Once More ... With Passion

Clutter You Carry !

2009-02-24T16:40:00.003Z

So as I mentioned below.
Im back on the road quite a bit @ the mo.
And by the end a week I’m pretty strung out and on my arse, and can’t wait to get home.
So, I was ruminating on some the clutter I carry around with on my travels.

Some Examples:

My chunk of Aotearoa, greenstone that hangs around my neck – that bruv Bill gave me, before the gloaming took him. - Its to keep me safe on all my journeys over open water.
The 'Gren' Aberflyhalf Travelling Sheep – that my niece gave me to remind me of who I am, where I come from, and who loves me in this world. - He lives what ever away bag I’m using, and likes having his piccie taken in pretty locations
My girlfriends little ipod shuffle – in stunning hot pink, to make me keep going to the gym.

So why do I carry these little pices of my life ?
Each one holds special memories, and kicks off its own set of thought patterns, especially when I’m far away from home.

Lets take just one and show you a bit more detail.

The candy hot pink iPod shuffle

Gf and I went off on a 9 month adventure travelling all the way around this spinney blue thing of ours.
Part of the plan was to hook up with friends we know all over the planet, spend time with them and chill.
The final destination, before sealing the knot and taking the last flight to home **, was to visit the Taylor Massive in Virginia.
And we had a total ball – so much so, we’ve gone back on numerous occasions since.

During the gig there, we spent far less time than we thought, stocking up on new clothes and toys n stuff. But Gf bought this dinky shuffle, and Team Taylors set about filling it with the cool tunes we’d spent the week chilling out in the Garden to.
The idea was I’d copy the on to my iTunes instance, when we got home – hasn’t happened yet !!

So, every time I give it a turn, I think of a number of things.
How lucky I am to have a fantastic Gf who’s cool about some of my more stupid ideas – like lest F* off around the world for nearly a year !!.
How lucky I am to have ‘family’ like GnL, RnJ, & TT, who make you so so welcome when you appear on their doorstep, in a faintly strung out and bedraggled state.

And how F*in awesome the grooves on this ‘ting are !!

Cheers

jonron

**By this time, I will admit the shadow of ‘Hireath’ walked tall with me, and I was very keen to touch my homeland again.

Homeward Bound

2009-02-04T09:21:00.003Z

So . . . . at the moment I'm working mainly in Turkey.

This means I usually get home (all being well) via Hamsterjam at around 11.30 pm on a friday night, after a hell of a long week. So my desire to pick up a computer to do anything other than check ive been paid, is vastly reduced over a weekend - so appologies !!

Anyway. Did any of you catch this - >-< -

What they faied to mention is that the 'welcome' home was 30,000 rampaging Turks taking over the Airport @ 2am.

So this beg a few questions, who told them, who mobilised them, where did they all park, and whats it got to do with me ?

Seems the rolling national news (TV and Radio) channels reported the PM storming out, and published his arrival time back @ Attaturk. The individual local party cells in downtown Istanbul mobilised their network and 'encouraged' people to welcome the PM home - I initally thought this was a rent a mob gathering, but there were placards, palistiniane flags blended onto turkish flags, this was well thought out and very contrived !!

They blocked the 6 lane highway for 2km heading into the airport and abandoned their cars and walked to arrivals.

And whats this got to do with me. Well I was trying to catch the very early flight to Hamsterjam, and initally got caught up in the blocked road, then the taxi driver provided me with the most thrilling ride of my carrer to date in Istanbul (and for those of you who have been in taxi's in Istanbul, you will knoe exactly what I meen). Reversing backwards (at speed) down the outside lane of a a major highway, fording the central reservation, going straight over a very large over roundabout, and dinging about 10 stationalry cars. I then had to walk the last 1/.2k into the terminal around the cheering mod - fantastic fun :-)

And my comment on the subject the Turkish PM stromed out of Davos on ?

Suffice to say, good on him, and I hope the UN brings war crimes charges . . .

This much I know . .

2008-10-24T07:48:00.003Z

Everyone Needs A Plan B !

Never End On A Vanish

..... And now its February already

2008-02-05T17:57:00.000Z

January is a strange month.
It sorta appears on the back of a six day hangover, and results in at least two days more....
Then we all go back to work, and immediately wonder - bugger where did that time go !!!

Then the bank account looks like the pixies have been using scythes to manage it, the main colour I can see its RED, followed by more RED, so the desperation for pay day quickly gathers momentum.

Added to this, ive been re-mortgaging, bought a new (note to those who know - Not a replacement) car, paid a hunk of debt of a credit card (thanks Tower!!), accidentally generated a wheel barrow load of bank interest (thanks again Tower !!), and spend a weekend helping an old friend move house.

So we reach month end, pop over into Feb, and ive still not updated this blog, fixed the wall fittings, ordered the new carpet, finished painting the stairs and started scanning my bnw negatives of my trip to Oz, Nz and Easter Island. On top of that ive committed to a 1/2 marathon @ the end of March, and want to grab a holiday in the sun for a week before a go mad with SAD...And thats before we start talking about the newish gig and my role - which is turnin out kinda funky @ the mo.

So it all adds up to go, go, go. Shezz I'm gonna need a break form reality @ this rate.......

chat more soon.

2007-12-06T10:43:00.000Z

Strange week, this week.
Been trying to get to grips with the wonderful 'brave' new world of Enterprise 2.0 technology, while @ the same time trying to ascertain on how that will effect the project management of 'solution delivery'. Will it change @ all ? - I bloody well hope so .....
Theres a hell of a lot of snake oil around enterprise 2.0, and you can already see the ex-phocopier salesmen rubbing their hands @ any of the conferences you go to (new technology - same old message - same old 'sales strategies', same old remuneration model ) licence sales = new bmw, new house in spain, 4 golf vacations per year, and what about delivery to the customer.
Bahh!! that's an SEP !!

