I slept poorly. I have a virtual presence video conference at 8:30. I’m on the way to work and, as I go, my electronic agenda reads to me what I have to do for the day. Apart from the meeting scheduled, I have several more interviews throughout the morning. All of them are virtual and with several partners in different cities around the world. The first in China is the 8:30 one, then I have one at 2 one with our partner in Dubai, and another at 6:30 with the United States.
The meeting room was thought out for this type of virtual meeting and has cameras and microphones to simulate a real meeting on both sides of the table, as if our partner were in the same office. After a couple of times, the custom is so normal that you tend to want to shake the hand of your partner who is, at that moment, in another part of the world.
On the trip to work, the car computer connected to center and retrieved all the business numbers from each office I am going to “see” that morning and it cleared up a few weak points I should discuss with them. It made a simple list for me of the problems of each one of the geographic environments we are in and it read me the latest update from its managers. In the case of China, with a concrete legal problem, it set up a meeting with our legal advisor in Shanghai for before the meeting with our manager there. I have some doubts to clear up before.
A partner from the U.S. wants to propose a new business to me and, before speaking with him, I am waiting on a market study closely related to the business that I requested in order to better understand how the market is doing. Our manager in Portland doesn’t see it and I don’t want to invest in something our people don’t believe in, but I want to give the partner solid arguments as to why we are not going to do it.
At 9 in the morning, after the meeting with China, I will dedicate half an hour to review the stock market openings with our stock advisors who will give me a summary of how the analysts see our company in the Stock Exchange, one by one. All this will be done virtually, using the same telepresence room we have in the central offices.
Then, a virtual lunch with partners from different continents that we will have simultaneously in restaurants that offer telepresence and allow us, each in our own country, to eat separated with the feeling of being in the same restaurant at the same time, sharing the same meal…
Translated by Babelic.com
