Today I took it easy – body has adjusted to the European standard – so up 6AM – instead of 4AM.  

Check to see if my transcriptions of my store visits came back – and they did.   So, put together all my reviews into one documents.   I will have to re-read my thoughts later – but just reviewing the transcriptions – I was VERY glad that I was dictating my thoughts as I was going along.  I was quite tired yesterday – and had it not been for voice recording I would have forgotten 1/2 of the cool things I identified.   I guess this is one of those things where there is SOOOO much information – that it is hard to retain it all at once.  Especially in the way my mind works – where I focus on the big picture – but here – the marketing strategy is going to be made on Blink moments – and minute observations.  In fact, I predict now that some of the very ‘small’ things I noticed, will be the key success factors behind the projects.   AND, I would have missed them had I not recorded them right there and now.

I do remember feeling a bit silly, sitting in each store, with my Boss ear buds in my ears talking to myself.  The ear buds have a mike built in, but you cannot tell from a  distance.  So, I’m sure people looking at me though I was some weird mumble type, that would listen to music and mumble.  Ha!   I guess it was good that I was tired on that day, because I was quite focused on the work in front of me and not peoples reaction – I only had energy for one.

Needless to say, I got some real gems for the marketing strategy.   I will process it in a day or two and summarize it – move it from ‘retail’ world into actionable items in the ‘eworld’.

M… had asked me for a quick business plan, so I took a bit of time to think through it given the solidity of Genie.

I setup onehub.com workspace for Genie – to help us track tasks, project info etc.  Especially important for me is the tasks for M… and T…   They are such busy guys, and although in a way, they are paying me, its my job to make sure that I deliver – regardless of what, whom or what.   So, hoping that OneHub will help us stay organized across the distance.

Went through First Class check in at Frankfurt – extremely excellent.  Almost as good as a private jet.  Basically, they almost have a separate terminal for first class – a very small one – just like at private airports.   Security and check in are done right there and there – no waiting.  A personal assistant is assigned to you while you wait in the lounge.   The assistant handles all the ticketing, does the customs clearance and they personally shows you the lounge and facilities.  In this place, quite luxurious – sleeping bed, full bar, work rooms, showers (very nice) – and even a Jacuzzi.   When its time to board, the assistant personally comes and guides you to an S class, which then drives you up to the airplane.   Basically, the pain in the butt that I so dislike (checking, security, clearance, finding the gate) is completely eliminated.    This is not like that everywhere BUT its nice to know that its like that in Frankfurt – I have a feeling that my future flights into Frankfurt will be first, for no other reason, than this removal of the thing I quite despise (and that is this huge checking procedure).

While in the air, I nearly finished “What the Dog Saw” by my favorite guy, Malcolm Gladwell.

He analyzes everything, and looks for causations – I was reading a section about predicting things and related events and it triggered me to do this strange exercise – exercise to map out How it was that “Genie is go”.   Basically, I did a root cause analysis why I’m flying back to Beijing with this cool project.

Some interesting insights.   the picture below shows all the events, experience and people that have led to being able to do Genie.

I traced it back a long way back.   Basically, the green areas are the ‘root’ causes for getting the project:

1. Love of Work
2. Bert (my amazing boss and mentor at Valmet)
3. Love of learning
4. My Mom (yes, my mom!)
5. Facing death (for real) many times and still being here
6. Desire to Self Develop

In one of the arrows there is also ‘luck’ – meaning that had that one event not occurred due to pure ‘chance’ or ‘luck’ this whole thing would not have happened.  But ‘luck’ actually is just one connection (if you look deep you can see it as red dot in the middle).   Actually, some 50 other things (that were more less in my control) that had to happen as well.   So, did luck play part in this.  Yes.  How big a percentage.  About 1/50.  So 2% luck, 98% work!    Cool little exercise.    So, if you are interested to see how “Genie’ was possible you can download the detailed pdf or visio file.  

(add visio file and pdf here)