Anyways more on that later. Back to the PM stuff.

So, how do we revolutionise the project delivery approach to allow 'User to Add Value - the supposed crux of E2.0' without compromising the controlled 'and lets face it anal' delivery of a solution into a customer environment.
Mmmm quite a challenge !!, esp when you consider that 99.99% of all E2.0 software is vapour, and destine to remain so :0)

But, as this market develops and becomes one (sic!), then we (the professional delivers) are going to need a more rapid, dynamic and fluid method of capturing the customers requirement, add in the value that the client/end user is going to bring to the piece and deliver in a robust fashion to the customer (ticking all the -control- boxes along the way).
In the tome's of project management (as published by APM and PMI) you just wont get this. So we need a new champion to challenge the old guard.

Me, I'd like to propose Rob Thomsett (thomsettinternational.com), there's some darn good idea's here that have the makings of suiting the brave new world we are all gonna embrace. . . .

your thoughts ?

j

Return to blogsphere

2007-11-28T15:09:00.000Z

And Were Back .............

I decided a while ago to not to continue with this blog thang.

Basically exposing yourself to allow the world to your inner thoughts has never been my bag, and discovering some of the very idiots you would chearfully see 'falling undera truck' were monitoring your posts,
sorta added some additional perspective ...

But I was trailing through the 'tinterweb the other day, and found a new post by an old friend which highlighted some issues and problems she's faced and that I would have never known about, except by the power of reading and this darn technology.
So I'm back, hang them all, and thank you very much Lindsay.

ta

jonron

And Were Back ....

2007-07-09T20:29:00.000Z

So were back...

And what an adventure weve had.

Many many many thanks, to all 'our' folks for their help, love, support and communication
over the last 8 months.

We are very lucky to have friends all around the world as good as you folks.

Weve had a blast, the world is a fantastic place, and were glad weve had the chance to see it.

Back to reality soon, and more thoughts on that will follow...

Final Point.

The best Egg Cheese and Tomato Sarnie to date IS Brunels Buttery in Bristol - Travel liberates the mind 'dontcha know' :-)

time rich, information poor - part 3

2007-05-13T10:16:00.000Z

Hi All

Sorry there's been a slight delay in posting.

The weathers closing in for winter down here, so we've been getting as much walking in as possible before all the high trails are closed.

So where were we ... oh yes, we were going to extrapolate the hypothetical strategic choice 's as picked, into a limited form of tactical and operational decisions.

However, when I started thinking about the possible devolution's (as I was swearing down another hill the other day).

I realised that I probably need to analyse the information in a bit more detail, within the confines of a series distinct model's profiled to the market niche ( it just so happens, I discussed this very requirement with some friends over a beer or 3 last year) and went as far as building the first cut which I happen to have available.

So, utilising this (loose) model in a (slightly) more formalised way (ie written on scraps of paper, as opposed to just in my head) we devolved down the following choices :-

Investigate the Need Wants Desires of the current market places, and asses their potential requirements for the future

So put very simply, what do the market in each of the customer facing business units require in the current and future products, and where are we as a product offering (value proposition) currently deficient (internal and external) against the existing (and foreseen) market place and competition?

This is a huge question. So who's in the best position to make this call ? - probably the customer facing staff of the devolved global business units ?!!

So, they must be actively involved in gleaning the requirements from their individual niche, formalising these into requirements and even possibly product specifications for a (swift!) decision to be made on current and future focuses, that their specific markets are going to require for R & D.

(In can be expected that these will fall of the order of 30% existing product enhancements/improvements, 70% new product requirements).

In reality the main drivers for our global niche market as a whole are usually evolved (and devolved) from requirements first derived and encountered within the North America SBU and then roll like a wave across into Europe and onwards to the rest of the first world economies.
Historically the propagation of this wave around the globe to date has been of the order 18 to 36 months.

So in practice the main emphasis in research for future product would pby need to come from requirements developments within the US market, with the rest of the core businesses feeding their thoughts, needs, wants & desires into their technical lead.

To accomplish this a minimum expectation should be set at the initiation of this 'futures project'. This maybe, a series of use cases, a full product specification, a HCI design, interactive prototype or composite model. Its production will need to be time boxed, and its should be expected that this team will require mentoring and strong management.

Downside: This will remove key personnel from the US market and dedicate them to working on the futures for the product set. They will need to be substituted. This will be a direct cost that will need to be incurred by the business as a whole.

Maintain and maximise support revenue.

Re-asses the Value For Money matrix relating to the current support offerings, and produce as series of options and costings to profile the potential revenue and effort required, against that currently being generated.

All software houses charge support revenue for their products. The level of service offered (and experienced by the customer) varies across the entire bell curve.
But all rely on this annual revenue stream in some form or other.

So instead of offering just a straight the xx% pa for yy updates and/or support
There is a whole raft of service levels potential offerings and protracted support deals that can be packaged up to fit an individual customer.

Within the organisation for whom I work, each one of the customer facing business units has a different focus, different core market and different drivers to focus on, but they share a common thread that there is good bottom line revenue to be made from tailoring support services to meet a customers (ever changing) solution support requirements.

To exploit this thread of gold, you just need to understand your customers needs ...

Downside: This will have a start-up timeframe and (personnel) cost. It will require dedicated account management and technical services, to identify the customer's requirements, build the specific engagement model, deliver this and keep on meeting the requirements/expectations of the customer.

Upside: Better communication between the business unit and the customer base. Better communication from the field directly into development, increased customer retention rates, and improved bottom line for support activities (why sell it once, when you can sell it every month ? )

Investigate the potential for expanding the role of a global professional services division in generating revenue and supporting sales and product delivery.

So, the first decision to make is do you want a Global Professional Services Division.

If NO then your forcing your self down the boutique software, stack it high, sell it cheap model - because were in the '00's now and the requirement to 'add and aid' our new and expanding customers solutions is quintessential to the way the niche market operates in all of the customer facing business units arena's.
To not have it means you go from a global player to a provincial player, very quickly.

