RBS ;-) This is my favourite bank. Why? I don't know.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Global Banking & Markets is a leading banking partner to major corporates and financial institutions around the world. We provide a full range of debt financing, risk management and investment services.

Our approach is built on innovative and flexible thinking, extensive resources and an unrelenting focus on client relationships.

Hi Amber,

You seem to be a cool girl! I am Italian, 28, I like travelling too and my favourite sport is skiing, I was born in the alps, not far from Switzerland.

I've been in London for almost 5 years, I have a new cool job starting on Monday I am excited about and I'd like to meet a nice and pretty girl to go out with.

This is my blog, it's not serious, the girl in the photo is Emuline, my vitual PA, she doesn't exist: http://andreamckinsey.blogspot.com/

Andrea is my virtual name, I picked it because in Italy it's a boy name, in the UK is a girl name, so people don't quite know if I'm a boy or a girl and it's funny and McKinsey because of the strategy consultancy.

I like going out for dinner and cooking at home, I like books, I go to the gym and I like partying.

I like business but I'm not geeky, I am creative but not twisted, I promise!

Bye,
AM

What do you think?

Everything needs to be put in context. We are animals, of an intelligent type sometimes but still with animal instincts. We feel for things, we love, hate, feel guilt, feel shame, feel good sometimes too. Friendship is part of all this, instincts, feelings, nature. If we find someone attractive and we want to be friends it ultimately means they fulfil some conscious or unconscious need. Think people, sex is a form of communication and if you do it means there is something you want to say to the other person. Think!

Joys & troubles of a decision maker: my IDEAL job (almost..) - how can I become a CMO?

I love marketing...

Everything to do with marketing and communication is my job: PR, analyst relations, solutions marketing, alliance marketing, branding, and advertising.

I have internal clients only, I report to the CEO for the European region, my clients include country leaders, industry leaders, I help them understanding business and prioritising. As a company we target Global 2000 organizations, 400 of those are in Europe.

We do management consulting, business process optimisation, system integration, managed services. With regards to management consulting we do internal operations optimisation, billing, CRM, supply chain. We also help clients going to market, this is one of our services too or, for instance, we help them setting up a manufacturing plant in India, off shoring and some outsourcing.

We have a presence in the whole of Europe, we don't have an office everywhere, but we have 14 offices covering the most important markets, we reach the other markets through alliances, we have an indirect channel in place with the 3 large software vendors.

I have 24 marketing professionals in Europe, and I think about 30 sales.

I am not a big buyer, we tend to do everything in house and I feel I am more of a provider than a user.

The company as a whole is facing a European economy which still isn't strong, price pressures, fees per hour are decreased 40% compared to 3-4 years ago, the system integration business is getting commoditised, with management consulting we still make good margins but we lost a bit there, a few contracts are gone, in outsourcing and managed services we can't position ourselves like some of our bigger competitors, we have a smaller scale and we tend to do more of advisory, small scale, in-source, axe management services than large outsourcing deals. We are under pressure for profitability issues, we have recently reorganised with new CEO, CFO, and 3 VPs, and we have streamlined the business and cut costs.

My department challenges are: no brand awareness in Europe, no great budget for major advertising campaigns on the FT or similar, we need to do very targeted small branding campaigns, we need a more focused account centric marketing (this means a market won't be 20 companies, but we will treat each company as a market, increasing account focus and profitability).

We do communication marketing and we go to market by sector. We have: consumer and industrial technology, financial services, public sector, communication content & media. We need to be more focused and very cost effective.

We do pipeline measurement by campaign, we see how many leads get turned into an opportunity, and we use a customised Siebel CRM.

More specifically for field marketing we do pipeline management and track percentage of bookings, for communication marketing we measure on number of hits on target journals, total PR hits in the media and we employ some companies specialised on PR effectiveness measurement that track the company exposure in the press.

We need to grow existing business and look for new one, the SME will be a target in Germany and the US where we will set up alliances, but we need to increase the number of major clients too.

Profitability and revenues are the priority.

