Had a great (albeit hectic) time in London.
I left Friday morning, landed Friday noon, rented a car (yes I can drive backwards!!!) grabbed some cigarettes, lit one, revved up the Jag. and “zoomed” (at the speed of a overweight tortoise; that damned traffic congestion..) down the freeway to London Town.
I had my business meeting at 3, was there 3:30 and finished at 7pm.
I had a chance, after finishing with my business, to meet my former mentor from Montreal, James.
We landed in one of the London neighborhood pubs (which seem to be a dying breed) Friday naught and chit chatted.
James, after 20 odd years decided to strike it out on his own.
He’s doing something that has to do with internet brokerage (after a couple of pints I understood what it was, but having sobered up I don’t, for the life of me, recall what I understood…hum dee.. dum) which seems to have rejuvenated him since for the last couple of years he was bored to death with his former work, and employer.
You see James is a doer.
He’s that type of person that gets things done. He can’t stand the status quo (at least in his line of work) and he certainly isn’t nine to five (and by this I mean as work habit, not as absolute working time).
For the last couple of years his industry, his products and eventually he, were transformed to commodities. I mean face it, what can you say when voice calls are free, and video calls are taking the limit as x goes to infinity and approaching voice calls?
James sez that the reason things are turning the way they are is because we are loosing our uncanny ability to explain what value we offer, so we take the easy way out and increase demand by price reduction (we’ve turned our industry into a price sensitive commodity since the majority of strategies are done away from the entrepreneurial spirit; we’ve all basically become clerks and order handlers).
And when you introduce price volatility in an oligopoly, the result is price erosion and commoditization, and people like James vaporize.
We need to be creative again. We need to be entreprenerial, we need to take calculated risks. In James view, the defense/maintain market share strategy is a slow death, both to the company and to the people working in the company.
To quote french commander FOCH (be careful you Anglo Greco philes how you pronounce the apellido)
“Mon centre cède, ma droite recule, situation excellente, j’attaque, j’attaque, j’attaque”
I’ll tell you something ‘bout London neighborhood pubs: They’re the best place to chew the fat, get the lead out, and shoot the breeze.
Next time you’re in the UK, in London town, find a friend and seek one out. You ain’t gonna regret it.
I didn’t…
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire”
I love English pubs. So many great ones in London, even though they are getting a little too modernized for my taste. Even the Old Cheshire Cheese (rebuilt 1667) where you can sit at a wooden bench next to Dr. Johnson’s chair.
I especially love the beer taps that are pumped rather than pressurized.
My favorite pubs were in Yorkshire and Devon (where you can hitch your horse after a ride in the moors). My first English pub was the Spanish Galleon in Greenwich.