury client like Cronos wanting to tailor the platform to fit their sustainability goals. But there was always something, always a hidden issue lurking. Experience had taught him that.

As if on cue, Stan Rorschach’s voice echoed through the office hallway. His broad figure soon appeared in Ben's doorway, a tablet in hand and a concerned look on his face.

“Ben, Maya, we’ve got a problem.”

Ben tensed. “What’s going on?”

Stan slouched in the chair next to Ben. “Just got off the phone with Cronos. Their PM is claiming that what we’ve started building is not what they ordered. Apparently, they’re threatening to cancel the contract if we continue.”

Maya’s eyes widened. “But they approved the user stories! They gave the green light.”

Stan nodded grimly. “That’s what I said, but they’re insistent. Max is losing his mind over this, he’s counting on this project to break us into the luxury market.” Max, the visionary and remarkable CEO of GreenStream, had his sights set on breaking into the luxury market. Through his tenacity and strategic networking, he successfully secured a connection with Cronos, a prestigious luxury watch brand, opening the door to a promising partnership.

Ben sighed and rubbed his temples. This wasn’t good. “Let me guess, they’ve got no detailed internal alignment on what they actually want. No surprise they called Max and you, not me… I am too low in the hierarchy…”

Stan sat down, folding his arms. “Sales locked in this feature agreement based on vague requirements just to close the deal. Now they’re backtracking.”

Maya leaned forward, her fingers clenching the edge of the desk. “So what do we do? We can’t afford to lose them.”

Ben’s mind raced. There was no time for finger-pointing. “First, we need to find out what their internal communication breakdown is. They must have gaps between their departments.”

Maya’s eyes lit up. “And we’ve got documentation for everything. We can show them that we followed their approval process to the letter.”

Ben stood, pacing the room. “Right. But it’s not just about documentation, it’s about managing this conflict. I’m betting some of their team didn’t even read the requirements properly.”

Stan raised an eyebrow. “You think?”

“I know,” Ben said, determined. “We need to get them all back in the room, go through the documentation step by step, and make them realise this is their issue, not ours, but we will work on this together – the hoops we jump through for the success of each customer huh...”

Stan stood, nodding slowly. “Alright. Let’s set up a call and bring everyone from their side in. This is going to be tough.”

Maya tapped her fingers nervously on her keyboard. “And what if they don’t back down? What if they walk away?”

Ben gave her a bitter but reassuring smile. "That's exactly why we're negotiating. We've got the upper hand here, Maya. We've followed every step by the book—and beyond. We even guided them through their own processes, making them clearer not just for us but for them as well. And this is how they repay us..."

Stan clapped Ben on the back as they left the room. “I’ll handle Max. You handle Cronos.”

Ben grabbed his laptop, determination settling into his bones. “Let’s save this deal.”

On the day of the Stakeholder Connect, as they have called it, as Ben walked into the conference room, ready to confront Cronos, his phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was Maya, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Ben, we’ve got a bigger problem. Cronos just paused all payments until further notice.”

Ben froze mid-step, the weight of the revelation sinking in.

"Looks like we're not just saving the deal," he muttered. "We're saving the company."

…to be continued…