Networking

I spoke with the manager I will be meeting tomorrow afternoon to confirm our meeting. I need to be really on my toes this time around. No time for silly charm but a hard nose meeting. I always thought I could meet clients and allow my pleasant personality to keep things right. But it is more like snake-oil sales man approach in the past rather than a cold business like approach. It is now the real thing where everything must not be taken for granted. I should document everything and in case of any dispute, elevate the issue to the boss man for arbitration. It is a step up on the level of the game. Feels like customer management with teeth where the customers are sharks or live tigers that have the ability to eat you alive.

I patched things up with Philippe I think yesterday by talking to him and discussing his memo. I think he understands. I have to put attention on our business relationship. I spoke also to my development team supervisor on the phone to patch things up as well. I have to place some attention to them as well especially to her as she is the key person in the team. There is a lot of things that I need to put attention on especially since we have kick started the S project again. I have to make the team ready so they can handle the job. I only have a few weeks left, as the project should be up and running again by mid-April.

I am back in the mode of having to get a project up and running. The usual method of working with the proper protocol with the so-called delivery model is just not working. I think I can justify this by saying the project is not the usual one following the new delivery model since it is just a simple project. But I have to patch my relationship with the head of the offshore development company. We had a small run-in with him on another project we were doing with them. I guess this is really the ways things are in an organization. Working in a company is really the managing of the many business relationships and partnerships one have with the many actors in the game. It’s like a web or network of alliances in the organization to get things done.

Last night I attended a talk about wealth management strategy. The speaker is a millionaire who is the owner of the school who is offering the diploma. A good speaker who has a good persuasive ability to convince his audience. He is not as charismatic as other good speakers that I have seen and heard but his appeal only lies on his so-called ability to make money. This is the only point that the diploma course that he is promoting will do: to help you make a lot of money. Still a good way to spend a free evening to hear people like that talk as he mentioned a few interesting ideas such as investing in shop houses as office space not as residential homes. I am thinking of being a professional speaker one-day as a second career when things don’t turn out right at my office.