We employ strategists, people who can manage a team, people who can manage a project, events, people who can write, telesales related campaign professionals, field marketing specialists who can identify the business.

We do a number of activities, from 1 day hospitality events to 6-9 months major campaigns.

I don’t buy much as I am under cost pressure, I need to do a lot with little, I need to focus resources carefully to maximise ROI.

We buy PR services, writing and printing of marketing material, thought leadership through an association we are part of. I don't buy research as this is centralised.

We also buy offshore support, India based or China based marketing operations support, things like pipeline management, campaign process management.
I am open minded, I don't have a lot of budget but I am willing to learn what there is available in the market.

We use small companies, we do loads in house and we buy research from the usual (specialised providers).

I am pretty satisfied with what I buy, which at the moment isn't much.

There are 2 main decision makers, the European COO and myself.


COOL...!

Decisions, decisions, decisions..

I have to make a couple of very important decisions that might have a big impact on my life and career. I think the best way to handle this difficult and important period of my life is to take some time and carry out due-diligence on the opportunities and, once gathered enough elements to properly understand pros and cons of each potential decision, follow my instinct and GO FOR IT! And then stick to it.

As part of the due diligence process, I’m talking to some people I trust and admire. Their help has already been very useful, they provided practical as well as more philosophical “big picture” tips and ideas.

This from my best German friend, M&A transactional lawyer T.


The Road Not Taken
Poem lyrics of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

My Favourite Entrepreneur is a Marketing guy with a huge Brand - and he's unconventional

Richard Branson, founder and chairman of London-based Virgin Group, didn't breeze through school. In fact, school was something of a nightmare for him. His scores on standardized tests were dismal, pointing to a dismal future. He was embarrassed by his dyslexia and found his education becoming more and more difficult. He felt as if he had been written off.

However, his educators failed to detect his true gifts. His ability to connect with people on a personal level, an intuitive sense of people, was not detected until a frustrated Richard Branson started a student newspaper with fellow student Jonny Gems. The incredible success of the Student was but the start of a richly diverse and successful career.

Despite the difficulties and challenges posed by his dyslexia, by focusing on his inner talents, Richard Branson successfully overcame his difficulties. From his first taste of success and believing in himself, Richard Branson never looked back.

http://www.officepolitics.com

Office-Politics® is the game everyone plays... except you! Who's going to teach you how to play office-politics in the nasty world of corporate sharks and shenanigans? The Office-Politics Game, of course! It's a fast-paced, fun, dilemma based game that may have you shaking your head in disbelief as you learn the inside secrets on how your friends, family and coworkers play Office-Politics.

The Office-Politics Dilemmas have been inspired by the hundreds of letters submitted to Office-Politics.com -- and some 'true life' stories from the news! And the mischief making OP cards (Backstab, Boss' Favorite and White Knight) ensure player's competitive streak will emerge

Ohh boss, I love you so much!

Don't we all love our bosses? I had a BOSS once, who was very powerful and had a huge personality. I loved him and I hated him at the same time. Our relationship lasted 2.5 years and it was very rewarding, both for me (sometimes etremely frustrating though..) and for him (as I was a very profitable resource).

Here one of the last emails (slightly changed for confidentiality reasons)

Dear BOSS,

I hope you are well. I haven’t written to you for quite a long time, since we worked together on the last business development campaign. I have been reading a lot in the past few months, including strategy books (Competitive Strategy – Porter, Foundations of Corporate Success – Kay, books on small business strategy, inside stories of management consultants etc… and I am now on the meaty volume of “Marketing Management” by Kotler), I also attend events on a regular basis and I am always researching the internet for papers, forums and other stimuli.

I often think about BOSS COMPANY, the fact we work for the best tier 1 technology companies and what we do is innovative and intelligent. I have a concern now and I need to try to communicate this to you.

I don’t know what are your plans for the future of BOSS COMPANY, last time we talked you mentioned you weren’t in decision making mood and I don’t know you well enough to understand what your priorities are now.