If Yes, then what tools do our 'grunts on the ground' and 'strategic partners' require from the product offering to make it fully flexible and in tune with the market need/wants/desires.
They should be given clear direction on the engagement model with customers and partners and should expect full support from a distinct division within the development arena.

Without this senior management direction and a bi-directional communication flow you risk ending up with a mixed message going out to the customer facing divisions and them picking the best path that fits their market model at that particular time.

Finally, pro services consumes people.
If you pick this path your gonna need a high head count, talent in depth, a raft of additional folk to support those on the coal face, and you need to arm these guys with the tools they require to 'add value' to the initial solution proposition.

Downside. The main focus of any Pro service's must be to support sales to sell more licences (low cost of sale and %pa support contract). So the reality of the situation needs to reflect that the required annual utilisation for the pro services staff needs to be directly geared towards new sales targets that have been made, and covering the overall cost of the services organisation.
The possibility arises of only measuring this function against a strict billable utilisation estimate verses attained, and this is a misleading measure, that doesn't factor in the contribution made to the customers solution, and the credence it gains you in the market place.

Maintain the current product's portfolio and market place impact

This company has one of the best product offerings in its market niche. Its well developed, mature, functionally rich, stable and accurate. So in reality the question should be how best can we exploit these positives.

This typically falls to the marketing of a product, and I fully accept that this another aspect here that I will have barley touched on.

Marketing
Product Marketing, Corporate Marketing, Communication. These are key functions to making any 'product' into a customer facing 'solution'', and I will be the first to admit I'm no expert in this field.
But I would like to see a more innovative customer engaging approach from the market as a whole.
We (the products and players in this niche) do sometimes come across as a bunch of librarians, constantly sharing around the same bottle of mum's cooking sherry ...

However, any product set operating within this niche market has a finite life.
It doesn't matter how you add on to it, re-engineer the interface, repackage it or guild the lily, there will come a time when you will need to 'completely' replace the current offering with a newer, wider, brighter, offering that will meet today's and tomorrow's market requirements, as opposed to yesterdays.
Of course at the same juncture, you have to maintain the current offering (from a dev/support aspect upwards), not upset or offend your existing market base and of course keep the shareholders happy.

Now there are a number of points raised within the statements above, that could easily point you in the direction of putting off making the decision not to introduce a new product for years,

'the old one's still shipping well, were still getting a good geld, and of course we've got the support revenue"...

But any global organisation cannot afford to stop the process of investing in the critical (and lets face it darn costly) research that will provide you with the thought process, idea's and raw spark that will lead to the next innovative generation of product for our market.

In the main any organisation working with the above (below) hypothetical market condition's would realistically be wanting to invest a good proportion of their revenue into Research and Development of futures and not just production development of the existing portfolio.

So this should be in place already or if it isn't then your already behind the game.

Maximise shareholders value offering and their potential rate of return.

So the shareholders, have been happy and content with the rate of 'till dip' (dividend) over the last few years - and long may the good times continue !!

But I've presented here a hypothetical scenario, based on the only information I currently have available (remember I'm time rich, & information poor) down here where the sweet, warm, pacific winds blows.

So what plans are in place, and what needs to be in place ?

In reality this picks up from all the points above.
A investor (shareholder), wants to see the organisations current success maintained, and that high plans are in place for continuing success and ongoing development of the product within the global market place.
The will need to include exceptions to take a count of the changing dynamic (possible, probable, actual) that are effecting the market niche we operate in.

In the main these need to be communicated to and developed with the operational staff directly involved in the business units concerned and utilised to aid the strategic senior management in the development and maintenance of a 5+ year organisational plan.
This message needs to be communicated to all members of the organisation at all levels (were in software, these folks are damm bright, use them!) - they all need to be a part, for it to be a success. Or of more importance they need to be in position to observe changes in their key sphere's of influence, so that the plan can take account of the changing environment.

Thanks for listening, climbings over now, heading for home now (to the land of my father's) for a long bath, a pint (or two) of Gem therapy and to go on the waiting list for a new set of knees.

Normal glib service will resume soon.

TTFN

time rich, information poor - part two

2007-04-14T05:42:00.000Z

So based on the hypothetical information as derived in the post below,
and using some simple STO models (albeit in back of fag packet format, as opposed to formal discussion and layout) such as hufit, pest, swot, porters 5, strategic paradigm, etc,
we arrive at the following possible conclusion for Strategic choice.

1 - maintain the current product's portfolio and market place impact

2 - investigate the NWD of the current market places, and asses their potential requirements for the future

3 - investigate the potential for expanding the role of the global professional services division in generating revenue and supporting sales and product delivery.

4 - maintain and maximise support revenue. Re-asses the VFM matrix relating to the current support offerings,and produce as series of options and costings to profile the potential revenue and effort required, against that currently being generated.

5 - maximise shareholders value offering and their potential rate of return.

So lets devolve these down one by one to their hypothetical tactical, and in some [simple :-) ] cases operational, implementation.

Sorry for lack of piccies with this post, weve got an operational application problem here @ the mo. Hope to have it fixed for the next one.

Time Rich, Information Poor

2007-04-10T04:25:00.000Z

Hi folks, I'm currently in the south island of New Zealand (nu zulund) to the locals :-)

Mainly walking up hills and getting some sailing in.

Now usually in my working life I'm time poor and information rich.
Plugged into the ephemeral information highway provided by radio, tv t'interweb, txt msg, rss feeds, however accurate or apocryphal !

However Since Ive been traveling around New Zealand. Ive been going weeks without seeing an idiot lantern, days without seeing a newspaper or computer with a decent connection, and even if I'm somewhere that actually gets a reasonable radio reception (rare) It tends to be limited to local news.

So here @ the ends of the earth I find myself 'Time Rich but Information Poor'.

