BIMobject: a concept with a little R and a large E

Obviously, it would have been highly pretentious from me to expect some recognition on his face as I introduced myself – let alone true appreciation for the fact that I temporarily suspended my self-imposed BIM exile to attend the BIMobject’s CEO little presentation in Dubai last week, but hey, that just shows how miles apart are we in our understanding of what makes the AEC-BIM world tick.

Or maybe not far at all, just dealing with it in a different way.

He probably did not even notice that I left within 10 minutes into the time he was personally speaking (the presentation movies he started with, I will not count this time).

It was likely that it did occurred to him that the tiny audience he was addressing (the things we still have to do, even as CEOs of BIMobject AB - a public company listed on NASDAQ OMX First North: Share Ticker: BIM) could have show a bit more respect than half of it upping and going after only a couple of words into his monologue, but maybe he did not see either.

Oh, the benefits of being confident in oneself.

Did I write confident? I’m sure I meant cocky, at the time anyway.

It has taken me almost a week to figure out if I was just jealous of his success.

If my leaving in a hurry, driving home in tears and swearing against ever saying the acronym  BIM aloud again, was due to poor, basic envy?

Admittedly, the guy had been hugely successful in something I can only (even in my better days) consider myself to have been mildly profitable in. Comparing time and effort likely put into the subject, over the last 3 decades from either of us, he has definitely done significantly better than I have and am likely to do in the future.

Was it envy? Bitterness, resentment or spite?

Was it upsetting to hear someone simultaneously insult all participants of the industry and still get away with it, something I usually have to pay some sort of a price for – often quite high?

Was it him claiming things that just simply were not true?

Was it him manipulating the facts and trends and doing it without flinching?

The past and the present and predicting the future (like Autodesk and Graphisoft and Bentley or going down the drain hole in unison?

Was it the way he pronounced BIMobject with a ‘y’ – knowing that it kind of sounded cute?

Or was it the jeans  he was wearing and the plastic bag he walked in with at the first place?

None of the above, or not on their own, anyway.

I think it was the combination of ignorance and arrogance with what he dismissed everyone and everything that ever tried anything similar before that really threw me off balance. The stick on the proverbial camel’s back – or my tendency to suffer from flashbacks of my own BIM battles? (thanks, M)

How dare he belittle all the ones that have contributed to where he is now, even more, he now is also milking for own gain?

Velux, intelligent, branded 3D windows existed, like forever – IKEA had fully functioning libraries for decades, Eptar was a beautiful invention dreamed up probably 20 years ago? (or thereabouts).

And these are only the ones I personally know and like, there were hundreds of others that attempted something in a similarly confident way but stayed local or regional (for New Zealand readers: Eboss, Productspec….).

What happened to the old, humble ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants’ attitude where one can  claim personal achievements but still give credit where it is due?

On the other hand if he was being so smug because he truly believed to have ‘invented’ the business model that is able to rip off everyone within the AEC industry without them even being aware of it, after all the investors fell for it – maybe I should not be as upset as I got.

The world (even the global AEC) works in some mysterious ways and things tend to get balanced out sooner or later.

Sorry Stefan, your concept is an old story, even the clever-business one you believe to be such a unique invention, which sits behind the glossy-techy façade.

The entity you are representing is one that even with the pompous little R at its right shoulder is only oozing of a patronising Ego.

As for this little storm in the teacup I attempted to get off my chest with this blogpost that enjoys a very limited readership  – write it off to an attempt of self-preservation through blog-writing (mine) and an unusually gloomy Dubai day we are having today.

I’m sure NASDAQ has not heard about Zolna Murray, either, so you’re cool, for now anyway.