Downtown by Sharee BasingerI would like to paint a picture for you. This picture I like to call "A Day in the Life of Jim The Boss". Now Jim is not an actual person, and any resemblance to an actual person is... well congratulations to that person. Anyway, Jim has, through self-master and technology truly mastered his chosen career and industry. He is a husband, father, and grandfather. He is also the President and CEO of a massive corporate empire that looks to him for daily leadership in a cut-throat industry that moves at internet speed. We'll come back to that, but for now lets understand Jim.
Jim lives in a spectacular home built of all the latest technologies that green science can produce. His massive living room windows
Landscape with lake by Petr Kratochvil overlook a breathtaking alpine valley that boasts a beautiful lake fed by a series of unforgettably magnificent waterfalls. His bedroom looks out upon a soft desert landscape of warm red sand, striking white cliffs, and shiny black rock swells. His corner high-rise office is just off his bedrom and sports a perfect view of the city center on one side and the unmistakable museum of ancient and modern architecture on the other. The office is large enough to wander around in when he needs a few minutes to think or hold a large board meeting, but small enough that everything can be reached from his high-backed leather chair.
Now bear with me here. I know you are trying to figure out where Jim lives, but that is not important. What is important is that you understand that Jim, or grandpa, as he is called today, is both at work and at home. He is also on vacation with his daughter and her 3 kids, who, coincidentally, he has promised to take down to the lake for some fishing after lunch.
It is nearly 8 o'clock when he finished his scrumptious bagel topped
Trampoline by Robert Kraft with strawberry cream cheese, and a glass of milk. (Feel free to insert your perfect breakfast here). He is able to slip into his office just before the kids descend upon the breakfast room like a flock of sparrows cheerfully announcing the breaking of a new day.
Once in his perfectly adjusted chair he turns his attention to the large display of graphs, images, and short announcements. He notices that the usually dominant productivity graph has shifted from its central location and been replaced with a market buzz graph that shows significant increase in the industry surrounding one of the competitors in his industry. As he directs his attention to this competitor another part of his display brings up a recent tweet announcing a merger of two of Jim's competitors. Another blurb shows a new Facebook ad campaign targeting a demographic that has previously been untapped by his industry.
Bright idea by zaldy icaonapoAfter a moment's thought, Jim recognizes the brilliance of the merger, and how the new company is accessing the new demographic. He briefly notes that one early access report suggests that this new conglomerate will take the dominant position in the industry, and checking the time notes that it will be about 4 hours before newscasts begin propagating the news into the national spotlight. His experience suggests that with an announcement this big the stock markets will begin adjusting to the news by mid day, and by the time they close Jim's company could have lost as much as 10% with several more days of sliding after that.
This is where all think that Jim is about to run screaming into the offices of his VPs, and put the entire company into panic mode. But... that would only create more panic, and validate the predictions of the early-access shock-jocks. What Jim actually does is far simpler, and besides he promised some fishing this afternoon.
Solutions by Kosta KostovJim collects the tweet, the Facebooks ads, the news predictions, and his thoughts into an old-fashioned email to a couple key VPs. He follows up this email with an SMS to each of the recipients in-case they are not at their desks. In this correspondence his gives the information that he has, and briefly outlines his counter plan.
First he wants his marketing team to update their Facebook ads to take advantage of the new demographic targeting. Second he asks the acquisitions VP and the development VP to work with marking to come up with a new concept to counter the power of their new competitor's position. He stresses the urgency, and asks if they can have the ads up by noon and the new positioning ready for the 5 0'oclock news.
Mobile Phone by Anna CervovaWhile he waits for confirmation from his teams, Jim calls one of the local television stations, and sets up an interview to announce the new direction of his company. Within a few minutes he gets confirmation that the teams are working on the new plans, and he begins preparing a preliminary report for his board of directors. He then takes a couple hours to prepare preliminary notes for the interview.
He finishes up with his morning work just in time sit down for peanut butter sandwiches with three excited little bundles of energy, their mother and grand-mother. It is amazing and strangely fulfilling for Jim to see them take turns blurting out their favorite fish while breathing in peanut butter sandwiches.
Boat by Jaime JaimeJuniorIt takes almost an hour to get to the lake with everyone and their gear, but by the time Jim's marketing team reports in he is unloading the boat. He pauses to review the ideas from his laptop in the truck before sending it off the his legal team for final review. By the time all the hooks are baited and in the water his new Facebook ads are live, and the development and acquisition teams have a plan to meet the new strategy.
Now lest you think Jim gets out of this day without any stress, he does have two difficulties during the day. The first is when the television station calls back to confirm the interview; he nearly drops his phone in the lake, and for a moment is afraid he will have to run back to the truck to Skype the reporter. The second difficulty was trying to explain to the children that they couldn't stay out on the boat fishing forever.
National Banknotes by Vinicius de Carvalho VenâncioSo, to give you a brief wrap up of the day, Jim meets with the television reporter just before dinner, and they just make the 5 o' clock news with the announcement of the companies new strategy. The stock does drop several points by the closing bell, but rebounds nicely the following day. The company brings in a bright young crew to help their internal development team turn out the new products, and most of them end up coming aboard the industry leading company as great additions to the team.
