March 2007 - Posts
The blog was on vacation for a few days in Cayman last week. My wife and I had a fantastic trip with a lot of Caribbean rum drinks and crystal clear waters. The trip was great right up to the point where we had to go through US Customs in Miami. We were catching a flight from Miami to NY, and after our flight landed, we were stuck on the tarmac for 25 minutes waiting for American to clear a few flights out of its gate area. Here was the overall path we had to endure to get home:
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Go through Cayman airport security check.
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Go through Cayman immigration/customs.
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Get off Cayman to Miami flight.
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Go through US Immigration.
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Get baggage that was already checked through to NY.
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Go through US Customs.
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Recheck baggage to NY.
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Go through Miami airport security check (2nd time).
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Sprint to gate with wife-make flight with 10 minutes to spare.
I should also mention that during step 8, when I asked the security person if we could move to the front of the line as our flight was departing in 25 minutes, I was told that it had to be leaving in 15 minutes or less for them to expedite us. So why did I need to leave the secure area in Miami and go through screening a 2nd time? And why can't Customs recheck my bags immediately after passing through there? My wife and I are seriously thinking about not going to any more international destinations unless there are direct flights from NY just because getting though Miami was such a headache. It's a good thing Cayman is awesome, or our trip home would have erased the restful value of the whole vacation. I should also point out the only reason we needed to check bags at all is because my spray deodorant might have been liquid explosives according to the Transportation Insecurity Agency.
For all you folks out there who enjoy drinking beers that don't come from Anheiser Bush, I have some good news. One of NYC's best beer bars has returned after being forced into exile by greedy West Village landlords.
The Blind Tiger is back at its new location (281 Bleecker just east of 7th Ave). The Tiger was forced out of its old home at the corner of 10th Street and Hudson (directly across from my apartment) to make way for something the Village really needed - another Starbucks. Yes friends, instead of having to walk three blocks for a double macchiato espresso latte, we now only have to walk one! Oh wait! I don't even drink coffee! But I do drink beer, and there are very few beer bars in NY in the same league as the Tiger. You will find cask-drawn beers and a lot of random ones from places like the Rogue Brewery, Blue Point, Smuttynose and many others. But you won't find any Bud Light. So if you are in the city and a beer fan, make a stop at the Blind Tiger.
John Rambo, a.k.a Rocky Balboa, a.k.a Sylvester Stallone was charged in Australia today with possession of a banned muscle-building substance. CNN posted a photo of him, about which I have two questions:
1. Is that a hole in his neck? It looks like you could store a grapefruit in there!
2. Does he have one finger up becuase he was trying to say "Aaayyy oh! It was only, like, one substance!"
Shipping certain operations to countries with cheaper labor is a very popular trend right now, particularly in the financial industry and technology organizations. Sites like Outsource2India advocate the obvious economic advantages of outsourcing certain operations, which in theory sounds fine. Has anyone had negative experiences lately with a call centers based overseas? I have had 2 recently with India, and both were horrendous. The first was a call I placed to American Express several months back about an account security issue. The service representative from India informed me that there was a suspicious charge on my wife's account for Sex. My response was obviously "what????" It turned out after 5 more minutes of discussion and conferencing in my wife that he was not saying "Sex" but was in fact trying (quite poorly) to say "Sacks, " and the charge was legit. The call probably took 10 minutes longer than it should have.
My more recent experience was with Microsoft a few weeks back. I called them the same night I bashed Toshiba over their garbage support of the Gigabeat, hoping maybe they could help. Again, my call went to call screener in India who wouldn't even let me speak to an engineer until he understood why I was calling. This was like trying to explain a nuclear weapon design to a 3-year old. He then proceeded to start ever sentence with the phrase "Ok sir, regarding...." I was ready to scream (mostly Toshiba's fault), so I hung up.
The moral of the story is that firms need to factor in user experience when deciding whether to outsource certain operations. If someone needs to call back more than once because the first person was not capable of understanding a problem, the advantage of outsourcing has just disappeared. In addition, it can sour an experience with a company, and would put a person's decision to use that company for goods and services again in question. I am comtemplating just asking to be directed to a US office if the situation occurs again.
I was poking around thr web and came across the Beer Launcher, which I might see about nominating for a Nobel Prize. This novel device fires cans of beer right your hand, and is remote controlled. I love it, and I'm jealous I didn't think of it first! John-we here at Slashstar wish you the best of luck with the invention, and hope it provides you a large windfall! Drop by the link to Metacafe and help support John!
I think there is a large trend on technology organizations today to improve change management procedures such that few things break due to human intervention. This is most definitely true at my organization (large financial institution), but I am rather disturbed at the way it's being done. In the past, it was up to the subject matter experts (SME) to decide what was routine and should just get done. In my organization, senior management has really taken that discretion away from the SME's. Now every little thing needs to get reviewed by people who don't necessarily understand what they are reviewing anyway!! For very large or risky changes to a technology environment, I agree that a rigid change management process should be in place to manage risk. However, when this rigid process is applied too broadly, an organization becomes inefficient, and it's ability to respond to its client population can grind to a screeching halt. Here's my recommendation on how to achieve good change management, while at the same time empowering your people to make decisions:
- Have a scalable ticketing system to track changes and create and audit trail.
- Define subject matter experts for various technology platforms that are trusted and respected.
- Leave the decision with the SME when a change might need to be vetted by a broader change management committee.
- As a manager, DO NOT micromanage your subject matter experts.
Obviously, if you have incompetent SME's this whole model breaks. But if you have capable and trustworth SME's, this also will contribute to the career growth of both managers and SME's. More to follow on this thread...