Category — travel & technology

Just a little piece of self-promotion: If you live in German-speaking continental Europe and fancy meeting me and my suitcase – this is your chance. The magazine ZEIT Campus did a feature on Consulting, and they asked me to show them what a Consultant packs for a normal week of travel. You find me in the current edition (September/October 2008) on pages 52/53.

For those of you who are wondering if there are some rules to follow when packing your bags – well yes, there are! My heroes at Manager Tools recently started covering travel-related topics, and as luck has it, they cover packing your bags first. You find that podcast here.

Just a little piece of self-promotion: If you live in German-speaking continental Europe and fancy meeting me and my suitcase - this is your chance. The magazine ZEIT Campus did a feature on Consulting, and they asked me to show them what a Consultant packs for a normal week of travel. You find me ...

At many of my assignments I need a rental car to get from the nearest airport to the client, the hotel and back. The travel policy of my company tells me what class of cars I can rent – but of course, this is just were the game begins: What upgrade can I get for free?

1. Get the plastic
   Every car rental I know of has a bonus card. The standard ones are usually free for everybody and only carry your details, so that you don’t have to provide address, etc. every time you rent. The better ones (“platinum”, “privilege”, etc.) often entitle you to free upgrades. You get them by either simply renting a lot of cars (just a matter of time) or, if you are lucky, your company already has a deal with them, so that you not only get a special rate, but also that desired piece of plastic. Check with your colleagues when you are new – everybody plays this game, so it should not be hard to find someone in the know.
2. Build a relationship to the people at the counter
   This works great when you are renting in smaller airports / train stations / cities, where the crew at the desk of the rental firm does not rotate too much. In the best case, there is always the same person there when you arrive, half awake, on Monday morning. This is your chance! Those at the desk have, most often, direct influence on what car they give you. The hold, so to speak, the keys to your rental luck. Be nice to them. Cheer them up. Don’t be pushy, and don’t force it. The key (again!) lies in making it a positive experience for THEM, so that they can happily reward you with a bigger/faster/nicer car. If not this week, then next.
3. Ask for an upgrade. NICELY.
   The times I got a shiny sportscar while paying for a Golf? That was when the customer before me was a rude idiot who tried to push the clerk at the desk into giving him a big car. Of course, he did not. If I remember correctly, he walked away with a Ford. Serves him right. When it was my turn, we first shared a laugh about that ridiculous guy, and when I gave her my piece of plastic and said that I had a reservation, I just said “something that fits the good weather would be great!”. Her response: “Hm, let me see. Wait a minute!”… off she went to the back office, and when she came back she was almost apologetic – “I am sorry, there was no convertible left… but I think you’ll like it still!”. Let’s just say I was never faster at client side than that day.
   Remember: Asking for an upgrade is perfectly fine. Just be nice and casual about it. And don’t bitch if it doesn’t work – see point two, you might see her again next week!

On a sidenote: I do recognize that it does not matter at all in a real-world-sense what car you get as long as it takes you where you want to go. Still, being a road warrior, it often is a very welcome goodie that makes the Monday-morning routine just a bit more fun.

At many of my assignments I need a rental car to get from the nearest airport to the client, the hotel and back. The travel policy of my company tells me what class of cars I can rent - but of course, this is just were the game begins: What upgrade can I get ...

Another real two minutes post this time. When it comes to clothing, I am sure you are ironing your shirts, or have them ironed. You take care not to spill spaghetti sauce over your suit because the dry cleaner costs you a little fortune…. but ties and shoes, some people seem to ignore.

Never leave your ties tied, and don’t crumble them.
After work, when you switch into something more comfortable and get rid of the leash tie, undo it. NEVER leave the knot it. Your tie will hate you for that, and go all ugly way too soon. When traveling, fold it or roll it up and store it so that nothing with edges can cause the fine fabric (your ties are out of silk, right?!) damage.

Shine your shoes.
Those expensive Oxfords you bought? They need a lot of care, and they deserve it. Even when your shoes were not expensive – shine your shoes, at least every week. Go get some good stuff – real shoe polish that you apply with a soft cloth, let dry, and then polish off. Don’t go for the "quick and easy" stuff.  By the way, my shoemaker gave me a great tip: Instead of using the bulky wooden shoetrees, simply stuff your shoes with newspaper. It has the same effect (keeps the leather in form), does not overstretch your shoes (which shoetrees with springs do) and you save yourself weight and space in your luggage.