I have tried to analyse BOSS COMPANY in the most objective possible way (trying not to get involved with emotions too much).
I have loads of ideas about the company, too difficult would be for me to try to outline everything in this email. I know we work in a very fragmented industry with low entry barriers and lots of freelance/small companies as competition; because of this large clients like HP, Nokia, SAP… have a great buying power and they put big pressure on price. I also feel that considering the 4 generic company strategies (invest, hold, harvest, divest) it looks like you probably are harvesting the company?

What is not completely clear to me is where the company is going, in terms of product strategy. It seems BOSS COMPANY is in between a “cost” strategy, working in the commodity market, cheap to produce, very competitively priced (like the SME type of projects) - this justify the use of average contract staff for research -; and a “differentiation” strategy, based on higher value add and creativity (account profiling type of work, real consulting + workshops and potentially other high value services) which requires good skills in the company and which, to mitigate the risk of delivery failure, would justify the vertical integration of primary research and the attraction of new skills, with higher fixed costs, effort on recruiting, training and retaining good employees etc. (This doesn’t work well with an harvesting generic strategy). It seems to me we are now somewhere in between cost and differentiation. According to Porter there is a risk of being “stuck in the middle” and so to lose competitive advantage.

I understand that if you are harvesting, (and looking to divest and exit the industry, or work as a consultant on you own), this strategy could work for now, but if you are looking to stay with BOSS COMPANY, I think something should be re-evaluated.

I have attached a small document that really stimulated my thoughts and that I would like you to have. I think BOSS COMPANY is in the Go-Go stage, as I recognise some traits (see below for attachment, June 24). I welcome any feedback on this. I am starting the SAP project again tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------

What do u do with your boss? Do you talk to him in an honest and direct way when you feel it's needed? I do. I guess it's matter of wording what you have to say in a sensitive fashion.. I think I know how to do it now!

Anyway, thanks BOSS I learnt so much from you...

Internet reputation???

Do you care of what people know about you? Do you like to shine and always seek popularity or prefer to remain in the shade? How many names do you have ;-) ?

I have a great first name I truly love, it's cool and easy to remember. I really don't like my last name though..

Anyway, a good piece of advice, if you care...

"Growing Number Of Job Searches Disrupted By Digital Dirt.

According to a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters conducted by ExecuNet, an executive recruiting network, 77% use search engines to learn more about candidates. Of those who use sites such as Google and Yahoo! to check the background of job seekers, 35% have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on the information uncovered online – up significantly from 26% just one year ago."

We all love those networking websites and forums don't we? Or better, we never heard of them and one day we do, we register for a trial period and find out 70% of the subscribers are.. well.. nice people but you wouldn't want to be associated with, just in case..

Do you care?

I am slowly becoming more posh, my clients are very, but in a cool and smart way, not boring or old-fashioned (some maybe, but most aren't). So I do care, but not too much, if u're cool u can do anything you like, right?

Communication: Art or Science?

Communicating with others is an essential skill in business dealings, friendships, family affairs, and romantic relationships. Are you a dynamic people person that can understand others and get your message across loud and clear? YES!

Communication is the process of exchanging information and ideas. An active process, it involves encoding, transmitting, and decoding intended messages. There are many means of communicating and many different language systems. Speech and language are only a portion of communication. Other aspects of communication may enhance or even eclipse the linguistic code. These aspects are paralinguistic, nonlinguistic, and metalinguistic. Paralinguistic mechanisms signal attitude or emotion and include intonation, stress, rate of delivery, and pause or hesitation. Nonlinguistic clues include gestures, body posture, facial expression, eye contact, head and body movement, and physical distance or proxemics. Metalinquistic cues signal the status of communication based on our intuitions about the acceptability of utterances. In other words, metalinguistic skills enable us to talk about language, analyze it, think about it, separate it from context, and judge it.

In order to grow beyond the early stages, a company must become less reliant on its founder

Material for this article was taken from one of his nine books, Managing Corporate Lifecycles.


