As is usual for me I went for a couple of meetings in London again this week. I often go to posh offices and deal with their usual administrative procedures to allow me access to the building.  Ordinarily this process is uneventful.  A smiley reception person of typically 60/40 female/male ratio asks me who I’m meeting and what my name is then creates a little badge and directs me to the lift.  This week my third and final meeting in town I was asked to look into a camera so security could take a photo of me.  I’m not really a Mr do as your told kind of person so I declined.

This took the security man back a little.  He pushed his chair back, stroked his chin and looked towards the other security munchkin stood maybe 10 yards away to my left.  Munchkin had clearly overheard me and started an authoritative step towards me.  However, before the first authoritative step was complete, having made eye contact his step ended up more as a single step mince as he curled his hands backwards and upwards (think Frank Spencer) as he realised he had no idea how to approach the matter.  Seeing his colleagues discomfort the smiley reception person, sans smileyness, swiveling his chair from side to side asked me why I didn’t want to have my photo taken.  I have a whole host of reasons I could have listed but said something about society going in the wrong direction, the whole idea of photographing someone being security theatre with zero prospect of actually providing one jot of additional security.  As I was doing this I had pulled out a swanky tie and having buttoned up my collar was tieing it.  Flumoxed, the smiley reception person, still sans smileyness but now with a look of perplextion quickly gave me a paper pass and asked me if I knew where I was going.  I slowly lifted my eyes to the huge list of building occupants on the wall behind him and said, yes, floor 5.  That was it, the encounter over.  They didn’t take my photo and I didn’t pull a rocket launcher out of my bag and blow building to kingdom come.

Lets analyse this…

Reasons why I don’t need to be photographed

• I’m not a criminal
• I’m not a terrorist
• I identified myself by name, which he cross referenced to a list of people with appointments and thus expected that day
• I have no idea what the photo is being used for, where it might be published, how it may be stored and or shared
• It’s non of their bloody business

Reasons they want to photograph me

• To give an illusion of security
• To sell my best profile shot to GQ magazine (ok, so this might be just a little ambitious?)

I’ve no doubt that they captured me on multiple CCTV shots as I made my way to the office, and I’m under no illusion that I’ve been captured hundreds of times during the day on other CCTV cameras, but nevertheless, I do think the whole CCTV culture has gone way beyond reasonable.  I feel slightly violated if I’m asked for a photo other than as part of a social thing.  I understand why my Gym might want to check the person using the pass to access facilities is the same person who paid for them, I understand passport control wanting to be able to verify by photo that I’ve a right to be in the country (although, only because we have a benefits system that’s routinely abused; I’d rather have a culture of total freedom of movement, but that’s a whole new subject I’m not going to go into here) but to be asked for photos when I go into a meeting is a step to far.  What next?  Would you be happy being asked for a photo when you check into a hotel? Would you be happy to submit to a photo at the begining of each tube journey? Would you feel happy if the maitre d’ at your restaurant of choice demanded a photo before granting entry?  

I’m going to concede a point here, and that is that a private business does have the right to demand this.  My point is not about the right, it’s about the appropriateness.  The building and its staff were no less safe for my refusal to submit, just as they are no more safe from compliance, but I’m a person, I expect dignity and to be treated with a presumption that I’m not a nutjob.  I don’t want to be treated with an automatic presumption that I’m a threat.  For this reason I shall continue to refuse, albeit politely, whenever I’m asked to make inappropriate submissions.

So, am I a little quirky?  How would you have responded?

I met some interesting people at last nights linchpin meetup in Birmingham one of who shared this presentation with me.  It’s a napkin style discussion about what motivates people which feeds from Maslow’s hierachy of needs and presents it in todays speak for todays economy.

If anyone can tell me who the narrator is there are extra points on offer.  I think the voice is very close to David Allen of GTD fame but I’m not convinced it’s him.

I’m attending the linchpin meetup in Birmingham tonight. The event is at the green room in the Arcadian Centre. If you’re going do say hi.

I’ve been working on my third aerospace contract for most of the last twelve months.  It’s involved living away from my family during the week, staying in rented accommodation in the North West of the country.  My brief was to stabilise the finance function of the business during a period of “business re-alignment” which has seen a significant restructuring of the company balance sheet and a material reduction in headcount to make sure the company is best sized to work within its future order book.  There is a little left to do, but the bulk of my work is now complete and a permanent Finance person has been appointed to head up the department.  In addition to the business re-alignment we have over the course of the easter weekend migrated the company’s MRP system from it’s old non integrated systems to SAP; a process which has involved many months of preparation and many hours of validation over the easter weekend.  The migration has been successful and the business is today manufacturing and transacting within SAP.

My client today issued a trading update which included the following comment on the business I have been representing:

In Aerospace Components and Structures, BHW has performed in line with expectations in the final quarter, benefitting from the cost reduction actions undertaken earlier in the year. Further rationalisation is planned to be undertaken in 2010/11 to eliminate existing losses of approximately £2 million and it is expected that the site will be operating profitably during the second half of that year. The cash costs of this rationalisation are not expected to exceed £1 million.

