While you were Sleeping Business went Global

Well, in reality the other half of the planet was working and sending you emails, e-reports and leaving you voice mails in broken English. A few of us were up and actually conversing. I am convinced our head of Global Manufacturing is either nocturnal or a vampire (maybe both). I regularly get emails at 1 am from him, and that's when he is here in NY. My monthly calender has at least 2-3 calls a month with Hong Kong or China, either 730 am or 730pm, at least they are an even dozen hours off... Now that we are doing business in the UAE-Dubai, we have to factor in that their weekend is Friday and Saturday. So we have about 3 and 1/2 days each week to work with the time difference. I still haven't figured out when to call there...Our COO regularly sends me emails at 11 pm week nights and 6 am on Sundays. I have actually read and responded to a few in real time (I am getting my blood tested to see if I am a vampire too!).


I am reminded of the immortal words of one Ferris Bueller, who noted that "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't pay attention you might miss it"...and that was 22 yrs ago.So how do you shut it off to sleep or rest? Our I.M. infrastructure group has a weekly conference call at 7pm with China each week. My recruiting staff is starting to eat dinner at their desks...I can go on for days with examples of how there are no more boundaries around the time we work and its the same at every company that's gone global.The problem is that are way of doing business has changed, but our processes and procedures in how to operate in this new environment has not. This is not necessarily a doom and gloom scenario, but one that needs more action and less words...

So while you ponder this latest thought stream of mine, I am off to work to figure out our global HR strategy for the future. Wish me good luck, I am going to need it.