Frameworks and Growing Up

Bagehot's column this week was an interesting read about the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague. It was essentially a very positive review and a significant part of it focused on his pragmatism and reluctance to focus on any particular ideology. I finished the article thinking what a wonderful approach to politics – common sense reigning supreme.

I then picked up an RfP response we are currently writing. My first review comment – the document does not contain any framework or structure which, in my opinion, meant that it was very difficult to understand our proposed solution. I had no way of “checking” if the proposed solution was exhaustive, and as such I felt somewhat uncomfortable saying whether or not I thought the design would work in that particular company.

Maybe I’m not ready to be Foreign Secretary, but I can’t help but think the solution must be a middle way. The trick must be to not restrict oneself to a single framework, but be able to call upon a variety of frameworks depending on the situation. I always feel more confident when I have a checklist to ensure I’m not missing a “big ticket item”, especially when things are changing rapidly. Maybe when I’m a grown up like William Hague I won’t need those checklists. I’ll let you know in 20 years.

Still no elephants, but 2 goats

That's what I saw on my morning run in the middle of Zurich today. Back here after two days at a "Quarterly Business Review" in London. An interesting two days, interesting for many reasons including seeing how mature my organisation within an organisation really is despite it being a multi million pound business. The good news was that it seemed that they liked my wacky presentation style (I had two presentations to give over the course of the two days). More anon later, for the minute I'm trying to find an ironed shirt to go to work.

No elephants....yet

Back safely from a gloriously hot Zurich. A good day overall but long and tiring. I didn't see any elephants this time, although I did meet with a colleague who I will be travelling to India with at the end of next week. We planned to hire a two seater elephant during the weekend in the middle of our stay in Bangalore. I'm not sure if it will be a right or left hand drive elephant.

I told you so

That's the beauty of having a blog - there is no place to hide when you get your predictions for the World Cup wrong. Germany were hopelessly outclassed by Spain last night; something I didn't expect. I am going to punish myself by getting a 6AM flight from Heathrow to Zurich. Arrrgh. I still have to say that I have enormous respect for the German coach - his humility in the post match press conference was impressive. Don't ask me who I think will win on Sunday.

A Word on the World Cup

It's Germany all the way for me. Admittedly some might say I've been hedging my bets by only proclaiming my views after one of the two semi finals has already been played, but from the little I've seen, they are the only group of highly talented individuals who actually play like a team. The game against Argentina showed me that every player in the team knew exactly what they could and could not do, everybody knew their role; essential in a successful team. The game against England, and the shaming of John Terry and Matthew Upson, showed me that the man they have at the helm, Joachim Loew, is absolutely excellent and very tactically astute. He gets the strategy of the team right game in game out. That's why I don't think they will have too many problems with either Spain tonight or the Dutch on Sunday.

The Week Ahead

A good weekend all in all. I finally got back on a horse (Friday night), jumped a few bars (Saturday morning) and just enjoyed the Guinness soaked atmosphere of the stables (Saturday lunch time and afternoon). We also had a dinner with friends last night which was very enjoyable after fun with Maxime at Mamie and Papy's cleaning a car with a jet hose (simple things). Life is beginning to return to normal.

This week starts off with a scan of the twins this morning and a (hopefully) final x-ray of my arm. Fingers crossed our medical morning goes well. I'll work from home at the start of this week before heading to the UK tomorrow night for the rest of the week. I may have to pop over to Switzerland (Zurich) on Thursday but this has yet to be confirmed. Things are definitely hotting up at work and it's quite clear that time management and ruthless prioritisation are going to be essential skills. I've never even met the guy, but I am glad there is a new person starting next week to help take some of the burden off me!

Ah, Maxime stirring...off to warm a bottle of chocolate milk.

Mothership Calling

I have finally received my dates for going to India. I need to report for duty in Bangalore no later than midday on Monday 19th July. So this is it then, the removal of the Accenture chip and the Wipro corporate sheep dip. I'll be there for 2 weeks returning on the 1st August. Old hands in Wipro have advised that I be sure to pack a course of antibiotics, immodium and soap.....sounds like a great trip already. More anon no doubt.