I have today served notice on my “oop norf” accommodation but shall miss the friends I made in Billinge (Between St. Helen’s and Wigan) and the surrounding area.  I finish my contract on  14th May.  I shall spend the next week with my family before I fly to Horta in the Azores to tick the box on one of my personal goals.  I’m joining the crew of a 65tf yacht for a passage of circa 1370 nm back to Portsmouth.  My ETA back in the UK is 6th June and I’ll be available for assignment from then.

ABOUT MARK HENDY

The very kind @charonqc a twitter friend of mine has donated this painting to me.  The painting is titled “Let there be greed”.  A veritable thank you to M’learned, @Charonqc who has declined my offer of payment for his work.

I stumbled across this and thought I’d share it here!

As a professional interim who’s been invited onto the board and operated with the senior management teams of many companies I’ve seen my fair share of mission statements and the process of deriving them.  For me the process can be somewhat frustrating as I sit listening to grot and nonsense corporate speak.

Take this:

The mission statement should be a clear and succinct representation of the enterprise’s purpose for existence. It should incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of the enterprise, public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and profitability

Why should a mission statement incorporate socially meaningful and measurable criteria?  Unless it was created as a charity or as a state run social tool it makes no sense!  Most organisations are created with one purpose in mind.  Profit.  Profit is a good cause, not a bad one.  It’s a primary cause not secondary one.  Many businesses I’ve been involved with espouse all manner of socalistic stakeholder thinking, which violates and blurs the understanding of property rights and redirects managers toward working for a stakeholder collective rather than the actual owners.

Many businesses mission statements fall short because they ignore one basic tenet: A business has only one mission, to bring about economic profit. They produce profits through winning voluntary exchange (sales) because they produce the best alternative for individual decision makers inside their market and because in the mission statements they rarely speak of profits, but that is precisely why they were created. In order to obtain profits they must create things of value, thus, we see firms making products and going so far as changing industries as they continue to search for profits by converting raw materials, be they physical or intellectual, into valued goods and services.

One day, when historians piece together the collapse of Western civilisation, they will stand agog at the stupidity of one-world socialism.

From the unlikely Obnoxio the Clown

I’ve been a mobile broadband user for a few years using a 3g mobile device from Vodafone with my laptop. Until recently the device I was using was a PCMCIA device but in April I upgraded my laptop to the latest model which didn’t have a PCMCIA slot so I called Vodafone customer services and asked if they could send me a USB device. This is how the conversation went (paraphrased):

ME: Hi, I’ve just brought a new laptop and it doesn’t have a PCMCIA slot and I wondered if you could send me a USB device so I can continue to use the service.

VOD: Sure, and I notice you’re on our old tarrif, You’re currently paying £25/month and we can now do it for £15. Would you like me to switch you?

ME: Thats sounds great. Yes please.

Then I get my bill, which until then had always been £25/month month in month out but this time it came in at £58.74

So on 12th June I called customer services and spoke to William Lindsay at the Belfast office:

ME: Erm you’ve sent me a bill and its wrong.

VOD: No, you switched tariff and this is what it costs and by the way you agreed by switching tariff to another contract of 18 months

ME: I never agreed to any such thing, and your guy told me it’d be £15/month. I have an unlimited broadband service. No one told be it’d no longer be unlimited, but they did tell me it was a better tariff and it’d cost me £15/month rather than the £25/month I’d been paying. I’m not paying this bill until you get it right, and please cancel my account with immediate effect.

VOD: I can’t do that you agreed to a new contract

ME: Did I fuck! No I didn’t

VOD: Well I need to talk to the guy you dealt with to establish the facts. It’ll take a few days but we’ll call you back

ME: Call me on my Orange phone number. You’ve got that right?

VOD: Sure

That was 12th June. I’ve not had a call back since, but I have canceled the DD. Today 15th July I’ve had another bill, for £117.48. so I called customer services again. After connecting I could hear talking but no one spoke to me for a period of minutes. I was left shouting hello down the phone repeatedly until finally a guy called Ken again at Belfast came on the line:

ME: Hello, I spoke to you on 12th June and I’m telling you again I’m not paying this bill. No one has called me back since the last call.

VOD: Let me read the notes……OK, I need to speak to Chris Ward in the Banbury office. Is it ok if I put you on hold

ME: Sure

After holding for a few minutes the call was disconnected.

I’m so angry and frustrated with Vodafone that I’m not sure I could ever deal with them again.  If they persue me for the bills I shall defend and counterclaim.

++UPDATE++

Tom from Vodafone Webrelations has called me and cancelled the charges except for two months rental totalling about £30.  This was supposedly for the subsidised cost of the Modem which I had paid for, but given that I was already of the mind that the last months rental was due fair and square and that it would have been £25 I’m happy to have it resolved at that.  I have also cancelled the account and am no longer a Vodafone customer.