Like any other organization, family businesses undergo life cycle stages. They are born, they grow and - unless management knows how to adapt - they wither and die.
As a business evolves from one stage to the next, problems inevitably arise. They result from change and can be predicted, just as a parent can predict how a two-year-old or a teenager will behave.
Although it is tempting to forestall problems by resisting change, that would be tantamount to committing organizational suicide. Instead, family business leaders must guide the necessary change that creates new problems, structure the organization to solve them and prepare to change again and to have new problems.
Family business founders are the glue that holds their company together. But as the business grows, that glue no longer binds the entire company - there simply is not enough of it. The organization must design new, depersonalized "glue" by institutionalizing leadership.
A family company must change from management by-intuition and management-by-the-seat-of-the-pants to a more professional process. Companies that fail to make this shift fall into the "family trap." These family businesses are primed for a crisis.
Here's where "family trap" problems arise in the three earliest stages of a company's life cycle.

Courtship

The courtship stage precedes the organization - when the company exists only as an idea. During this stage, the founder builds commitment while testing the idea on others. Near fanatical commitment is necessary for a successful courtship without it, a company can break apart in tough times. But later in the life cycle, commitment can become pathological.
Consider a startup business that chronically loses money because its product is poorly positioned. It must adapt in response to customer needs.
The founder, who is technically brilliant but inept at marketing, resists the adjustment. The more he denies reality, the deeper into trouble his company sinks.
Founders must recognize when it's time to adapt their dreams to reality. Successful founders are highly committed but also willing to learn from experience.

Infancy

A family business changes dramatically in its infancy, when it must shift from ideas to results. The infant company hasn't mastered time management yet; it responds to the squeakiest wheel (management by crisis).
Managers of infant companies, who tend to be product rather than sales-oriented, keep tinkering with the technology. It's a neverending process not of continual improvement, but of continual perfectionism. A sales orientation usually doesn't develop until the next life-cycle stage, but if it's delayed too long, the business will fail.
The family ethic dominates; everyone is on a first-name basis, with little hierarchy. There are no systems for evaluating performance, particularly of family members.
The organization lacks managerial depth and has no capable leaders to replace its founder. It has no track record, so a mistake in product design, sales, service or financial planning - which is highly probable-can have fatal repercussions.
The enthusiasm typical of founders during courtship often leads to undercapitalization during infancy. Entrepreneurs project extravagant sales and conservative capital needs. Instead of planning for the worst and hoping for the best - as they should – they plan for the best and expect it. The family's collective enthusiasm sustains the delusion.
The problem grows more acute when the company succeeds, since the more it sells, the more working capital it needs to finance its receivables and inventory.
Founders constantly face problems they are ill prepared for: dissatisfied customers, lousy suppliers, reluctant bankers, unproductive family members and employees. Their commitment to the venture is tested daily. With few policies and an expedient need for cash, they develop bad habits and make decisions that set precedents. If the organization is to develop, its management must also develop. That means change.

Go-Go

The founder's hard work, refusal to delegate and emphasis on short-term results are the crucial elements of organizational survival during infancy. But those same traits can stifle a company during the next stage in its life cycle - the go-go stage.
Measured in terms of sales, the go-go company is successful. Climbing sales are proof that the product works. Proud of their success, founders want to extend their reach and move beyond the day-to-day operations. Bored with the details of running their organizations, they yearn for the excitement of courtship and infancy, when everything was new.
Go-go companies are organized around people rather than tasks. Leaders of these businesses react to opportunities rather than position themselves to exploit future opportunities they create. Family members are assigned tasks based on availability rather than competence. Decisions are made in piecemeal fashion under duress, with expediency the ruling factor. Under such conditions, how can anyone really know who's supposed to do what? Whenever a question arises, only one person can provide the answer: the founder.
At this stage, the organizational structure must change. Appropriate functions must be identified and an evaluation conducted to determine who should perform those functions. To institutionalize the process, family business owners must ask some hard questions:

* What is our vision?
* What do we stand for as a company?
* What is our plan for the future?
* How should the company be structured to achieve our plan?

