I am fortunate that I get to work with clients all over the globe.  oneZero’s client list encompasses Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, Russia, UAE, Israel, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, UK, and the US.  Brokers, prime brokers, money managers and banks now use our software and services.

In the last 24 hours I experienced an incredibly frustrating business culture and a wonderfully efficient and engaged culture.  At 6am yesterday I had a pre-planned WebEx with an existing client.  The client was in the midst of significant change to their business operations and personnel.  The requests they were making came from emotion and not rational thought.  Bringing in well-spoken but not well-vetted “consultants” to take over major aspects of the business.  The business owner who has never been a part of day-to-day operations had already fired a few key personnel.

The initial request came to just introduce myself to their new personnel.  The first 30 minutes of the call were spent with them fumbling to start the WebEx that they had scheduled and were hosting.  As they fumbled I learned what they were expecting was a full review of our software and the trading platforms that we were linked to.  The owner of the company was attempting to call in via his mobile while driving with his wife and kids in the car.  I heard lots of yelling amongst their side of the call. I do not speak Hebrew, but I could tell they were blaming each other for the failure to start the WebEx.

After 30 minutes of nonsense I hung up and shot an angry e-mail to the business owner.  Be professional, get the WebEx lit up before I call in, if its important to him block off time for the call, don’t fire key employees without knowledge transfer, give me a correct agenda prior to the call.  It would have been comical if not for the time of day (6am) and the fact that I fear this client will go under shortly due to their horrible, emotional, knee-jerk decisions.

Then there was last night.  What should have been a terribly challenging software install went very smoothly.  We were installing software onto the servers of a Japanese prospect for him to Demo.  directories and windows operating platform in Japanese, a translator involved, it started at 10pm, etc.  And instead of a problem, the entire install went super smooth.  Why?  Business culture.

The Japanese were well prepared.  Had taken the steps we requested prior to the install and executed flawlessly.  Had given us a clear list of IP addresses, Usernames and passwords created specifically for us to use.  They had read the User guides and were able to follow along with each step of the installation.  Asked succinct questions.  This company would refer to their internal wiki to answer questions and were updating their wiki as the install went along.

These two interactions were a great example of the 6P’s.  Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.  In this instance the Japanese business culture was so impressively on display, and the Israeli stereotype was so blatantly re-enforced that I was ready to put on a currency trade.  Long JPY / Short ILS