29th April 2010:

I was lucky….

… last week as I was ‘stuck’ in the UK, rather than away from home, as a result of the cancellation of flights in much of Europe due to volcanic ash.  I was actually due to be in South Africa for our Sub Saharan Africa Regional Meeting and whilst it was great shame that I could not be there I did have the benefit of a few more nights at home and some extra time with my wife and family.
 
I was luckier than many – the web is full of stories of people who struggled to get home or to meetings such as a number of journalists who write for The Economist. http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/04/flying_difficulties
 
These stories, and others, prompted many articles which reflected on the volcano eruption in Iceland and the disruption it has caused to business travel.  One of the more thoughtful ones I saw was also in The Economist  
http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15943255.  This article focussed on risk management but noted:
 
“The aim is less about trying to predict what unlikely events may come along, and more about creating mechanisms and relationships that would help the firm and its partners respond with agility if disaster did strike.”
 
The point being that close cooperation, common practices and consistent standards (as well as robust infrastructure) across a network are essential for international businesses to cope effectively when extraordinary events like this take place.
 
We had many people stuck where they didn’t necessarily want to be – and most took the opportunity to see relatives and friends whom they don’t often get the time to visit whilst on business trips or even to do a bit of sightseeing.  Technology enabled most people to keep in touch and do most of their work.  
 
I did one long video call with South Africa – it worked OK though the quality of the picture wasn’t great and the level of engagement was less than a personal meeting; but it was acceptable.  I was also due to make two presentations to our Sub Saharan Africa Regional Meeting – instead, and arranged at very short notice, I did two short video presentations which were then made available to download in South Africa where they were shown with my slides.  The feedback has been pretty good – particularly given they were arranged at the last minute so were unrehearsed and unedited.  One of the positives is that they can be shared with a wider audience in the region and not just the 80 or so partners who were there; the biggest downside was again the lack of any personal engagement and no opportunity to discuss the issues I raised in the discussions at coffee, lunch and dinner around the conference.  I did one feedback session on Skype but the internet access was not good and we kept on losing the connection so we resorted to email to deal with the issues raised – far short of what we could have achieved had I been in South Africa.
 
So, overall the disruption to flying was not a disaster – more an irritation and one I would have coped with far better had there been an advance warning.  But I still think there is no substitute for personal engagement, so I guess no less travelling for me.

 International BDO  0 Comments April 29th, 2010