Consider this case example: A family construction .business had hired six chief financial officers in five years. The founding brothers had repeatedly hired managers with financial experience, but they were all too much like the brothers-entrepreneurial types who were unable to implement operational systems and controls. The first step was to fix the structure, then bring in appropriate hires. After going through the sequence above, they formed a long-term plan and were able to restructure their organization, hiring managers with complementary strengths to help them achieve their goals.

The complicated dynamic of the go-go stage is that founders want to escape day-to-day management, but they don't want to yield control, even to other family members. So what happens? The founders distance themselves incrementally, but no one else has the authority (or the courage) to make decisions. Go-go leaders believe that after they delegate authority, their children or subordinates will run the show. So they take off-but not forever or for a predictable amount of time.
When they return, all hell breaks loose. The changes made in their absence displease them; the founders always have better ideas. They quickly re-centralize power; only to disappear again to take care of their latest outside project. Afraid of being reprimanded for taking initiative, the subordinates do nothing. When the go-go leaders reappear, they're frustrated over the lack of progress in their absence.

Escaping from the trap

To escape from the family trap, organizations must move from an absolute familial monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. What makes this so difficult is that most founders do nothing to facilitate the transition. It's hard for them to believe that anyone else can pick up the torch and continue the level of commitment and capability they have invested in the organization. As one family business CEO told me, "You can never see' the picture you and your family are in it."
For a family business caught in a family trap, the death of the patriarch likely means the death of the company. A family trap can also develop when the company fails to separate ownership from management and a family member takes over on the basis of bloodlines rather than competence. Defection by the professional managers follows shortly.
Our firm was hired to help a company that had been founded 20 years earlier by three brothers. The brother who had had the original idea for the business had the strongest commitment and entrepreneurial skills; he had assumed the role of CEO and primary decision-maker. After two decades, he wanted to step back from day-to-day operations. Although he wanted his older brother to take the reins, he was acutely aware of the brother's shortcomings, so he was reluctant to relinquish leadership.
We suggested delegating authority to an executive committee, composed of key employees in the organization whose managerial styles were different from, but complementary to, the CEO's. This made delegation easier because the deficiencies of a single person could be overcome by the competence of the group as a whole. Delegating to a team can also provide the CEO with built-in control mechanisms to keep him abreast of-and provide veto power over-agendas and decisions.

Ownership vs. management

Leaders of go-go organizations typically feel invincible. They spin off in a dozen different directions, rarely aware that they are constantly teetering on the brink of disaster. These business leaders must force themselves to set priorities and develop policies.
For family businesses in particular, an important step is to recognize the distinction between ownership and management. A board of directors with both family and outside members is highly recommended. The inclusion of non-family members is an important step toward institutionalizing leadership. It also requires a certain degree of maturity on the part of the family. The presence of outide directors forces the CEO to report on the company's operations and be accountable for results.
For families not yet ready to bring in outside board members, an intermediate step can involve creation of a family-only board to facilitate strategic decision making and help the family grow accustomed to the structure. Once family members are comfortable with the change, outside directors can be added.
Successful management means continually solving problems. Learning which problems typically arise in a company's various life-cycle stages can help you predict what lies ahead for your business, manage your time better and avoid the family trap.

Hi Want Alpha

Long only funds, whether passive indexed or active stock pickers, are an UNACCEPTABLE risk if you care about your money and want a reliable, consistent return. Even then, if you are a speculator and insist on having some money in mutual funds, you STILL need hedge funds to get adequate diversification.The purpose of hedge funds is to provide another source of performance, completely independent of market direction... I'm lovin it!

Great Person?

