I was talking someone through a few thoughts on the banking industry last night. Hardly sounds like a riveting conversation – but we’ve both been in the industry at different stages in our work life and the topic kept us going for hours.
I had previously been reading about the history of money, and it all started when I talked about the first printed bank notes from the bank of England. They were semi printed, in that the issuer filled in the amount the note was worth. Some were for random amounts, but the values ranged from £25 to £1000 – and that was in the middle 1700′s. I guess that’s like a hundred thousand pound note now.
We moved on to modern banking and how so much of it is near impenetrable. We barely understand pensions even though we have both worked in the business and have our own. We have a vague understanding on hedge funds – but wouldn’t want to try to explain them to someone else. We are baffled at how foreign exchange, or forex (there’s a bit about the business on a blog this links to, I’ve been reading it as I might have some business coming from the industry soon) as it seems to be called these days, went from being about nipping down to the travel agent to get some French Francs for our school exchange trip to some crazy trillion dollar a day industry where millions are made and lost.
Terry and I met donkey’s years ago when we both did a work placement at what was then called CitiCorp at the end of The Strand and we worked on the trading floor as runners. Neither of us are in banking now, but we wondered just how much money we might have made had we stayed in investments. Well, we might have got rich, but then again we might not have been bright, or ruthless enough.
Blimey, I can’t believe how badly I was wiped out by my trip to the West Country this week.
The drive down was fine and I liked the Passat on the motorway a lot more than I do around town. I still find changing gear a drag, and the power delivery from the small engine is annoying. There’s a snippet where it pulls as you’d hope it would, but that’s over about a hundred revs rather than a thousand or so. Consumption isn’t anywhere near as good as I’d hoped either. It’s actually very good around town, but then the beast won’t top 45 mpg on a run even if I’m careful, and that drops quickly after 80 mph. Now the old Merc would remain pretty steady at 45 ish whether you drove at 65 or 90. It’s steady though, in that it’s smooth, quiet, comfortable. I think of those it’s the quiet that I like best, to the extent that classical music is easy to listen to, despite the low bits that are lost in a noisier car.
So. Car aside. 700+ miles in two days and I’m bloody knackered. And all that way for a short meeting with a couple of jumped up kids from a web design agency who didn’t know a lot about business, about marketing, about looking after the customer and making them feel like kings. So from the client’s perspective it’s a good job I went, but from mine, well, it was a long way and I didn’t bother with the Brum stop off. I regret that bit now. If only the client had took my advise in the first place we could have had their site built for less money and a whole lot quicker – but then there’d be no work for me sorting it out.
I was nervous about turning in the lovely Mercedes for what I considered to be a lesser car – the Passat.
But I need not have worried too much.
The Passat doesn’t have the presence, the uber solid feel, the stability that comes of being almost as wide as a bus. It is also manual making traffic a bind in a way that I’d long forgotten. But it is easy to drive, smooth, the air conditioning works, it has a great stereo (the Mercs was pretty good) and I can plug in my i-pod. I haven’t a clue what is determining what the i-pod is selecting, but for now that’s not a problem.
Playing with the lumbar support eventually created a comfortable seat – but on a properly long drive I’ll shift about a lot, slump down and stuff, so I guess I’ll need to be moving the lumbar gadget quite a lot.
I drove down to Birmingham yesterday for Bob’s meeting that was originally scheduled to be in London. This was no where near as glamorous! A pretty cool rented meeting suite, and good food by English standards, but after Paris there was no comparison. The full cast were London based, but multi national nonetheless.
I was chuffed that they were actually looking forward top hearing from me and asked me to give the same anecdotes as I had in Paris a few weeks back. It’s funny, I believe they listen to me more because I’m not part of the company. I suggested that to Bob last night and he agreed. He reckons that you can go back to a business that you’ve just left and then be paid twice as much, and listened to, as a consultant. What a wonderful world.
Today’s job is nothing like as interesting. I need to sort out some blinds for our bedroom in our flat. It’s a story I’ll tell later as I hadn’t realised that I’ve just breezed through a couple of hours of supposed work time just bumbling around the web. It’s so scarily easy to do!