So after Ive hauled my sorry arse up yet another mountain to experience a(nother) truly amazing view, Ive got to face the long plod down hill again, or across to the next saddle (usually far more scary than the climb up).

So, Ive started using this time to analyse what information I'm actually hearing about the global market (hold on, stay with me folks, the reasons will become clear in a bit), and to stop me concentration to hard on my next step - as this usually leads to error, and error will lead in the main to 'accident', accident out here in the boonies is usually defined in levels of terminal philosophy :-)

So what do I know about the world from the data gathered

Well we seem to be heading into a first world economic slow down.

Breaking the first world economies (to which I have ready access to info), US, Europe, Australasia

The US, incumbent US treasurer is forecasting a general slow down of growth estimating this to be no greater that 2% (with a margin of error of 2.5%).
However Alan Greenspan the former head of the US treasury is forecasting a soft landing of -2% growth in real terms in the next year to 18 months .
Since in the past uncle Alan's predictions have been generally on the money, maybe we should pay then some attention.

In Europe,the housing market in the UK is still over inflated (estimates place this in the region of pby upwards of 200+ %) and in real terms it is the (false) driving force sustaining the economy's ongoing growth cycles.

Most of Europe is experiencing sluggish (or no growth) and struggling with balance of payments outside its euro 'partners' - wooden euro rich, cash poor, is the mantra.

Oz, has a series of serious environmental problems of its own (that it seems incapable of solving due to political meddling), and is detracting from its potential as a tiger economy. This is making new investors unsure of committing to the country or its markets.

Now why have I embarked on this train of thought ?
Well basically, I work in that fickle of all niches, the software industry and on top of that I work in one of the most niche of all niche software markets.

So what next?

Well tomorrow I'm going to do a day climb on of the large lumps of rock in the mount cook range - so I'll pby think more then (in between swearing lots)

The natural extrapolation of this hypothetical scenario is pby to perform a 'simplified' strategic analysis of the organisation for whom I work and produce a series of hypothetical scenario choices to react to the information highlighted above.
More as I think of it.

j

St David's Day

2007-03-01T00:06:00.000Z

Dear World

Happy St Davids Day

'Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before.'

jr

Piccie of the week !

2007-02-21T04:45:00.000Z

Seen this week in a vets window in the Coromandel

I can see mum putting frontline on the back of little jonnies neck :-)

buying a shed in kiwi land

2007-02-19T07:09:00.000Z

so we're buying a 'cheap' car to travel around New Zealand for the next couple of months

The rules for purchase (male):
Has it got 4 wheel's ?
Does it start/go/stop ?
Does the engine bay look like a dog's breakfast ?
How badly do the brakes squeak ?
Has it got a stez? If yes, does it go loud enough to cover the noises from all the above ?

The rules for purchase (female):
What did full independent mechanical report say ?
What do we have to get fixed, and when ?
How much road tax has it got left ?
How long is left on the warrant of fitness ?
Its not bloody white is it ?
How Much?

The Result for 700 of your UK pounds !!!

Standing Order's For the Driving in New Zealand.

Driving will be split 50:50
50% of the time J will drive,
50% of the time S will decide if she wishes to drive. If 'No' she will nominate a n other.

No day of travel will be over 4 hours (unless the other 50% rule applies !)

The 'Tractor Game' (leg 2 - NZ) will be played @ all times of driving. However a small amendment to scoring rule is being enforced to dissuade 'jon' from utilising the Google Brotherhood information source and driving past the John Deeree factory (as happened in Melbourne).

@ know time is the std Kiwi male driving style to be adopted . ie steering with your knees, right hand out window, and chugging a bottle of beer with your left !

@ all time be on the lookout for lunatic Kiwi drivers (you can't miss them, their the ones in cars !!) since the standard of driving, is a little agricultural !!!

finally, don't sweat the sweet stuff (this is a drug reference from Northlands apparently !)

ta for now....

ps got an ect sarnie the other day 4/10 on the 1 to Brunels buttery scale - disappointing !

Buying a Skip

2007-02-11T06:36:00.000Z

I'm in New Zealand @ the mo.
Ive been hooking up with some old friends,
watching the boats in the harbour,walking in the islands in the Huraki Gulf, and drinking lots of wine
@ the many wineries along the path.

However, Today I went to the car sales @ the race course and bought a banger, no a nail, no a skip, yes a skip.
So, the Tour De Kiwiland starts tomorrow lunch time (no point in getting up to early now is there !)
more soon and some piccies
Off to celebrate with .... some wine :-)

ta

jonron

new year, new promises to break

2007-01-02T13:04:00.000Z

Happy New Year Folks
So I start as I will have no chance of carrying on. few piccies of the harbour on nyd 07 Leave Sydneyside tomorrow, and still no ECT sarnies !!! Discovered Canoli tho' - think I might have died in the night - its that good .
chat some more soon
jr

to paraphrase gordo . . . bad bad lazy blogger

2006-12-30T03:20:00.000Z

Sorry folks.
Arrived in Sydney neigh on two weeks ago.

Had good internet access for @ least a week or so.
What have I done in that time - - - absolutely squat !!!
we’ve been out seeing the sights of this fab city, sampling all it has to offer food and wine wise, enjoying the company of our fantastic friends and generally not worrying about being on the road for a few weeks.

So I'm sorry, and I will make it a new years resolution to update this script with more frequency :-)

So what have I learnt to date on my travels

Mountains look good close up, very good

You get a headache at altitude

In Nepal the Hindu’s seem to own all the businesses, but the Buddhists have a better quality of life

Don’t even breathe the air in Katmandu If you can help it – you’re a westerner it will poison you

If you need a visa for India, take every bit of paperwork you own with you to the embassy – and make copies (they’ll want most of them), oh and a good book

If your going to be ill in Delhi. Try and make it as far as a bathroom if you can, projectile vomiting as a lift door opens just don’t look cool …

Don’t trust Singapore post to lose the Christmas prezzies to your mum and sister, that you dragged all the way from Nepal - since you didn’t trust the post there !!!!

