Every trip is different, every situation unlike any other. This is not new to you nor to me. After a very long and welcome stay at home, I arrived in Dar just over three weeks ago.
Armed with past trip knowledge, a number of SIM cards (none of which ended up working, as while I was gone the requirement to have them registered was actually enforced, thus forcing me to buy new SIM cards,) a list of friends to get back in touch with (and lets face it, the actual getting back in touch is so much different what with social media being so prevalent in our lives.. why, I might have missed the parties and other festive events, but looking at the various pictures and posts uploaded by my friends.. I knew what was going on;) and most importantly, a long list of deliverables to think through and actually deliver in what may appear to be my last trip here (appear, because as usual, nothing is set in store, leaving one to drift day in and out with a goal in mind, a goal set in sand more than in store).. I arrived in Dar (run on sentence? You decide.)
So this trip is all about work. Except for the first week and a half where I was saddled with a driver (although it is very nice to have someone pick you up, take you home, not having to worry about the traffic, the crazy drivers, the hands-out polisi, or the myriad of other challenges one encounters here,) I’ve been in by 730 each morning, putting in 10, 11, 12+ hrs a day.. and working. Operations is fine, but as always in this business, issues arise almost daily, as clients have questions, issues and the occasional problem. It is a service business after all, and despite technology there is still a certain amount of human element and subjectivity involved… and where subjectivity exists, then differing opinions are sure to proliferate. The real challenge is that for the last two weeks, and what remains of this one…there is no other senior management… the Managing Director is away, and although accessible (and who isn’t this days), the shop runs entirely under my supervision now. So far so good… been polishing up on my value proposition pitch, have extolled the wonders of the production triangle, responded to a few RFPs, met a number of newspaper editors, took on a few meetings and managed to actually sell something.
But why so busy? It is after all a business I know well, even one so far removed from my usual normalcy. What has made it new, challenging and once again exciting is the very good potential to open up a new venue for revenue… for is media intelligence also not encompassing, not just of PR, advertising and marketing, but also of market research? What do you do where market research means door to door data collection and all the associated costs (and even those costs you wouldn’t necessarily take into consideration?) What is market research in the end? Data, data analyzed in such a way as to generate the answers you or your clients seek, so as to make intelligent decisions in terms of strategy and planning. And if Data plays a big part in it, can technology be the answer? I’ll let you know once I get the feedback from the millions of texts that should be going out in the near future.
My 40th and beyond 