I spent this morning calming a friend who had just been discussing VAT inspections with a colleague. Poor fellow was acting as if the revenue were already at his door. Mind I do understand as any vsit from teh guys in their grey suits is a scary affair.
He was keeping me from a new purchase at the time. A simple thing, but one about which I’m quite pleased. I went to Staples first thing and bought a few boring bits that I needed, but also bought an office chair. It’s hardly exciting I know, but I’ve been on one of our dining chairs for years and every day that I sat at my desk for more than an hour at a time I’d promise myself to buy a better solution.
The main difference is the height, this is taller so I don’t put as much weight on the desk, therefore my arms don’t get as tired. Then the arms on the chair help too, although I seem to only rest my right arm. Already though I’m wishing I’d bought one with an adjustable back rest, it feels like I’m sitting too far away.
The question now is – will Jon M G become a better businessman as a consequence of his new chair? Well, probably not, but I might just get a little more written.
I feel now that I’ve made light of my mate’s concern. I hope that didn’t come across when he was here. Poor fellow had too much coffee and was getting even more jittery by the time he left. Strange, i do that too at times, get myself right on edge, just through having a second or third cup – I even know it’s happening, but by then it’s usually too late.
In fact today was so quiet I don’t know why I’m sitting down to write about it now, I should have been jotting down thoughts as the day dragged along.
It was depressing, but not at all surprising that Standard and Poors downgraded Italy’s credit rating again today, and good old Vince Cable let his people know just how bad things are looking at the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham. It feels like the economic situation may be catching up with the ecological situation – both of which are in deep poo. I heard one of the radio station’s news today saying there is a one in six chance of Britain slipping back into recession – I was surprised the odds are as long, if they’d asked me I’d have suggested 50 50.
Slightly more jolly news content today was an ironic piece about the world’s cheapest car, a Tata (who also own ‘our’ Jaguar and Land Rover) which has been decorated by 30 Indian craftsmen with 80 kilos of gold and gems that have pushed its price to about £3m! Mad, fun, true.
And sticking with crazy cars – I loved the images of the new Jensen that is planned to be built by British company CPP. It looks just as you’d want a modern version of the 70′s giant to be, a bit longer, a bit sleeker.
I read somewhere that Apple and Bentley are working together on a concept for uber rich businessmen to travel and work in ultimate style. Can’t imagine I’ll ever get too close to one!
It’s been years since I went to a modern motor show, perhaps it’s time to go again next year. In the meantime – I’ll probably go to Birmingham for the classic show in the autumn. Plenty to write about there!
Perhaps the answer to my holiday woes has been handed to me on a plate?
I intended to get some quiet time over the weekend to research an alternative, more sensibly priced, holiday solution for us and then get a pile of points by proposing it out of the blue.
Rather foolishly I spent every night from Thursday onwards so drunk that I barely functioned next day and certainly didn’t do a single useful thing on the holiday front. On Saturday I swear I didn’t actually drink that much, but I couldn’t haul my sorry arse off the ground for most of the evening. It’s not like I’m feeling guilty or anything – I had a great old time, it’s just that I didn’t quite deliver on my household admin chores.
But not there’s the threat of a reorganisation at the good lady’s work, and while the likelihood of it actually having an adverse affect on her is very low, she’ll be far too worried to commit to a huge spend for something unnecessary like a holiday. Now she hasn’t actually told me all that, but I know it to be the case from previous experience. I reckon that what I need to do now is follow through on my idea to plan a trip with a couple of gites and paradours, present the idea in a couple of weeks time, and if all goes well I won’t hear mention of the Seychelles for a long long time – then I’ll need another escape plan!
I was chuffed yesterday to get a note back from Bob saying that I had obviously fought his corner well in Paris as things seemed to be going his way rather more easily than before the meeting. Better still is the likelihood that I’ll need to do a similar jaunt again in the next few weeks. Count me in!
Oh bloody hell!
I’m under oath not to name my partner in marital crime, but for now I’m going to call her Jacqui as she seems to have something of an Onasis complex (not for bits of the family getting murdered left right and centre). I had an email from her today that just had a link for Seychelles Holidays and the words “Over to you”.
Even Mr Grumpy Guts JMG has to admit that this is one amazing site with stunning locations, or at least stunning photography, but can we really afford to go there? Has Jacqui suddenly earned a good bonus that she’ll tell me about when she gets home?