Don't trust a shipping agent to get your Christmas prezzies to your hosts in oz there on time

and finally the more fuck buddies you have the more sti checks you have to go through (courtesy of the urinal wall in the Imperial hotel in Erskenville - where they filmed Pricilla queen of the desert )

but when all's said and done & I go to bed @ night after looking upon stunning views of the Himalayas - I still dream of oceans

This ones called the Indian ….

chat to you all again soon.

jr

quick update

2006-11-29T18:20:00.000Z

Hi folks

Sorry for the delay.
Days seem to be taken up in Kathmanudu with siteseeing, and spending far to much time in the ty bach - but enough on that subject.

Were due to be going off on a 3 day trek around the Kathmandu ridge line starting tomorrow, but its dependent on me feeling well enough ....

In the meantime, till I get a chance to post the album a phottie or two.

Fish tail from poon hill

fish tail from the mbc

jr
ps no movement on the quest for a good ect sarnie, yak cheese just don't melt proper!- but my god do these good folks do eggs (with every and anything).

and I'm off ....

2006-11-11T15:28:00.000Z

'3 ... 2 .... 1 .... GUN!'

and in the distance a cannon sounds and a flag falls
and were off.

The adventure begins ...

more to follow

ta

jr

Letter to Aunty Mary and the World

2006-11-04T12:00:00.000Z

Dear Aunty Mary

Thank you very much for leaving me a bequest in your will.
If its all right with you tho', I would have prefered to have just one more day of your time on this planet, than any sum of money.

I intend to put it to good use and follow your old scotish saying ...

'we only pass this way but once, so It would be a shame if we didn't stop and smell the roses'

So Ive decided. I'm going to use it to take Shoz and I around this globe of blue and experience some of those sights and sounds we used to talk about - I truly hope where ever you are, you read this & would approve of my fecklessness. :-)

I promise it will pass the rocking chair test.

love and hugs
your godson

jonathan

you ready ?

2006-11-03T08:20:00.000Z

You ready Sun ? - Certainly am jonron
You ready Sheep ? - Aye jonron
You ready Shoz ? - Getting there jonron
You cool with this rjr ? - Aye i'm cool jrr, will keep and eye on 'home' while your away

Spit that just leaves me! - Best get a wriggle on

tata for the mo

j

and the great countdown starts !!

2006-10-16T20:42:00.000Z

<> insert nice landacape piccie here, but blogger pic upload crashes every time <>

So!
its finally time to take some hard earned rest.
My employeer has kindly offered me a leave of absence.
So, were off ta play in the 'big room' for a while.

and a chance to recharge the batteries

:-)
more on this later

j

ps isnt this blog engine a piece of shite. You'd have thought a google would have sorted this junk out by now ...

Stiff and Stiffed Again !!

2006-09-18T06:00:00.000Z

So,
Friday - went to buy a new cartridge for this cheap printer I've recently bought.
Printer cost me 19 sheets including delivery. New cartridge (of which it takes 2) is 26 sheets....
WHAT!
yep 52 sheets for a cart set.

Ahh says the guy behind the counter, the ink carts you 'buy' have 40% more ink in them . Wow value for money marketing or what!! - do the maths
Its cheaper to new a new printer everytime the ink runs dry, than buy a new cart....

So the ethical consumer in me is going NO! dont do it. The VFM consumer is going order 10 new one's @ once and get the additional bulk discount.

Message to Lexmark - a -what type of stupid sales model have you cooked up. b-your a bunch of robbin thieving gypsy bastards. Here's hoping the rest of the world wakes up to your crass ploy and you go down the tubes soon thereafter.

Your not havin a penny more of my cash, this ones for the skip & I'm off to buy a HP laserprinter!

Saturday:
Went to a wedding in Newquay, Kernow. One of 'ours' got married
Was a fab day

The Kernow sun shone in the blue cloud free sky,
the Atlantic waves crashed ashore in fistral bay,
the gig rowers sweated hard over their oars in the harbour,
and Jenny look fabulous.

Congrats Jenny and Ade.

(oh, and I couldn't drink a drop -bugger!)

Sunday:
Foolishly ran the Bristol 1/2 marathon.
(successfully! but in a time I'd rather not discuss)

Usually this event in my home city is well run and has the potential for a good attempt @ a PBT.
But this year it was all a bit of a joke.
They increased the entries to 15,000 and the reversed the route, so that you tackled the 15th century narrow street section first.
Now surely they thought about this on the planning ?
obviously not - it was carnage for the first 4 miles, I nearly got taken out on a narrow corner by a major pile up.
Then after 2+ hours, when I struggled over the line, it was like a war zone, ususlly your marshaled through, given your medal, and a goody bag with water and mars bar or 'out.
Not this year, you had to fight for each one .....

so headed to the Welli for some well earned 'gem' therapy, to not just ease aching muscles, but help feel no pain what so ever !

Here's What some of the other victims of the race have said

ta

jr

Sustainable Clothing

2006-09-01T22:02:00.000Z

A few years ago (must be nearly 10 now!),
A good friend of mine (lets call him Stretch), gave me a tee shirt.

Not just any old tee shirt, but a groovy tee shirt, made from organic cotton, with a cool logo and strap line that made you chuckle for hours and hours

The manufacturer was a bunch of guys just starting out called Howies

Since then I’ve bought their stuff a couple of times a year, from all points of the compass North, East, South and West, most of its been good, some of it excellent, occasionally its been a bit shoddy around the edges.
But when I’ve winged they’ve offered to replace it – even if I’ve been wearing it to death for over six months or I didn’t read the washing label correctly.

So what put these guys above all the other ‘funky’ tee shirt peddlers out there ?

