The trip to Dallas was fine. The weather was nice most of the time, but, by Thursday, when I went to the airport, it was 84 degrees. Too hot for early April, if you ask me.
I did a lot of work prior to my arrival and prepared as much as possible for the working session. This was a brain-storming cum decision-making exercise with some of the top people (Treasurer, Controller, Global Fin Ops Lead, Euro Fin Ops Lead, CIO, CRO) from my company so I wanted to be totally ready. It really didn't make a difference though because no one really looked at anything I put together. Everyone had his or her own agenda, and it was fairly chaotic at times. Trying to facilitate this meeting was a chore, to say the least.
We did accomplish most of what we wanted to do, but certainly not in the most orderly or productive fashion. "Top dogs" from a global, multi-billion dollar company are not used to listening, waiting or cooperating. Everyone likes to talk, talk, talk and, then, hand out orders. It was interesting to watch the pecking order in action. You could tell very quickly who had respect for whom and, conversely, who had very little respect for whom. Power, surely, is intoxicating, and I guess not everyone can wield it gracefully or tactfully. Shit really does roll downhill, and, during these days, waiting at the bottom of the hill was yours truly. Therefore, I received the least amount of polite exchange and, basically, all of the to-do's. What fun.
I did see some cool stuff, in a nerdy way, while working in Dallas. The bulk of our C-suite is located in Dallas so this office is, by far, one of our best. It's a great place to work, and it still has some of the amentities that have been removed from other offices. Also, while walking the halls, I bumped into our CFO, which is rare, and I saw our boardroom and the new CEO office space. I also saw the official listing certificate from the NYSE hanging on the boardroom wall and a bunch of awards that we received from this and that. Our CEO was around on Thursday, but huddled in his office after globe-trotting all week so didn't see him. It was cool to come across people or see things that, prior, I only saw or heard about on websites.
With all that, I did get to go out one night, but it was by myself and only for a couple of hours. I went to the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas to decompress and get some food. I ate at Cafe Brazil and had a Brazilian breakfast for dinner (empanada, eggs, potatoes, jalapeno peppers, etc.). After that, I walked around for a bit and, then, stopped at Insomnia to have a cup of espresso and read my book (still chipping away at The Man with the Golden Arm). I'm very glad that I went to the city one night. It made the trip worth it, to a small degree.
I did a lot of work prior to my arrival and prepared as much as possible for the working session. This was a brain-storming cum decision-making exercise with some of the top people (Treasurer, Controller, Global Fin Ops Lead, Euro Fin Ops Lead, CIO, CRO) from my company so I wanted to be totally ready. It really didn't make a difference though because no one really looked at anything I put together. Everyone had his or her own agenda, and it was fairly chaotic at times. Trying to facilitate this meeting was a chore, to say the least.
We did accomplish most of what we wanted to do, but certainly not in the most orderly or productive fashion. "Top dogs" from a global, multi-billion dollar company are not used to listening, waiting or cooperating. Everyone likes to talk, talk, talk and, then, hand out orders. It was interesting to watch the pecking order in action. You could tell very quickly who had respect for whom and, conversely, who had very little respect for whom. Power, surely, is intoxicating, and I guess not everyone can wield it gracefully or tactfully. Shit really does roll downhill, and, during these days, waiting at the bottom of the hill was yours truly. Therefore, I received the least amount of polite exchange and, basically, all of the to-do's. What fun.
I did see some cool stuff, in a nerdy way, while working in Dallas. The bulk of our C-suite is located in Dallas so this office is, by far, one of our best. It's a great place to work, and it still has some of the amentities that have been removed from other offices. Also, while walking the halls, I bumped into our CFO, which is rare, and I saw our boardroom and the new CEO office space. I also saw the official listing certificate from the NYSE hanging on the boardroom wall and a bunch of awards that we received from this and that. Our CEO was around on Thursday, but huddled in his office after globe-trotting all week so didn't see him. It was cool to come across people or see things that, prior, I only saw or heard about on websites.
With all that, I did get to go out one night, but it was by myself and only for a couple of hours. I went to the Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas to decompress and get some food. I ate at Cafe Brazil and had a Brazilian breakfast for dinner (empanada, eggs, potatoes, jalapeno peppers, etc.). After that, I walked around for a bit and, then, stopped at Insomnia to have a cup of espresso and read my book (still chipping away at The Man with the Golden Arm). I'm very glad that I went to the city one night. It made the trip worth it, to a small degree.
posted by Brian at 1:40 PM
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