Decided to ditch the taxi and walk to the office on Wednesday.26 degrees + blue sky. Some interesting sights on the walk in - beats Maidenhead any day!
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Commute to Work
Decided to ditch the taxi and walk to the office on Wednesday.26 degrees + blue sky. Some interesting sights on the walk in - beats Maidenhead any day!
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Motorbike taxi - the video
Back to Paris for 2 day gig. I just had to take motorbike taxi again. On the return leg i decided to use the video function on the Canon IXUS compact camera i carry with me. The video below is just down the road from our office. We enter the Arc de Triomphe. Watch out for the silver Renault! Sorry for noise but this is the normal soundtrack for bikers. The bumps are due to the cobbles!
Thursday, 20 September 2007
You've gotta tell it straight!
Been a long week. 200 mile drive late Sunday, 2 hotels and a total of 650+ miles and i just got back (Thursday).
Today ended with a 5hr meeting with a customer - a slightly unhappy one at that. Having spent $2m on technology from us they are struggling. A number of reasons but at the end of the day the past is the past and we have to look forward. For 5hrs i had observed some smart technologists ask us some very technical questions. Not a problem with that. But some of the business folks were adamant that they knew what they wanted to do and that they were not going to change. It was the technology that was at fault. It was obvious that internally the business and the technology sponsors were not aligned. The main sponsor - new to the customers company - asked everyone to leave the room apart from us - he asked our opinions directly! I had to tell him straight and direct. If he didn't align his internal folks - his company would be screwed and the effects would not be nice. Technology would be deployed but i was not convinced the company would achieve their business model goals. Not a threat - just observations. I explained my reasons with passion and facts.
After the meeting the team i was with did a debrief away from the customer. Conclusion was that it was risky calling it out and being direct, but the outcome we believe is positive and we can make progress. Interesting dynamic in the team - going in we were expecting the worst - but the outcome was different. We earned respect and trust. We can see a way forward and we believe that we can help the customer achieve their business goals. The team felt great.
At the end of the day - you've got to tell it straight.
Today ended with a 5hr meeting with a customer - a slightly unhappy one at that. Having spent $2m on technology from us they are struggling. A number of reasons but at the end of the day the past is the past and we have to look forward. For 5hrs i had observed some smart technologists ask us some very technical questions. Not a problem with that. But some of the business folks were adamant that they knew what they wanted to do and that they were not going to change. It was the technology that was at fault. It was obvious that internally the business and the technology sponsors were not aligned. The main sponsor - new to the customers company - asked everyone to leave the room apart from us - he asked our opinions directly! I had to tell him straight and direct. If he didn't align his internal folks - his company would be screwed and the effects would not be nice. Technology would be deployed but i was not convinced the company would achieve their business model goals. Not a threat - just observations. I explained my reasons with passion and facts.
After the meeting the team i was with did a debrief away from the customer. Conclusion was that it was risky calling it out and being direct, but the outcome we believe is positive and we can make progress. Interesting dynamic in the team - going in we were expecting the worst - but the outcome was different. We earned respect and trust. We can see a way forward and we believe that we can help the customer achieve their business goals. The team felt great.
At the end of the day - you've got to tell it straight.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Paris
Been spending time in Paris with work recently. Nice mix of customers - software ISV's and media work (TV/VOD). Centre of Paris is a great place to hang out. We have a small office between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Didn't think you would want to see pictures of the tourist places - so this is the view from the office. It's nice catching up with email, window open on a hot day and listening to the hustle and bustle of the city outside. Also close by are some great little
restaurants just off the tourist routes that my colleagues know very well.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Productivity Tools
Seem to be having problems with various "productivity tools" at the moment - Treo smart phone, broadband connection, etc. These things are great when they work, but a pain when they don't.Wonder if workers in a bygone era had similar problems with their work tools?
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