Mainly the attitude to their niche/and their customers, the focus they gave their brand, their products, their attention to detail, and the way they have seemed to educate their chosen stockists to promote and present their stock.

These were the first guys to publicly admonish the use of the rocking chair test, in all the things they do.

Which has been part of my families credo for generations before my time -to the extent my paternal grandma left me her rocking chair in her will, with the note that stated ‘for jonathan, use it well’ -

And as such I’ve always attempted to apply this as the litmus test to my personal and professional life, probably in some respects to my determent. But if you can’t look yourself in the mirror each morning, what the hell else can you do……….

So time has moved on for these guys, they’ve moved to bigger premises, expanded the operation, the range and the number of personnel the employ

They’ve generated a load of publicity with their attempt to flog jeans with a tab ‘like’ Levis, and after a barrage of legal action and a not inconsequential amount of ‘tongue in cheek’ communication to state, ‘lets settle this like adults’ to the CEO of the Levi corporation, then challenging him to an arm wrestling competition (with the winner taking all, of course!)

but they’ve stayed faithful to their original beliefs,
they’ve still got focus, the plot, the vision thing. but most importantly they still love what they do .
To be consistently good, you have to grow organically, grow slowly, stay loyal to your vision, and your customers, to keep control you gotta keep it small.

So what the point of this post ?

Simply just to say, I like these guys and the gear they punt, their a few of the folks that give me some faith in my fellow man

So girls and boys, check out their site and their products, there worth the few click from here …..

Stretch, thanks for tuning me in bro’
Howies folks, thanks for the ride to date its been a blast, I love what you do, keep the faith
To all the other folks out there, thanks for listening

Oh , and one last thing, before any one asks. Yes they are based in Wales…

Laters !

man its all just too serious !

2006-08-29T17:05:00.000Z

Hi Folks

So, after a fearful couple of weeks banging my head against the metaphorical wall.
Its all got a bit much, and I've sent the problem upstairs.
So, I've taken a few days off to finish the new bathroom and re-evalulate a few things.

First of all I note Gordo has got a new skin, so thinks me - I'll have a change too.
Secondly you may have noticed the title of this blog has changed. That to reflect the new focus.

To set the benchmark against which all other ECT sarnies will be initially judged, I'd like to recommend Brunels Buttery, on the spike, bristol docks as the starting benchmark.

So, if anyone has recommendations for good sarnie sites worldwide, let me know, and I'll do my best to test them out.

other news:

My grapes are nearly ripe, so if any ones got any good (tried and tested!) potions for making wine from pinot blanc grapes, be good and drop me a line.

I've just broken the keyboard on my 3mth old lappie - the 'm' key is now just a stub on the pcb.

Oh and I've just discovered my bank has deleted all my direct debits and standing orders, and they wont admit liability. Once more my bank have right royally fucked up. - but more later, I'm off to buy some more ceiling paint and head to the welli for a beer

laters !

2006-08-10T17:52:00.000Z

Ethical Project Management

So I been trying to pen a piece on this subject for the last few days.
Based on the last 10 years working in this software niche.I completed four pages on it last night, but when I reviewed it this morning it all read like total stott!

So I'm gonna try again in a bit, but the highlights need to include :-

Resetting Expectations: (when you initiate the project only to find the sales weasel has over sold the gig )

Managing Expectations: (when the software ain't up to the gig, and the customer realises it)

Communication Strategy: (bad news is best told early, and its best to always tell the truth - however much that hurts)

Delivery Management: (hack the gig up into manageable chunks, that can then be discussed, agreed, controlled, & measured)

Risk Mitigation: (spend time exception planning in case it goes horribly wrong - especially around the closure of a chunk - it usually will)

Issue Management: (plan to have clean process to raise real issues -not noise- up the project chain of command, so your role for this task becomes exception management not micro management - remember you've still got a day job to do!)

Team Work: (take time to build a good team, invest in them and look after them, it will pay you dividends when you need to step up)

Ignore Random Noise: (if you happen across an MBA graduate who starts talking about, to time, to budget, to requirement. a)ignore them, b)drive round them, c)refer them to rob tomsett or the PMI schools of thought, d)look for the scars, if there are none -refer to a,b,or c, if there are -question them, they'll mostly be found wanting- then ignore them)

Other Stuff To Mention:

How much good professionalism has come into our niche in the last 10 years - where were seeing less second hand photocopier salesmen and more true professional IT customer account managers.

How support functions have become critical for all facets of the business, sales, consultancy, delivery, customer support & even senior management

More Later

Ciao for now

2006-08-01T11:44:00.000Z

another place holder, but this sums everything up @ the mo, more later ........

Place Holder

2006-07-31T23:06:00.000Z

sorry, been a bit busy, back soon ....
but in the mean time

2006-07-08T13:20:00.000Z

For the love of Fuzz …

It’s a dilemma for any employer.

You spot and recruit raw young talent, you nurture it , you give it opportunity, you hone its skills, you give it wings.
If you’re good it returns to you stronger more worldly wise and even more useful to you than before.

But finally you many have to face the fateful day when the formative ‘sea cadet’ decides to jump ship !

If you’ve got it right by this time of course, this ‘able seamen’, has grown up and developed into a trusted ‘boat captain’ who only has to frown and people listen too and respect.

Now this is especially so in the software industry, where true talent is oh so hard to come by.

And I’m not talking about, sales weasels, middle management, support staff or even senior management ...

True techie talent is hard to come by, and even harder to keep focused, and harder still to keep in the groove.

So how do you deal with this ?

Well obviously any progressive, forward thinking, software organisation, will have in place a dedicated specialist HR function that works ‘with’ the ‘talents’ command structure, and the ‘talent’ themselves to plot and a nurture/development strategy that will be of short, medium and long term benefit to the company, and to the ‘talent’ themselves.

Each one of these plots will have to be highly individual, and tightly focused.

Now you’re bound to loose some souls along this voyage.

