Is it really the end of January...where did it go...oh yeah I was on a plane...

Well here I am back from 2 weeks away. I arrived back in Canada on Saturday and was welcomed by a pretty good snowfall (rare for Vancouver). Kind of hard to leave the temperate SE Asia region (Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia) and its 30 degree Celsius temperatures for below zero and snowing!

So what kind of trip was it? Well let’s just say it was 14 days, 7 cities and over 23,000 miles of successful meetings that will move us forward in our goal to provide the best technical support and services to VisionFund possible. I am definitely physically tired after these kinds of trips but at the same time re-energized by the amazing team I have working with me to get all of this work done.

I have to say that I am always struck by the historical beauty of the United Kingdom. I arrived in London on Sunday Afternoon the 13th to relatively mild weather and it wasn’t raining (which is a nice change to the usual weather I get). Arun, (who is the team lead for my project management group) and I headed off to explore the countryside a little bit on our one "non-working” or “travel day” during the two weeks. We went to Windsor which is best known for “Windsor Castle” where the Queen spends many months each year. The quiet serenity of the town was amazing and while we did not get to go into the castle as it was too late to do the tour we walked around and enjoyed the little shops which are built right into the walls of the castle! After a few hours of walking we ended up in a little English Pub and had a nice dinner. Ironically the rain stayed away during our whole walk around the town but began to fall the minute we got into the pub (whew). Coming from a part of the world where we are about to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our entire province seeing buildings (and castles) that have been there for hundreds of years is always a little awe-inspiring.

Our meetings in London went well and we even managed to get out for dinner one night in Piccadilly (to Wolsely’s). Our host arranged for the reservation which is pretty hard to get in the evening most of the time and I could understand why. Sitting in the restaurant we were surrounded by celebrities from all walks of life. Damon Hill (Formula 1 World Champion Race car driver) was two tables over from us, another actor whose name escapes me but was very recognizable was at the table next to us on the other side and even Joan Rivers came in right behind us. Not something that Arun or I normally get to experience in our usual travels with World Vision so it was kind of neat to experience for a change.

Mid-week we headed off to Belfast and I can tell you that flying into the city I was in awe of the pure beauty of the countryside. The rolling green hills, the town below was just as beautiful as I had been told it was by Robin Mark a number of years ago at a Worship Conference he and I were both at. We stayed in the Europa Hotel, which was the most bombed building in all of Belfast over the years of the conflicts in Northern Ireland. It is also where Bill Clinton stayed on his visit to Belfast as President of the United States and was square in the middle of the city. On our first day there I managed to get out for a jog around the city before it started to rain (something, which I was told by our local host, that you can tell is going to happen by the fact that if you can see the mountains you know it is about to rain and if you can’t you know the rain has already started).

Belfast is a city of variety. Both old and new architecture side by side (mostly as a result of the old buildings being bombed and the new being built to replace it unfortunately,however the city hall was amazing...see the picutre attached) I love Irish accents, there is something inherently friendly about them. I can’t wait to go back there again someday and have time to really explore the city and the surrounding countryside but for now a little taste of it was enough to encourage me to go back.

From Belfast we headed to Asia on the Saturday, Starting in Bangkok on Sunday and then Singapore Monday where we had meetings with World Vision Asia Pacific Region leadership. For those who have never been to Singapore it is such a neat city to be in as it is just so clean. There is a saying that Singapore is a “fine” city (you get fined for this, fined for that, etc.) I just think it is really quite unique and I always enjoy spending a little time there. On Monday night it was off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 4 days of my management team meetings. For the past year I have been operating with the knowledge that in order to move the support strategy I proposed to the VisionFund CEO last January forward I would have to have a strong management team. It took until this year to add the missing parts to the team (Arun started in his role in the fall, one manager started January 7th and the other officially starts of February 4th) but after 4 days of meetings I can honestly say that the Lord has blessed me with the support of 3 very strong leaders, all unique in their own right and each bringing abilities that complement each other (and me). I am encouraged by the progress we made in our 2008 strategy plans and feel ready to tackle the year ahead.

2008 will bring many changes to the face of IT support for VisionFund and while it will not be easy I am confident with the support of great IT leaders and strong staff that our team will make that difference happen. Of course none of it would be possible without the support of our Lord and Saviour. Thank you God for Mary, Arun and Joe and for their willingness to share this journey with me, may you bless them as they take on the ministry that you have called them to and continue to shed light into their lives and their thoughts.

Well that’s it for now…next up is Los Angeles the 2nd week of February where I will present our recommendation on February 8th to VisionFund leadership on where we would like to go in providing effective banking application services to them for the next 5-15 years. This is a 3-4 year project (no small undertaking) so prayers for open minds and hearts are always appreciated and of course for safe travels.

