John Linton Awoke from a deep sleep a little after 9 am when a room attendant entered the room to tidy it up and retreated with deep apologies for disturbing us. We had gone to bed around 10 pm the previous night so it was a very long sleep caused by all the usual factors including constant time displacement plus too much to eat and drink.
A colleague sent me this over night:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=1
which, while it is rigourless opinion, raises some interesting points. I work in an open plan office at a work station identical in type and space to everyone else's on the floor and have done for the whole of Exetel's 'existence' and for several years before Exetel was created. I have no problems with spending a large portion of my working day doing the things that are involved in running our business from my 'work station'. However when I do need to think about the future or think about anything that I am having trouble understanding then I go home to do that part of my work. If I have real trouble with making any major decision (which doesn't occur that often) then I find going away to some nice hotel in somewhere (like Singapore in the current instance) usually allows a solution to be found to the most intractable of problems.
I have a particularly difficult situation to resolve in my own mind right now which I am hoping to find an answer to over the next two days (yesterday produced no sensible answers which was expected because of the jet lag and its associated disruptions - but 11 hours sleep has wiped all that away. So I agree with the author's observation that solitude is often a requirement for making major decisions or producing 'brand new' thoughts - it has always worked for me over the years. I find his references to schools adopting 'a group approach' to teaching less than interesting - it seems to imply a reduction to the lowest common denominator view of learning with is anathematic to me and everything I have ever thought that is good about the human species - I would have thought it also defies every piece of empiricism ever produced about humanity.
Nevertheless it was an interesting piece and particularly apposite for Exetel at the moment as we begin to more rapidly grow the company and need to find more 'managers' while currently adhering to our 'promote from within' personnel policies. Can we actually double the current size of Exetel in terms of personnel and quadruple the size in terms of revenues and customers using the people currently within the company to fill the escalating number of management positions? At our smallish size I still think that is possible but we are definitely running in to 'education' problems that need to be addressed and I don't know how to do that at the moment. Whenever I have talked about this particular issue with the few people I respect the answer is always to hire from without rather than solely promoting from within. That particular issue will have to wait while we see how our current 'rapid' promotions work out.
In the mean time we need to decide on how/if we address the residential market places. So many providers have 'disappeared' over the past few years that it is some sort of clear signal as to what needs to be looked at. Can so many companies be wrong in taking the money and running or, in some cases, let their financiers/suppliers wind them up? While Exetel is nowhere near the second scenario we are under increasing 'visibility (simply because there are so few 'independent' ISPs left) as a candidate for the first category. Personally, I would never sell Exetel until either health or 'success' has rendered my association with the company unnecessary. However while I have the controlling say in any such decision there are two other very important people/directors/shareholders whose opinions are very important to both me and to Exetel who do not necessarily feel as adamant about Exetel's future as I do.
I need to fully understand the current, and undoubtedly future, decisions that we will have to make.
Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2012
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PS: Something that continues to prey on my mind is how long the current illegitimate Labor/Greens/Oakeshott/Wilkie/uncle Tom Cobley and all 'government will continue in terms of increasing hiring in Australia:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/labors-big-jobkilling-machine-20120115-1q15f.html
It's hard not to despise those cretins.