But, some of your chosen talent makes the cut, you must make sure you’ve got a future path planned for their talents, coz even though were all older and wiser the same rules apply, just the stakes to you as the employer just got a hell of a lot larger.

At least, that’s how you would hope a progressive, forward thinking, software organisation, would function !!

So eventually the fateful day arrives, ‘jack’ rocks up and slings you the white envelope.

If you’ve been on your metal, you should have had a good idea it was on its way, and planned accordingly, if it’s a complete surprise them you probably need to review your HR function, and put in place some serious corrective action to get you back on the lay line ASAP, and make sure you’re not faced with this embarrassment again.

So what are your options:

Do Nothing

– the classic head in the sand manoeuvre, it wasn’t me guv. Let the talent walk and we’ll cope (I hope!) ….

Negotiate

– So why do you want to jump ship? What can we do to make you stay. Do we need to look at the structure of the organisation and review the way we operate. Do you want to take a sabbatical then come back and discuss it some more later? Are the issues you have on the boat insurmountable?

Basically, we love you, this is your home, you’re family, can we talk this thing through ?

Now all these things depend on how valuable the talent is to you as the organisation….

In our business, good talent is our life blood.

You loose too many crew its not a case of slipping a boat length behind in the current race.

It’s more a case of not having a enough crew to get the boat in the correct shape to even make the gun for the race next series.

And even if you do take the gun, have you got the right balance of talent who can read the play, call the plot, command the respect of the pit, adjust the tactics to suit the changing conditions, and liaise on the right level with entire organisational structure ??

So, news reaches me here, the other side of the world, that Fuzz is about to resign his commission …

And my initial thoughts were ...

I’m gutted …

Followed by, what the F*** …..

It’s rare, in this bubble we sail in to come across talent so good, intelligent, focussed, articulate and still have the ability to be customer facing, and constantly do a storming good job, in the face of the adversity we face out here almost every day.

This talent is nothing short of startlingly good

– and before you even think it, I’m not over egging my superlatives – I haven’t even started.

Even here, 12,000 nautical miles away, our customers ask for him, by name !

So hypothetically, if I was the commodore of this fleet, and this news reached me.

What would I do @ this moment ?

I’d discuss the options in depth with my trusted lieutenants,

I’d them bring in an external specialist to provide an independent thought avenue, deliberately distinct from theirs

I’d go and meet Fuzz, face to face at a time and place of his choosing.

I’d appeal to his better nature, its never just about money, but it can be the opening beat.

I’d ask him, where we need to be, what he wants to do and how can we facilitate that, and I’d ask candidly what, if anything, does he think is broken here ?

If I made any promises. I’d make damm sure I’d kept them

And I’d do all this very very quickly

I’d also bring along the biggest pair of golden handcuffs I could get specially made for this task.

Failing that as a near to final gambit, I’d cheat! And stitch Fuzz up.
Basically I’d blackmail him (in the nicest possible way) and then present him with the biggest pair of handcuffs I could get made etc,etc,etc ...
Always make sure the pill is sweet.

But, if all else fails, you gotta let him go, but make sure he’s welcome to come and sail on this fleet again, whenever and wherever he likes, and don’t forget to take some his ideas on board so that if he does look back as he leaves the quay.

The old ship has had a new coat of anti-foul and the brite work glimmers.

Bristol fashion.

In truth, no organisation, however strong, can afford brains trust this good to just to walk out the door….

A couple of final statements before I close:

Fuzz, if you read this.

I wish you well.

If you decide to stay on you own terms, fantastic.

If you decide that this gig still tastes bitter and there is another boat you want to have a crack at, then we will miss you.

But personally, if that’s what you decide then, I wish you good luck and god speed – may Neptune always be with you.

You’ll always be welcome to come and sail with me

If any of Fuzz’s management happen to read this entry,

I’ll be blunt …

when it all comes ringing down guys,

If you kiss it, your gonna miss it

The choice, as they say, is yours

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

000 --- 000

2006-07-03T06:00:00.000Z

The Weather

Well we seem to be enjoying better than average sunshine here in the best city in the world. So on Sunday we decided to get up early and take the sustrans cycle path from Bristol to Bath.

I thought I'd share some photties with you all.

So we started off @ 10.30 am, cycled the 20miles to Bath, got there just as the Hop Pole opened, enjoyed a few scoops of Gem and Ashton Press based muscle relaxant.

Started the return voyage .... and suffered all the way in the crippling heat (well I am a west european, blue skinned celt you know - were only used to warm sunlight on high days and holidays !), so instead of heading straight home we pitched up @ the mud dock on the quay and enjoyed a refreshing breeze, oh and jug of Pimms.

We then braced the climb up the hill to Bishopston and crashed out in the garden. Ready for another fine week in the wonderful world of work .....

2006-06-28T19:19:00.000Z

Ive just got back from shopping at Sainsbury’s and am annoyed !!

Just a simple (but important) thing has made me see red.

Plymouth Gin

Ive just seen the new bottle design in the flesh (or the supermarket shelf, to be exact)

At best it could be called bloody ugly, but more truthfully, its just plain shite.

It looks like the sort of bottle you’d see a litre of east european, car engined brewed vodka, sold to you in a cheap corner shop ‘supermarket’ for about 3 quid.

What sort of brand image are they trying to promote with that…?

A bit of background for you all :

I love Plymouth Gin, I firmly believe it tastes better than any other gin on the planet,
it’s the only gin with an appellation controllee, it has to be made within the town walls of Plymouth from the sweet Atlantic rain off Dartmoor.

I recommend it to all my friends, I actively pomote it whenever and wherever possible, and have done so for the last 10 years since, they started to positively re-built the brand,

(and my palette matured enough to appreciate the complex qualities of this king of all gin’s).