To be confident you have to think that, from a human point of view, you have lots to offer to the world. I am Italian, and so my English accent isn't from Oxford and sometimes people pick on this. I don't care because I know that a large component of communication skills is body language for instance. I also know that compared to many more standard people with a more standard English accent I am more original and people tend to remember me. Why aren't you confident? Try to think of what you can offer to the world, to a friend, a girlfriend, your boss. And don’t be too concerned about making mistakes, everyone does, even the top politicians and CEOs. I make lots of mistakes and as long as you try to learn from them and not make the same ones again, it’s fine and people forget! One more thing, don’t take yourself or anyone too seriously, and try to have fun in every context and situation. You’ll come across as a lot more relaxed and confident and you’ll instantly communicate this to everyone in the room. One last thing, as an exercise, try to be a little more daring, call an old friend you haven’t contacted for ages and ask him/her out, pick up the phone, call McKinsey and Co and ask to speak with the Head of Recruitment and say you have the potential to be a Leader. I have done it once and it’s great, didn’t get through to the head of recruitment and don’t work for McKinsey now but I can tell you the person I spoke with really got impressed by my approach and gave me recognition! And now reply to this post and tell everyone what a great person you are!

Nature Consulting - MBA Futures (From Top-Consultant.com)

I have regularly posted on Top-Consultant for 7 months. I challenged consultants and recruiters, I learnt so much and my confidence has grown. The only post that was deleted from the forum:


Nature Consulting, the best, fairest and most value add consulting on the globe!
We can offer you a varied selection of good looking consultants, or less good looking, with or without bricks, more or less funny, more or less cocky, more or less affectionate. The choice is yours. Nature Consulting is also a professional advisory firm that can support you in the strategic decision of your needs, to better fulfil them with the absolute variety and choice the world can now offer!

Was it too direct? Because I used the word cocky? I was back from Milan, where I helped my ex girlfriend setting up and shooting a TV program for the Discovery channel and I had exposure to the fashion world, I met the Italian director of the largest model management agency, I met a Russian model, an American stylist and many PR and press office people. I thought model management wasn't that far from management consulting afterall!



This is one of my favourite pieces. It was the time when the MBA marketing machine was really annoying too much:

Large consulting organizations have a big buying power compared to single consumers and the same could work for MBA seats. A large consultancy could identify a number of tier-2 fully accredited schools that are still not as expensive as Harvard but have the potential to grow in reputation over the next few years. They will then buy MBA seats for future years, lets take the year 2010 as an example. If an MBA at one of those schools cost 15K today, the large organization buying many seats in advance all together can get a price per seat of 10 or 12K for the year 2010.

These “Futures” can be then assigned to a number of new or existing employees as perks (like the Bupa healthcare or the pension). The employees will see the price of their MBA Future increase or decrease according to the business school reputation and the education market in 2010.

When the 2010 comes, after 3-4 years working with the same consultancy, the MBA Future can be disposed by the employee and either used, or sold in the MBA Futures market. Could this work?

Benefit for the Business schools is to get cash for investments now and create a bigger market for themselves, for the consultancies (knowledge intensive users) it is a strategic investment into the education market, for the employees it would be good to see there is going to be a prize for loyalty.

I am bored today and going through some of the stuff I wrote in the past. I picked this among the many:

Virtual Covering Letter


I am a Marketing & Business Development Consultant, working with global IT and Telecom organisations implementing market entry, account penetration and partner development strategies, as well as working with clients to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing initiatives and benchmarking their positioning and performance against competition.

I have been working for a small consultancy for over 2 years and looking to do something new and progress my career.

I have an entrepreneurial spirit and would like to start up my own company but I need more experience first, 4 years business experience are a good foundation but not enough.. Well the reality is that I don't have the guts to go solo now!

I have recently done a business and financial plan for a staffing agency providing IT contractors to system integrators and final clients, it looks good on paper but the working capital is high and, again, I don't have the confidence to do that. I could even get a grant from the council or another public institution if I decided to open an office in Lambeth for instance and it would be very cheap to set up but… the factoring exposure and the risks involved are quite a concern!

I also thought about setting up a marketing agency that provides a converged, integrated sales and marketing service, combining in depth market research, lead generation and direct marketing, up to sales deal facilitation and closure.

The b2b sales and marketing service market is slowly converging. We traditionally have 6 main separate players offering different but complementary services: Branding and advertising, PR, Market Research/Benchmarking, Telemarketing/Lead generation, direct marketing-mailings, events and hospitality management. (Have I missed any other important one?)

