Archive
Customer service at its worst
One of my businesses buys and sells collectable items and is well established now after almost thirty years of international trading. Part of that trading has been to use a well know internet book shop through which we sell, appropriately enough, collectable books. Read more…
instant communication does not imply good communication
Communication has been on my mind this week and I have been reflecting on the way that it has changed so much in the last twenty years or so. The vehicle for that change has been technology and it has affected verbal and written communication by giving us an opportunity to interact in different ways, the most striking of which, perhaps, is in the immediacy with which we can reach others. Read more…
if you are reading this…
If you are reading this post it means that I am, as expected, unable to access WordPress, amongst other social media, from where I am in the world, so my absence from here, Facebook and Twitter is explained. All being well I will be back in the land of free access to such things next week, but for now all you will see is what I have scheduled before my departure. Read more…
travelling in hope – scheduled posts coming up for the next two weeks
I’m off on my travels again later today heading off to work for a week and a bit on what is, at least for me, another new continent. I’ve written recently about how British expertise is in demand around and this will be my third new continent in 5 months so you can see what I mean. Read more…
2013 blog review; wishing everyone a peaceful and content 2014
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.
ThatConsultantBloke’s Quick Guides
A few months back I recommended some text books to a group that I was helping with their professional development. They considered what I had suggested, but felt that they already had too many text books and what they really wanted was a quick guide that they could have in e-book format on their ‘phone or tablet. Read more…
midweek musings on Edinburgh
It is hard to believe that two weeks have passed since I paced my Murrayfield hotel room rehearsing my presentation for the next day at the BIFM Scotland region conference. With four runs through the session coming out at 25 or 26 minutes I was comfortable that I had it down pat and was ready for a good sleep. This evening I am in another capital city hotel room and an ocean away from Scotland, but I’ve just been sharing experiences of public speaking with a guy who has gone off to his room to rehearse his slot at a sales conference tomorrow. I wish him well. Read more…
musings on poor procurement and management on the soccer front
Although I am not a close follower of football these days, the nonsense of making a stadium all seater in the interests of safety and then allowing everyone to stand up is enough to put me off, and then there are those ridiculous shorts! But I do keep a passing interest, and a couple of things caught my attention last week. Read more…
Improvement projects should make things better, shouldn’t they?
I travel by ‘bus and train as often as I can, not just because of the green aspects, but because I quite like it; I get to look around and to think in a way that I can’t afford to do when I am driving, but looking around and thinking can lead to seeing and realising. For someone who has a long record of customer service seeing and realising can mean trouble. Read more…
let’s stop using power words in CVs and bid documents
Last week I got involved in a cyber-debate about the overuse of power words, in this case about their use in CVs, but the principle applies more widely. I have two main issues with this abuse of language; firstly that much of it is transparently nonsense (and therefore untrue) and secondly that it wastes my time. Read more…
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the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke 