John Linton
.......and that has destroyed the benefits of 4 weeks very expensive relaxation in the blink of an eye. Perhaps I should be grateful they lasted as long as two days.
Perhaps it is the fact that I've been away from the office for almost a month but I can't seem to find anything appealing about my first two days 'back at work'. Not that I have done that much with the first day largely being taken up by the board meeting and yesterday taken up by trying to get the ADSL2 pricing plans re-done but only succeeding in revising Exetel's "No Frills" plans by the time the day ended. For someone who usually completes such a task in an hour or so it was depressing to be so hesitant and to only do one third of the work required. I eventually stopped working when I figured out that my inability to concentrate was being caused by my, if not anger, then annoyance at the actions of one of our suppliers that, as far as I could see, had in my absence made many of the actions taken by Exetel over the past year a total waste of time and, just as importantly had caused us to waste a great deal of money.
It made me wonder whether I really should continue playing a part in running a company where it looks as though I don't understand what is required to be successful in offering services to the Australian marketplaces in which we operate if I can get so many basic things so wrong....and feeling like this after 4 weeks of relaxation is not a good thing to do. Having such doubts is also counter productive to doing any sort of planning at all as it induces a "what's the point" element into thinking that definitely doesn't benefit from any form of self doubt. Because I am, at the end of the day, usually both pragmatic and sensible it is a feeling that doubtless will go away in time but it did distract me all day yesterday.
However, when I started work this morning I was still angry (not annoyed) and that concerns me as it indicates that the issue is not going to 'go away' as these things tend to. I will concentrate on making the rest of the changes to the ADSL plans by the end of the today, at least in terms of getting the internal work completed but then it appears Exetel is going to have to make some significant changes to its business plans for the balance of FY2010 and FY2011 which is absolutely not what any sensible person or company should do as it means they have massively mis-guessed some serious aspects of the marketplaces in which they operate. I have made many mistakes in my business and personal life so you would think I would have become used to being wrong but it always comes as a surprise to me to realise I have seriously misjudged a situation that I thought I had completely understood.
I thought the changes and additions to the 'no frills' plans were very sensible and used the benefits of much lower IP costs very well providing lower entry points and a 50 cent per gb excess charge....which as far as I know is the lowest cost for data ever provided in Australia.....by a very long way. However my cursory 'analysis' of the feedback was that our customers didn't think the changes were very useful to them and were all very 'ho hum'. Perhaps they have got used to their current plans being so good it is impossible to improve on them?
So I'm not sure exactly what to do in deciding whether any changes should be made to the 'full service' plans as they are already the best in Australia - for the users at which they are targetted. When I began to look at the sorts of changes that could be made earlier this morning I was having trouble making any progress which was unusual as early morning is usually, for me, the easiest time to think really clearly. However there is still virtually a full day to complete this work so it is too early to just find it all too hard and leave everything in place as it is.....I am tempted to do that though.
It just goes to show how damaging having your thoughts distracted by another issue is to making required and sensible decisions on vital aspects of the business in which you are involved.