Til next time,

Mike.

What in the World is Mike thinking?

Those of you, who know me well, know that I am a “talking thinker”. In many cases I will put out thoughts and I will be looking for people to challenge me on those thoughts or confirm that they are valid. One of the things I need to work on this year is making clear that my talking thinking is just that. Because I had been in my “comfort zone” for the past many years working with many people who knew me well and understood my way of processing thoughts, I forgot that not everyone “thinks” or knows that I think this way. This past year I realized that many times in discussions with others, people came to the conclusion that I had already made up my mind even though I was still in “processing” mode. Again, I need to be conscious of that more this year.

Having said all of that, I am thankful for all those discussions as I learned a lot through them and while they were not always easy conversations I was constantly reminded of how much work it took to build something from the ground up like a new business (see my last post) or an MFI. I was challenged by many very intelligent individuals who taught me a lot about how different their local context could be and in return I challenged them to think about how similar some of those things could be around the world. I will tell you that without these types of conversations I don’t believe we would be moving in the direction we are heading today in supporting a “Global” organization with 100 (or 47 if you look at the MFI community) unique organizations as a part of it.

The other thing I learned is that we all have our change management challenges. It might be a national individual thinking regionally or globally. It might be a regional individual thinking globally or nationally (or even at a branch or ADP level). Or it might be a global individual thinking regionally or nationally (or again locally at the branch or ADP level). It might be the realization that some roles can be done more effectively globally, regionally or nationally, and some can only be done locally. I saw a lot of times last year where people felt they knew what problems the people they were trying to help were experiencing but I believe in fact that until we really dig deep we can’t appreciate the challenges others face. This means one very important thing to me…Ask them, they will tell you what will help them and what is important to them.

As I get ready to head off to Los Angeles to meet with Adam to discuss how we will start to implement a Shared Services Support model for the VisionFund MFI’s globally I need to keep all of these thoughts in mind and the fact that as a member of the World Vision Global Centre IT team I need to always keep our Vision Statement at the forefront of what I do.

• Our Vision
– Earn and retain the right to serve our World Vision Partnership (internal) Customers by:
• Developing and empowering personnel along their professional and spiritual journeys
• Engaging these personnel with an undying commitment to enable World Vision’s mission and live its core values
• Our visible passion for Customer service and “urgency with a purpose”
• Encouraging local competencies with “business is mission”
• Leveraging our global scale
• Validating our processes against leading practices and performance measures

Thanks again for listening to my “writing thinking” as this would be the blog version of my “talking thinking” :-)

Until next time,

Mike

New Years Thoughts...

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a special time with friends and family over the holidays and that for those of you (like me) who took some extended time off, you have re-energized those batteries for the upcoming year. Today’s post in some ways is a reflection on the year that just passed (and before) and a resolution or commitment for the year to come.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the statement “learn from your mistakes” or “You don’t learn as much from your successes as from your failures” or “You need to get out of your comfort zone” I’d like to add one more to that list…

“If you are not willing to risk failure, you will never truly succeed”.

This is something that came to me 17 years ago when I started up my retail/distribution company. I remember talking to my dad, who was the rock of employment stability. Dad had worked for one company for many many years and I knew that he would eventually retire from there. The thought of giving up a full-time stable job to become self-employed was just such a scary thought to him but yet I knew that he was proud of me for doing it (if not a little bit scared for me as well). I took a “leap of faith” so to speak in leaving a solid, stable, responsible, comfortable, certain job in order to venture into the uncertainty that being self-employed in the consumer “retail” driven area of business could only bring. That decision and the subsequent experience and opportunities it created, brought me to World Vision in 2006 and without it I’m sure I would not be here today. Now that to me is success!

This past year I challenged many individuals throughout World Vision/VisionFund to come and take a “leap of faith” with me in changing the way they think about something they have been doing one way for a very long time and in essence asked them to “trust me” in solving their business problems through the use of different technology and how it is supported. In 2008 I want to continue to earn their trust by continuing to put together a team of committed, hard working individuals whose sole focus is to make the VisionFund Microfinance Institutes (MFI’s), in all of the countries we are in, a success.

One last thought for today…Many times we take time to thank the Lord for our blessings but I know that one thing that I am guilty of is not thanking Him enough for the challenges and struggles that are put into my life. Over the years I have discovered that I have become very fond of saying to people “The Lord never said it would be easy, just that it would be worthwhile” Now that is my paraphrasing of many instances in the Bible where God’s people had to live in duress just to see the promised land or His Glory, but I truly believe it to be true. I am sure that we will come across struggles in 2008 but I am committed to the success of the solutions we bring to the MFI’s and to each of you and while I know that it won’t be easy, it will be worthwhile and I will thank God for all of it.

Thanks for listening,

Mike