A Year in the Life

By Rodney Bryner

Client sales presentation at 9am Wednesday: It is Tuesday-2pm and my flight from Tampa, FL to Madison, WI was delayed…then cancelled….my rescheduled flight to Milwuakee, WI was delayed....took another flight to Atlanta….connecting flight to Milwuakee, WI was cancelled….flew to Chicago….rented a car….drove to Madision, WI….checked into Hotel at 4:30am Wed…slept 2 hours….meet John G…drove 1 hour to client….we were on time and prepared for the sales presentation….A typical day traveling these days in the U.S and trying to sell Quest.

They are setting up a P.O. Box for me in the Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, because I spend the majority of my time there.

After a recent Lean Event and Lean Training at a client, I was back at the client site a couple of months later to do additional training….I had noticed a lot of CI and Lean visual management for the teams and for cultural awareness….as I was in the restroom taking care of business, I noticed a laminated sign on the wall with our (8) types of wastes; it read, ‘Do your part to wipe out waste or flush them out’. I had to chuckle (as I tried not to make a mess), was my training really that effective or was the client really on board with changing the culture.

During a sales presentation in Mexico; the client took us out to dinner, supposedly to the best steak place in town. As with a ‘Ruth Chris Steakhouse’, the type of steaks were presented uncooked before you ordered. They all looked delicious, and we were informed that a normal portion included (2) steaks all for about $10-$12 US. We ate appetizers, then on came the steaks. (2) waiters had to carry them out. They still looked as delicious as they were when shown uncooked. As we took a few bites, those of us from the U.S., including myself, looked at the client personnel. They were eating like it was their last meal. For us it was the toughest steak we had every eaten. You needed a chain saw just to cut it. As we travel the globe, ‘A rotten meal to some, is a feast to others’.

In the U.S., our OE key sales presentations and OE engagements that I have been involved this year include clients in: hand tool manufacturing, banks, industrial equipment manufacturing, enema manufacturing, electric utilities, automotive parts manufacturing, structural engineering, trucking/on-land freight, trains, oil/gas drilling, cargo shipping ports, paper mills and steel supplier…I would say we have been somewhat diversified.

During sales presentations, assessments and projects, I always get good feedback from clients about the professionalism of our material (even though some get by in British format)…hats off to our internal service teams in the U.K. and the U.S. Yes we do have a service team in the U.S.

Living in Florida, late Summer and early Fall are the seasons for tropical storms and hurricanes. There has been little activity this year, so I felt fairly lucky….but while during our analysis engagement in St. Thomas, my lucked changed and we got hit with a Tropical Storm while there.

At one point, while I was working out of my office, I was on (3) phones at once…Skype, Office Phone and Cell Phone…and also trying to send an email. We are thankful to have so many communication aides at our disposal to stay in touch….too bad I hung up inadvertently on (2) people (one was a client as I was following up on an invoice, the other was a Quest associate asking about T&Es) and I sent the email to the wrong person….I was talking to Gordon F on Skype, you know where my priorities are.

I live by the Quest principle (not only at work, but at home)….‘Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them’; but I added one more, ‘Tell them that you are going to follow-up’. Although, my family has added another, ‘We are tired of you telling us’.

Finally, I have received good feedback from clients and Quest associates who are impressed of Quest’s capability to have multiple service offerings, it is different from what they are used to from most U.S. management consulting firms. It is definitely a major strength of Quest and an advantage in working for Quest.