John Linton ........a cautionary day.
Yesterday was an interesting day in some respects. Annette and I had our 'annual' meeting with our bank manager to go over the events of the past year and listen to what he could do for us in the coming year. We do a fair amount of personal business as well as approximately half of Exetel's business banking with St George (the other 50% with Westpac) and its interesting to compare the differences between the way the two banks operate despite the fact that St George has been 'owned' by Westpac for some time now. Over the years St George has continually been the more, by a wide margin, accommodating of our two banks in that if we approach both of them with the same request St George will respond very quickly, and usually very positively and Westpac will still not have got back to us with an answer by the time we have made and executed the decision. This is, obviously, partly to do with the capability of the long term St George manager compared to the various different managers we have had at Westpac over the time we have used both banks but the overall difference is obviously in procedures and 'bureaucracy within the two organisations.
We also met with the representative of a company that has expressed an interest in buying Exetel over the years - not because we believe they are actually interested/capable of buying Exetel but because it's always interesting to listen to what other people in the industry have to say about current marketplace moves and the companies involved in them. It is a useful way to spend the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee and, while not on this occasion, you sometimes 'learn something to your advantage'.....especially if you ask questions carefully using the mental equivalent of triangulation. The more I attend such meetings the more I realise that this industry continues to change in ways that I am not just uncomfortable with but that I don't relate to at all. That is, of course, entirely my problem. What is quite apparent is that times continue to be very tough for almost all companies involved in providing communications services whether it is zero cents a minute international voice services or huge integrated services supply.
The saddest part of the day was attending the funeral service (strangely, given my advancing years, only the third one in my life to date) of someone who was very kind to me when I first came to Australia as a teenager and who helped me develop in to something useful in my first real job. (he was the person who showed me how effective listening was compared to talking when I was 18 - I have never forgotten to do that since) Both he and his wife provided me with more than one meal when food was something that I sometimes couldn't afford (having squandered my weekly pay on more important things like poker machines or trying to impress a girl by buying her a meal I simply couldn't afford) and they also made my first and second Christmases in Australia less lonely than they would certainly have been. Apart from being so kind and generous to me personally, he was a good and decent man and it was sad that so few people attended his funeral - he separated from his wife many years ago and he had no children. I wish I had seen more of him - I learned a great deal from working with him in my early career and never forgot what I observed and was directly taught. I should have done much more to return the kindness and tuition.
Just your average business day really.
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