I even send bottles of it around this planet of ours as presents and gifts for friends all over this world

It’s the only gin I will have in my house . . . . .

although I do carry both types ‘blue’ and ‘red’, and supplement this with damson gin in the winter and the fruit cup in the summer !!

I’m passionate about this gin, it has history, lineage, style and a quirkiness all of its own and most importantly its tastes better than any of the rest

___________________

Now:

This is the 3rd bottle makeover in as many years. You can already see the next stage in this process in a couple of years time

‘Oh, well we’ve introduced the new bottle designs and sales have rolled off by ‘xx’ percentage, Hmm well its obviously not the packaging or the placement (coz we employed the best people to design and promote that) it must be the product itself at fault – why don’t we change that and re-launch it -….... ....’

..... and so will see the demise of the best gin(s) in the world

_______________________

Guys it wasn’t broken, why the need to fix it !!!

Please, please, can we have a return to the original leaded bottle, resplendent with the monk on back ?

2006-06-26T21:14:00.000Z

So Solstice 2006

So welcome friends and casual surfers.
So another year clock by and once again we gather on the Tor to welcome in the Solstice and to see if she wants to put in an appearance.
We renew old acquaintances, make new friendships, cast around, drum, drink, chill, and we wait for her…

Thought I’d attempt to share it with you…

‘jr its doc I’m @ parkway’ So Solstice begins ….
Pick doc up, set him up in the garden with a Pimms and test match special on long wave.

‘So, what do you reckon on the weather tomorrow morning ?’
‘Gonna be wet, the remnants of tropical storm Alberto is swinging through tonight.’
Check the barometer in the house and the histogram on my watch, and yep, their all ticking down. Check out the BBC weather site and the Met Office site for the synoptic – Yep there’s going to be a large front barrelling straight through Glastonbury this evening, looks like a classic north Atlantic low, but its travelling fast so it may clear by morning.
‘Doc, is that tent of yours waterproof ?’
‘Hope so, it cost enough !’
Pack my bags, load the car, head for Clifton to pick S up

pausing momentarily to pop in Jessops to pick up the velvia shots I took from the winter solstice 6 months ago.

Cross the suspension bridge and head South….

Incident free to Glastonbury (makes a change for the M5)
Drop Doc off at the camp site and check into Gorge and Pilgrims ( the 15th century coaching in on the high street)

Meet A&R in the bar and head round to Knights for a fish n chip supper (doc appears with a ear piece plugged in listening to the England game on 5 live, makes for ‘interesting’ conversation over food.

England win and the jingoistic melay continues, flags out all over the town (except on the town hall, which is flying the French tricolour – strange),
head to the GnP bar for a swift muscle relaxant before bed time

Check out the window before bed, the wind is howling through the high street and the signs hanging from the crystal shop front are going crazy – looks like the wind has backed and the veered pressures spiked up, and dropped back – here comes the rain !!

Wake up at 1.30, look out of the window, yep its stair rod’in down out their, best pack for the worst.
Wake S, grab our stuff and head down to meet AnR in the main thoroughfare

Were cheating this year, and taking the car to the foot of the Tor and walking up the hill from there. By the time we get there the rain’s mostly blown through and it’s a muggy and overcast night.

Start the climb up the trackway, look up lights are reflected off the tower with strange shadows with no discernable focus, we climb on, as we make the second turn we loose sight of the tower but the talking drums come into focus with their unhurried syncopated rhythm, just made for this place.
Lots of young zider cadets coming down, wish them a ‘happy solstice’ get some ‘and you too’s’ back and a series of blank chemically induced stares, with eyes the size of dish plates.

Climb on, as we approach the top, the focus of the lights being generated is being provided by a duo of fire breathers/jugglers.

Get to the top, breathless but successful in the ‘walk of the penitent man’, it may be a good sunrise this morning !!

I walk around the tower, past the fire breathers, there’s still rain in the air and people are huddling inside and around the tower. I make my away over to our usual spot – we come here year after year, you never no who’s gonna turn up, but you know someone will.

And find JnJ, TnT, Doc and Uncle Alan are already ensconced facing outwards where she will make an appearance.
Friends are greeted the with enthusiasm as they emerge out of the dark, some already stumbling from the mystical properties of zummerst champagne, some with the eyes like torches stimulated by more manufactured chemicals.

We chill and chat we wander around the plateau, the wind continues to whip through and is accompanied by the odd face of rain. Chocolate, booze and cake are passed around.

As if by magic the Sofa™ appears, in the company of Doc. After a 10year sojourn in Germany, he’s returned to these shores, older, wiser, but still intact – man its good to have him back and I’m made up he’s, made it up here from Kernow to be with us all this morning.

Time clocks by.

Its 4.30 am, its getting lighter and the dawn is fast approaching.
The local chief druid comes marching up the hill

He and his flock gather on the plateau behind the tower a circle is cast and opened for ‘working’
He stands in the centre, points his staff North.

‘Let there be peace in the North’ he cries
‘Let there be peace in the North the crowd echo’s’

‘Let there be peace in the East’
‘Let there be peace in the South;
‘Let there be peace in the West
‘Let there be peace all over the world’

Bread soaked in wine is passed around and the coming dawn is celebrated.
Even the local sheep get in on the act following the laylines towards the coming dawn.

Finally silence falls across the crowd, even the talking drums cease, and all faces turn towards the distant Mendip hills.

And we wait, and wait, will the front clear, will the clouds disperse.
Red and orange light licks the horizon, the low clouds becoming highlighted as if framed in an oil painting. And we wait …

And finally the guest of honour makes her diva appearance, as only she can ( and rightly so ..), clearing the horizon and dismissing the night.

______

The clouds blow through, revealing a blue sky and warm vitamin S beams down on us in her morning glow.

_____

_______

Happy New Year One And All

jonron

Hello World

2006-06-16T11:40:00.000Z

Well, lets start by making it a better place with a piccie from my collection

As were fond of saying in Llandau, Ciao for now !