The same service provider can carry out a market study profiling decision makers (market research) who will be targeted after the study by a “key findings report” (direct marketing) and subsequently followed up by a sales call (telemarketing). If the same company has got the capabilities of organising an event with the same decision makers the lead/opportunity generation is bigger, if the same company can also facilitate the rapport building between the decision makers and the client it’s proper consulting. The company could even help with proposal writing and after sales! Not sure there is such a company that can take a client from in depth market research to sales deal through a structured, multiphase business development campaign. (Please let me know if there are many companies that do this already!)

I have experience of structuring complex business development campaigns that open up new revenue opportunities. I can apply the same methodology and experience to any types of product or service sales. The basic structure of all types of sales is to study a given sector, market, account and decision maker to deeply understand needs and priorities with your service offering in mind, to structure a value proposition that fulfils or helps to fulfil some of these needs. Doing it, following a determined but flexible structure, can take the decision maker on a journey of discovery that helps him/her setting or articulating his/her needs and priorities. The journey itself is the sales process, and if the journey is a value experience, the pitching of the service will be simple to do.

I would like to work as an associate for a start-up or niche company, well backed and well run, in the area of marketing, IT consulting, new-media. Something creative and innovative but where the director has got a commercial and practical ability too, I think many early stages start-ups are too "creative" and not enough focused on the bottom line!

At the same time I am looking for a more standard job in the corporate world, or for an already established mid-market organisation. Some of my friends are telling me I am too young to join a start-up and the best I could do is to work for a Plc where I can get good training, get a better grasp of corporate culture and politics, more stability and security for 3-4 years, and then go solo.

What do you guys think would be the best option at this stage? I have four years business experience, after graduating in 2001. Please help!

Bye bye babe

I am single again, after almost 2.5 years of relationship, very rewarding for over 2 years. I ended it before Christmas and it was the right thing to do. It hurts a bit and feels a bit lonely now but 2006 will bring a gorgeous new amore, among everything else. I am back in the market, well it will probably take a while before it can feel right again, after such a long time with the same girl, but Spring is just around the corner... bring it on!

I will need a more structured and normal girl next time, no TV producers anymore. In love, as life, to follow your instinct is mostly the best thing to do, and to get into it with enthusiasm, dedication and passion is paramount to experience the real thing. The risk is to get hurt though, and it happens. Real love, and real life, similarly to business, isn’t for the faint-hearted. If you really go for it you make a big investment and expose yourself to others and when it works out is amazing but when it doesn't... But every time something goes wrong you learn, and you get older and better at judging people and situation and it gets easier, doesn’t it? I did learn quite a lot this time and I know what kind of girl I need now.

What sort of life do you want? And what sort of lifestyle? And what girlfriend?


People lifestyles and mood swings:


Normal People: Quite OK - OK - Quite OK - OK - Quite OK - OK - Up - Down - Quite OK - OK ...

(Mostly quite OK to bored and boring, these people are the majority, they enjoy some sporadic highlights but feel more comfortable not to risk too much and remain in mediocrity)


TV People: Very Up - Very Down - Very Up - Very Down - Very Up - Very Down ..

(My ex-girlfriend, living for today, intense experiences but too many problems, the risk of being burnt out quickly and lack of direction. Exciting but dangerous, good for a while but serious life restructuring needed after a few years - good luck babe).


My future girlfriend: Up - OK - Up - OK - Very Up - Down - Up - OK - Up - OK - Very Up - Down - Up - OK - Up - OK

(Not many people are like this, but I am ambitious. She is intelligent and dynamic, had some well solved troubles and real life experiences in the past, she is now looking for a more mature kind of excitement and greater challenges without being boring or belonging to the Opus Dei).


In the meantime I'll try to live the single life to the full, I am not ready to take on full time employment straight away and need to do some contracting so ... if you're up for something casual ... you'll find me in decent bars primarily in Fulham, Clapham and Central London, probably out with a guy who looks like me but he's not my brother. See you then!