What I learned today at work….

So I’m in the process of segregating my personal life and my professional life (or at least the online versions).  I’m starting a CTO blog which is the more appropriate forum for my opinions on technology, technology management, and innovation.  I’ll still maintain a personal blog which will be full of baby photos and poker.…

I just finished up a long day. I finished at 7pm and pretty much got saved because two of the people I had to wind up projects with were in California. If they had been on the East Coast they would have already left for the day and I would have missed them until tomorrow.…

I downloaded typepad mobile (http://www.typepad.com) to my cellphone and it’s pretty cool imho. Posting photos to your blog is also easy as you can see from this shot out of my office window. You can even future date posts. Rock on.

"Why can’t your workers be your workers, your friends be your friends, and your family be your family?  Why do you have to complicate things?"   -Ed Truck, "The Office" (US Version, Season 2)

Today I was listening to someone do a reference call for a product I’m considering purchasing.  He said, "I really appreciate the experience that upper management brings to the company." Honestly, that the biggest load of bullshit I’ve heard all week.  It’s such a nothing phrase.  That’s like saying, "I really appreciate that the fireman…

I’m usually very good with vendors, but yesterday I confess that I lost it.  A serious problem was escalated to a vendor manager and wasn’t noticed because this person was training a new staffer all day Monday.  Along with a poorly placed "fuck" in the conversation, I suggested that perhaps new employee training ought to…

1.  Plese show me a slide with 7 bullet points that contain a long sentence each…..and then read them.   Slowly. 2.  Please show me a list of goals that you tell me are "my goals", even though it’s obvious you use them in every presentation with every potential customer.   When I don’t recognize one of…

I woke up this morning at 4:30am, took the baby away from the bed since he was keeping Sarah up, then showered and flew to another city, did a client conference call discreetly from inside a Borders books, did a client pitch for two hours (wowed them!), and then flew home.  Because of time zones…

Remember when I said honesty gets vendors a long way with me?  Witness the conversation I just had.. Me: This is Shabbir, may I help you? (it doesn’t matter how important you think you are, if you’re in a service firm you should start every interaction with the idea of helping people) Guy: I don’t…

[Some days, like today, I think I could do a better job at selling other people’s products than they could…-Shabbir] <ring ring> Me: Hello? Vendor: Hi, this is Bob from XYZ Software.  We noticed that your annual subscription to our software inventory product for your desktops is coming up, and we wanted to discuss renewing…