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UPDATE: “I work for myself and have a number of different types of role.” – just an idea?!

A seemingly innocent and easy question. It is one that I, and I assume everyone, asks and gets asked, whenever we meet people.

In the past, for me at least, this was an easy question to answer – “I am a car designer”. This response acted as somewhat of a filter so that if people were genuinely interested, they would ask more questions and, if not, they’d continue talking about themselves.

Now, post-MBA, I find it much more difficult to answer this question as, to be quite honest, I have a few roles. Not wishing to bore my audience with a whole life story every-time they ask this seemingly innocent question sometimes proves a challenge.

The simple answer is “I am an entrepreneur”. The issue with that is that the definition of entrepreneur means different things to different people, much more so than car designer. It largely also implies that you have one thing that you’re focusing on and, in my case, that is simply not the case!

Another answer is “I have a number of hats depending on who I am talking too”. Now this just sounds shifty! It is true but needs the audience to have some imagination and genuine interest, which of course, they may not.

A third answer is “I am a business consultant”. Again true but so vague as to be almost irrelevant, plus, business consultants seem to be regarded in society as only one step down from estate agents, double glazing sales men and bankers; all full of fast flowery talk, expensive and offering no tangible benefit to an organisation.

Society expects you to have just one role, one identity, so that people can easily box you. This boxing has also been coined “personal branding” in management consulting speak, because it partly represents what activity people instantly (and subconsciousness) think of when they think of you. Clearly one has a lot of control over this, at least within boundary’s, so its worth thinking about because it could make a big difference ultimately to happiness and quality of life.

I have (at least!) four roles currently:

- a business consultant (focused on strategy, marketing and business planning).
- a business development guy (selling engineering software),
- a business owner (offering online marketing, website / app design, web hosting and SEO) and,
- an entrepreneur (looking for market opportunities to develop & sell my own products).

If that were you, how would you answer the question “What do yo do”. Comments welcome

Ok so suspend your disbelief. This is an analogy I thought I would share.

Part of my recent journey has involved evaluation of career options. The MBA was an amazingly powerful stepping stone on this journey but not an end in itself. While trying to crystallise my thoughts I came up with this (a bit odd) ship analogy:

Imagine having a job is like working on a ship. There are big and small ships. Everyone on a ship is working for the good of the ship; to keep it running and well navigated. The sea is where the ship operates, there are lots of seas and lots of very different type of ship. The captain is responsible for the ship and making sure it is navigated and operated in accordance to what the owner(s) of the ship decide is in the ships best interests. On smaller ships, often the owner and the captain are the same.

Periodically, ships dock in harbours and ports. Here there are lots of people wondering around the docks, offering services to the captains and owners of the ship. Largely these services aim to improve or help administer the ship in some way. The people wondering around are a largely fragmented bunch but seem to like the independence of roaming the docks, talking to lots of different ships, offering advice but yet never having to worry about the politics and confinement of being aboard a ship which sets out to sea. The ship owners like to talk with them because while the ships have been out to sea they have had to focus all their attention on operating their ship and, now back in port, like to take the chance to see if improvements have been made elsewhere. There are many ways to find out this information about advancements in ship operation however, so often the people wondering around find it hard to engage the captains and owners in a way in which they can support their families.

There are other people in the harbour too. These people are looking to join a ship. This is because being part of a ship is a good way to survive and provide for their families. If they don’t find a ship to suite or one they like with space on board, then they may look to become professional advisor’s themselves, while they wait for the right ship to board. Once aboard a ship they may find themselves quite restricted in pursuing their own endeavours so accept that while aboard they should give up on their own independent aspirations.

It is often difficult for people to move between ships, both between large and small ships and especially between ships that operate in different seas. Even moving between ships that operate out of other harbours and ports can be difficult but perhaps less so than it used to be. Therefore, these people may choose to join the harbour itself, which provides infrastructure to the ships, maintenance, leisure, healthcare & entertainment for those on shore leave, and training in the latest knowledge in types of ship and types of seas. While working for a busy harbour they have very little to worry about and can often relax with regards to the provision to their family.

