I had occasion to chat with Colin Rainier earlier this week. (No, I'm not switching industries - if you follow the link, you'll see what I mean.) We'd had a bit of trouble scheduling the call as Colin was one of those whose travel plans were affected by that nasty plume of ash that was pouring out of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull (I love that word - should be in spelling bees) volcano.
Colin had to get to a meeting in Nice, or thereabouts, in fact a tiny village even more beautiful than Nice (Eze). To get there, he flew from his home in #1 Bermuda (below, the view from his office window, which he kindly sent) to #2 Newark to #3 Porto (Portugal) to #4 Geneva, where he picked up a car, swinging through #5 Italy and finally arriving in #6 Eze (France.) Right. Six countries, for a brief meeting, then turned around and came home, all within 24 hours.
His colleagues at the meeting had even greater adventures getting there - ferries, trains, cars, and such.
That the subject of our call was virtual working was not lost on Colin who went on to cite his experiences with same and this phenomenal stat: he figures that his "expense ratio is 40% of [his] competitors" due to his use of virtual teams, sourced for the need, then dispersed when the task is done. Well done, Colin, especially when you have the good fortune to be "assembling" those teams while looking out on this.