Any more tips to add? What is your trick to keep your clothes as sharp as you are on the road?

Another real two minutes post this time. When it comes to clothing, I am sure you are ironing your shirts, or have them ironed. You take care not to spill spaghetti sauce over your suit because the dry cleaner costs you a little fortune.... but ties and shoes, some people seem to ignore. ...

[Update/Disclaimer: The ideas in this post apply for when you are in a good mood, and happen to have a halfway decent taxi driver. If you are tired as hell, stressed out, in the middle of nowhere and with a bad driver - well, then just be lucky that you don't have to walk.]

We all sit in taxis / cabs all the time. Now – there is the “standard consultant way” of spending the ride, and there are, in my opinion, many better ways to get the most out of a taxi ride.

The standard way
The standard way for a consultant (talking cliché here, obviously) to behave during a taxi ride is simple. They enter the cab, sit in the back (which is a notable thing only in countries where you have the option to sit next to the driver, obviously), barf the direction, and then a) start calling people about work-related stuff / listen to their voicemail, b) stare at their shoes/out of the window, c) work, d) sleep. Does this ring a bell?

The better ways

• Sit in front (where you can), next to the cab driver. Say hello, smile (!), look them in the face (!). (By the way, the part of saying hello, smiling and looking the driver in the face (even if through the rear view mirror) applies to all the ways.) Start a conversation with the driver – ask them something, tell them something. When in a new town, ask them to tell you something about the town. When you are in a familiar town, talk about what has been going on lately. When you just heard a great joke, tell it to them. You will be amazed how much those little conversations can give you.
• Use the ride for some sightseeing! I am not implying to ask the driver for a route along all sights of the town – but open your eyes, look out of the window (don’t just stare into the sky!). Chances are, you’ll see something interesting. Chances are, the cab driver can tell you something about what you are seeing when you ask him politely.
• Make a quick call to your loved ones to check in with them. For your significant other, tell them you are thinking about them and wish them a great day. Now – from what I have heard, cab drivers don’t mind it at all when you make a phone call… as long as it is not stuff that they really do not want to know. I despised the job calls earlier because, come on, you should take breaks when they are offered to you and you can chose – but making a good deed with a call (which ups your Karma and boosts your energy) is a perfect thing to do. Just…. no dirty talk. No fighting. No excessive swearing. Only say what you would tolerate to hear from others’ conversations in public as well.

There you have it. Go, make your next cab drive something enjoyable – for you AND the cab driver.

And for heavens’ sake – give a tip. Your company is paying anyway, and I have not heard of a travel expense policy yet that slaps you on the wrist for rounding up on cab drives.

We ...

[UPDATE:

The gods of the internets are against me today. And for you. As of now, Xobni is directly available for you to test and indulge - which of course means that there is no real incentive anymore for you to jump through any hoops at the KillerConsultant to get it. Which blows my great idea of some semi-forced audience interaction.

But if you really like the KC, you will tell the rest of the world how you like your Xobni plugin in the comments anyway, right?!]

Hey there,

it is Monday, let’s see if we can get a conversation going. The deal is simple: I have five invites for Xobni to give away.
Xobni, if you have not heard of it yet, is a cool new plugin for Outlook which gives you a whole new look on your email experience: In a sidebar, it shows you all sorts of information about the person whose email you are just reading. When in the day, for example, you get most email from that person, their phone number, their contacts, a list of recent conversations and files received from them. Apart from that, Xobni also does a whole lot of statistics-voodoo on your mail – but that main sidebar in itself really is something you should try. I might go as far as saying that this could make email management fun again!

Xobni is in invitation-only beta right now… and you can get one of these invitations.
There are only one and a half conditions:

• Within a week of receiving the invite, you write a paragraph worth of your experiences with Xobni – what you liked, what you thought was cool, what features you missed, and if you’d recommend it. I’ll publish those short reviews here, of course with your name and a link to your website, if you want.
• The “half” condition: I’d prefer consultants to get the invites, of course – but if in the next days there are no consultants to be found reading this site (darnit!), I’ll open the tickets up for everybody else.

Go, sign up in the comments!
I am looking forward to seeing how you guys like / use / see Xobni.

[UPDATE: The gods of the internets are against me today. And for you. As of now, Xobni is directly available for you to test and indulge - which of course means that there is no real incentive anymore for you to jump through any hoops at the KillerConsultant to get it. Which blows my great ...