Last night my boss and the Sr. VP of Ops and CTO arrived from Canada, very late and tired. Brandon and I returned to the scene of the crime - that cool little walking street with all the terraces. We were whipped but of course needed to eat and guzzle. We had a cool couple of hours, then I went home to get my game face on for the big pitch today Tuesday, the culmination of my work over the past 3 weeks (I was only front and center on translation for a few days but it was cool).
Anyway, I had prepared this large presentation, then translated it into French, then of course we re-worked it a bunch of times and got feedback from our clients.
Today there were about a dozen big muckety-mucks all gathered around to listen to me deliver this spiel including the President and CEO of 47 plants and a few of his direct reports. They were nice and we had some fun too. I presented the whole thing in French and two things became clear very quickly: first, I scored with everyone. They can see that I will make all this happen, and I will, no doubt. This is my niche, this is my thing. Secondly, they are convinced after a lot of analysis that our product is the right thing. I am sitting here waiting for them to call us in and give us their decision, but I think I know where they are going. They want three more things from us before giving the green light unconditionally:
1. a detailed plan right through to the end of the first 3 trial/pilot sites.
2. a process for getting the business requirements for all 47 sites. there are 30 "super" users involved from plants all over FR who will make decisions on how our products will be married with their business policies and processes.
3. we need to hire the two other people that will form our French team. We interviewed a guy today but he couldn't put a sentence together in English.
Looks like they want my butt here most of the time, I guess it's no surprise. I had been hiding from that. This is a big issue for me because of friends, but that's not the end of the world, we always stick to the closest friends and find a way to see each other.
Also, they want to send several people to Vancouver for a lot of training in July which is a great idea and the right place and time. I hope I have the time to go too. Looks like I will, as I will stick to my plan of going home on the 28th of June. PHEW. I still feel OK, but know that homesickness will appear soon.
Enough business - sorry - just wanted to capture that for posterity's sake.
I found a really cool-looking studio with a kitchenette at less than half the price of my broom closet hotel that we left today. I mean it looks cool on the internet. We will spend the next two nights at the local French HQ (I have been at our customers' Euro HQ until now) which is in the south-east corner of the city, so we changed hotel so that we wouldn't have to spend an hour in a taxi.
Anyway, that studio is smack-dab right in the middle between the French HQ and the Euro HQ, which is a somewhat political statement from me as I do not want either group to think I care about the other more. Corinne comes from Group and as mentioned I respect her so much. My French customers come from the French HQ, so I have to hang close to them.
Thursday June 12, 2008
PHEW, my bosses went home!! My direct boss was driving me nuts. Technoweenies always micromanage things because business objectives confuse them. They don't know what else to do. My boss is a really nice guy, but he's a content expert, not a project manager. Manoj, I can hear you all the way from India hahaha. Anyway, I remind you that my offer letter said "....Initially you will report to Mr. Technowhoopie...." Someone else knows what's up and that be the Sr. VP/CTO. He is not a turkey. He's pretty tough though, just the way I like them.
Anyway, we spent two nights with the French at that broom closet number hotel close to the French HQ. It was a broom closet but the service was sort of like being at home, so it was a great great couple of days. We went to a wicked Chinese the first night and it was AWESOME. We had Peking Duck and chicken wrapped in banana leaves and you-name-it. Funniest part was this Chinese waiter who kept coming to the table to describe dishes and take orders and stuff, but nobody could understand him. All the francophones looked at all the francophones with puzzled expressions. Same deal for all the anglophones. My boss said he understood some of the Chinese but we were still baffled. Finally we understood that he is also Canadian from Montreal. EUREKA. So we tried English. Didn't work either. Very funny guy though.
Last night we had a feast at the hotel and it was like being at home. Very comfy, professional, yet informal, without the phony American crap "Hi I'm Jimmy and I'm going to be your waiter tonight." They should make them bring a barf bucket to the table when they say that. What they really mean is "Hi, I'm Jimmy, and I haven't got a clue but I want to make lots of tips."
One sure reason why the French are skinny is the size of the portions. Very simple solution.
Last night I had a starter of sardines with this-and-that. Delicious. Know how many sardines there were? FOUR. Perfect, really all I needed. That was followed by a salmon with a dollop of rice about the size of a bar of soap and some spinach, just delicious and of course very light. So that is why the French remain skinny in spite of their love of food.
Then I went outside for half a cigarette, Sara, and started slobbering over this mini car thingy (see photos). There was a gang on the terrace drinking up a storm and they started right in on me: Did I like the car? Did I want to buy the car? I think they thought I couldn't speak French, so when I answered them we really started to have fun. They were cool. Then they offered a package deal: the car plus the only girl at the table (very cute actually). Of course I said yes. And on and on it went. The French are extremely sociable, and as I said before, every interaction requires a conversation even if you don't know the people.
Then we went off to bed to our broom closets and I awoke early and worked on my plan, then went to the office to work with our clients until my bosses left at 5. I left with them, I am very bagged, and will just go through the motions tomorrow and maybe Monday too. I deserve it. Nobody ever gives you time off, they just talk about a balanced life style, so I will take it. I have worked every day since starting Monday the 19th and actually started before, so enough is enough.
I wanted to stay and have a last night with Brandon from Dallas but decided to move HQ to Montparnasse, which is politically located right between the Euro and French offices as I mentioned.
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