She’s off in London tonight so I best have a good poke around the site and be able to speak with some degree of knowledge on the subject when she comes home tomorrow. And I’ll be cheeky and see what I can find in France and Spain so that I can propose a credible alternative, a couple of gites or paradours should do the job nicely, perhaps one of each so that we don’t drive too far every day.
The Sechelles does look completely wonderful, but it also looks like a lying in the sun kind of place, so why would I go so far to do that? I best prepare my argument well!
I had hope we’d be finished by 2 pm, but in actual fact lunch started at 1.30 and we sat being fed and carrying on the conversations of the meeting for ages after that. I left just before 4 and headed for the Louvre where I wanted to see an exhibition on the emperors of China and the kings of France. Luckily I saw a poster for it as I queued fro my ticket and realized that the exhibition doesn’t start for another week or so. Instead of going in I decided to go on a ramble around the streets, stopping at random for a beer, or un coup in the way that you just can’t do when you’re with other people. First up I headed over to Monmartre on the metro. I stayed there many years ago with a mate in his girlfriend’s flat – not my best memory, but I do remember the artists quarter being pretty cool, and it didn’t let me down. I was happy just watching the people all trying to out weird each other, and not just the young ones, the older folk were up to it too. It all seems quite strange that this was only yesterday. Today I’ve been back at the desk, but not doing much useful. I did take a bit of time to compare home insurance quotes and will actually save some money on insuring us from next month instead of facing the steep increase HSBC were trying to hit us with. It’s a bit of a shame really as otherwise I like HSBC, but that’s modern business isn’t it, and the whole principle of being rewarded for loyalty only seems to happen when it suits them.
Wow!
That was worth it just for the experience. If I knew how much fun it was going to be I would have done it even if I wasn’t being paid.
We were scheduled to start at 10.00 in the end. So like a good Englishman I got to the office at 9.45 – with my tie on by the way. And the others started rolling in after 10 and the meeting didn’t actually start until 10.30.
Bob told me I’d enjoy the eating experience as much as the actual meeting and he wasn’t wrong. There was an amazing breakfast of fruits and croissants, brioche, meats and cheeses, coffees, teas (just for me it seemed), and juices. And lunch? That was as good as you could hope for from a good restaurant let alone catering for a meeting.
The meeting was conducted in French and English, with no translation service. Fortunately, even though I’m far from fluent, my French is the only language I can claim to get by in and I don’t think I disgraced myself on that front.
I had prepared a couple of customer service set pieces, short case studies I’ve used in lectures in the past that truly demonstrate the benefit to the bottom line, as well as staff morale, of delivering great service. It affects both customer and colleague attrition, and I knew they hadn’t taken that into consideration when they were calculating the value of their cuts.
A German fellow truly leapt on my case and supported my every word, and there was support from a coupe of French too. No conclusion was reached, but I’m confident Bob will get good reports of how I stood his corner.
I’m now back at Charles De Gaulle, absolutely done it, but I’ve had a great day and I’m feeling good for it. If I’m quiet tomorrow I’ll tell you a bit about my walk around after the meeting.
I don’t do a lot of business travel, well, not out of the country anyway, and I’m at least a little excited.
Passport. Wallet. Cards. Best suit so as not to let the Brits down in the most chic of Paris districts. Do the French wear ties these days? No idea. I’ll take a couple, weigh up their dress on the Metro first thing in the morning, then either pop one on, or not.
I intend to just take a little bag so that I can leave it at the bank reception in the afternoon and then pick it up again on the way to the airport. Thankfully they are nothing like as paranoid as London banks where soon I suspect the idea of leaving a bag will need sanction by committee and will still risk the bag being destroyed before you return to collect it.
I was quite surprised to get a call from Carcraft this morning. I’d gone to see them a few weeks ago when I was looking at used cars at the time I was looking for a Vectra estate and the fellow I met said he’d call me next time a good one came in. It seems like he has now got just what I was looking for, but I committed to getting a Passat now. I should have collected it by now, but with the trip west, and then London, I haven’t got around to it yet. I was more excited last time I got a new bike than I am about this dear car.