Occasionally, some of the people on the dock may decide that no ships match what they are looking for. Alternatively, they may have been working aboard a ships that operate in certain seas and have seen a way to somehow improve on the way existing ships currently operate in a sea or perhaps to take that knowledge to a different sea. These people then pop along to a sometimes rough and mischievous bunch known as the ship builders. They then set out to build their own ship. They may or may not decide that they want to be the captain of their new ship, but at least they want to be part of the journey of its growth and share in any success it may eventually achieve.

The problem with building their own ship is that it takes a lot of effort and, because they start small, they are more vulnerable to the ups and downs of the weather experienced out at sea; larger ships are so huge that they only worry about the biggest waves but smaller ships can get sunk by very small waves. For this reason, to build a new small ship is risky meaning these people may struggle to attract others to join with them to help build and operate their new ship.

This can be counted if the ship is planning to operate in an exciting new blue ocean where there are ideal conditions for operating ships. Further ways around this is when bigger ships decide to build associated smaller ships, supporting them where they can in those initial uncertain days. Even the harbour itself has been known to build new ships, although, because life typically so relaxed for the people work in the harbour, it can take a little more time.

This is a silly story! However, knowing whether you want to be on the harbour or out at sea is a useful consideration. If you want to be out at sea, picking the right ship for you, with the right culture and which operates in the best seas, is also important to think about. There is maybe too much pressure to join the first ship you come across or to decide which sea it is that you’d like to commit too, before having a chance to experience it first hand.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for the equivalent of pleasure craft guided sea tours!

Comments welcome!

A sunny picture to compliment the sunny day today.

To be honest it feels like week 8 hasn’t really finished and here we are, Monday again.

It is an intensely packed week ahead, with presentations for me today, tomorrow, Wednesday (the Dragons Den is back!) and on Friday.  With presentations of course comes preparation and this can take some time.  10 people have their own view on the best way to convey the hard work that we have done during the term; that anxiety being that as the presentations are the things that are graded, if they don’t convey things appropriately then all the team suffer in their grades.  It is also interesting to see peoples attitudes to risk on these exercises; no matter how many times we are advised the way NOT to create “death by powerpoint” presentations, people cling onto the infamous bullet point, like a safety blanket.

I have been able to dust off my movie making skills however and I hope the Dragons will like what I have put together; ultimately the client liked what we have done and the film(s) should convey this in a fun way.

The presentations will be good but stepping out of the comfort zone to produce something awesome will have to wait a little long; the great thing is that I now have the skills in the locker to do it in the future.

The inspiring yet ultimately tragic story of Andrew McAuley.

At the begining of 2007 he set off from Australia for New Zealand in a Kayak.  The 1600km trip took in some of the worst weather the sea could generate, storms and swells of over 30ft.  The irony here is that he survived the big waves and the mental challenge to capsize and drown in relatively calm waters.  After 30 odd days spent in his kayak he got to within 30km and within sight of land.  Rescue crews found the kayak but not him.  Most of the footage from the film was recovered from one memory card on one camera that he took.  You see total range of emotion. A link to the blog is here.

The country has ground to a halt as snow has descended and councils have run out of salt (that incidentally lowers the freezing point of water to stop ice forming.)  Even life at WBS has been effected as Marketing class this week has been delayed because of snow interrupted flights for the professor.

Those who have hung onto their 4×4′s must have been happy however.  Lets hope this prolonged cold spell has improved sales for my friends at Land Rover.

It is the PoM individual assignment hand-in day today.  For many the cancellation of Marketing will have been a blessing in disguise!  I managed to get mine done towards the end of last week and quite enjoyed the exercise, once I got into it.   The team survey was really very revealing, even for our team that gets on really well.

“An Ox year is a year of duty, discipline and hard-work. Like an Ox ploughing a field we must toil during an Ox year with success coming from diligent labour and hard work.”

I will have to save my wild new concepts an ideas for the year of the Tiger – that is next year!

“the best view of ones soul is from beyond the edge looking back” – a nice motto from a good friend.