Cut costs

Cut costs, cut costs... We have a 15% target at this client using Lean and we have only 8 weeks to do this. I am going to be busy on this one but this should be actually quite interesting and will change me a bit from my 10,000 feet strategy projects

Monday morning flight

- Alarm clock at 530am... Wife is still fully asleep

- Get dressed, no time for coffee, cab is waiting outside...

- Get in the cab, try to sleep but Blackberry red light is flashing like crazy...

- Arrive at airport... Other business people and occasional tourists...

- Go through security (laptop out, shoes off, liquids in plastic bag...)

- Quickly go to the lounge to get a coffee and newspaper...

- Get in the plane (economy for flights less than 3 hours) at 655am...

- We're on !

Staffing

It's like the Russian Roulette... You never know where you might end up. If you haven't secured something, it usually happens like this: on the Friday, the staffing coordinator starts to put more pressure

[Staffing coordinator] - "So what have you decided? This project needs someone.. I know it's not your ideal project but there is not much else"

[Consultant] - "Yeah, I'm still looking at a couple of options but none have been confirmed. But this project you are mentioning, it is really confirmed?"

[Staffing coordinator] - "Oh yes, fully confirmed and actually they really like your profile. I think we need to confirm you as you have nothing else secured"

And there you go, that's how it's done... OK not always but it happens a few times like this to me. Actually, just learned this Friday afternoon that I will spend the next 2 months in some middle town in the middle of the UK trying to take a big chunk of cost out for our client... Good times ahead!