Mountains and beaches

It's the Memorial Day weekend, and we are finally settled in well enough to go on our first road trip! We decided to check out the claim that you can go skiing and surfing on the same day - we went to Mount Wilson and then to Santa Monica beach. It is entirely possible to do this in one day, however we decided to take it easy and go on two days, since it's a 3 day weekend.

Navigating the LA freeway system is no problem for those of us from KL - it's just the same except that making mistakes here does not cost $$$ in extra toll! Just like KL, LA has a multitude of highways and many ways to get to each place. In fact, we found a lot of similarities between KL and LA:

1. Both cities are referred to by their initials.

2. Both cities are located in valleys, with mountains to the north-east and coast to the south-west.

3. Both cities suffer from frequent hazy spells.

4. Both cities have lousy public transport systems, with mickey mouse Light Rail transport that does not reach most of the densely populated areas.

5. Both cities are notorious for traffic jams.

6. Both cities have terrible drivers and a common habit of cutting into other lanes to get ahead.

7. Both cities have a large migrant population from a nearby country.

8. Both cities are great places to live once you know them a little better.



Anyway, we took a drive to Mt. Wilson observatory which I learnt was the leading observatory in the world for several decades, with 2 of the largest telescopes in existence at the time and where many astronomical discoveries were made. Unfortunately Lucas was not so impressed (I guess his future is not in astrophysics), and also the view down to LA was obscured by fog/haze, so we didn't spend that much time up there. However, it is definitely worth a trip up, and I intend to go back when the weather is clearer and when the guided tour of the telescopes is on.




On the next day, we headed for the beach at Santa Monica. This was more Lucas' cup of tea! He enjoyed the swings and the fresh sea breeze, and was in a good mood throughout. It was fascinating seeing the people on their rollerblades and Segways, and practicing their yoga and acrobatic moves in public. Unfortunately it was still a little cool for the Baywatch set, so we had to content ourselves with watching the fishermen on the pier instead of the bikini clad babes running in slow motion!

Next we'll be heading for Hollywood, and perhaps fame and fortune for Lucas...

A quick trip to Washington DC

My first Sunday in LA was already a travel day - I was signed up for the compulsory 2 day ADP training program which was held at the Accenture office in Reston, Virginia. I found out that a cab from Pasadena to the airport would cost about $80, and since I was travelling alone, decided to try out LAs infamous public transport system. I took the Metro Gold Line to Union Station and from there got a Flyaway bus straight to the airport. Total travel time was about an hour and fifteen minutes, and it was a very comfortable ride both on the train and the bus. Total cost was $4.25 and I had a much improved opinion on getting around without a car in LA!

So I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare for my 12:45 flight to Washington - then they announced that the flight was completely full and they would be giving free tickets to volunteers willing to be bumped to the next flight. I decided to go for it since the next flight would still get me in at a decent hour (just before midnight Eastern time), and so got a middle seat in the back for the next flight 3 hours later and my free ticket for a future flight to the destination of my choice within the 48 states. Flying domestic coach in the US is really no better than taking a Greyhound bus - I'm not sure if I really want to use that free ticket after all!

The ADP training the next day had 7 participants - 3 going to a project in New York, 2 based at the Reston office, myself and Jeni - the only participant who is actually doing a project in a developing country! This is ironic as much of the training is cultural, health and security awareness training geared at those from developed countries working in not so developed countries. Still, it was good fun and great meeting my fellow ADPers slumming it in those not so developed places called New York City or Washington DC! We did some interesting role plays (I really liked the game which simulated how the playing field is skewed when it comes to trade between nations and interactions with the global institutions such as World Bank/IMF etc.) So, despite the fact that I am not going to the field, I got a lot out of the training and it was well worth the long journey.

The 2 days passed by very quickly, and then it was time to experience the delights of flying in the US again. This time the flight was just delayed an hour, so no free ticket and the delay was just enough to make me miss the last Metro to Pasadena. The training came in handy though as I was on full alert state walking around a deserted Union Station in LA at half past midnight. I distributed my cash to various places so that even if I got mugged I would not lose it all. I tried to look like I knew where I was going (unfortunately not very successfully) and finally found the taxi line and paid $33 to get home. That $33 could have sponsored a child for a month, and everytime I take out my wallet to pay for something nowadays, I think in terms of how many months (or years) a child could have been fed, clothed and educated. It is an unfortunate feature of the world we live in that life is so cheap in some parts of the world and yet it is such a challenge to eliminate poverty.

Another day, another place

On Thursday we moved from the hotel in Arcadia to Pasadena, where we have a large 2 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately we will only be able to stay here for 2 and a half weeks, as it is actually student accommodation and it will be fully booked for summer school starting in June. So on we go with our nomadic lifestyle...

I picked up our rental car also on Thursday, at least now we are somewhat mobile. In a short 3 days we became known in Arcadia as "those strange people who walk"! It was really funny when we asked directions and they would always say - "Oh it's just 2 exits away on 210" or something like that, and when I said we're walking they'd give me a strange look and shrug their shoulders! The rental car is a new Pontiac Grand Prix, the most powerful car I've ever driven (and this is an "intermediate" car according to the rental agency). Anyway, it's got a 3.8L engine with 200 horsepower, looks pretty sporty but still has plenty of room in the back for Lucas as well as a big boot (have to say "trunk" here) for the groceries. So basically we have a car for the entire duration, but a place to stay only for a couple of weeks at a time - we are surely living the American way :-)

We've now been here 5 days but still have jetlag and have not really been anywhere except the office, supermarket and department store. However, today is Saturday and hopefully we'll have the energy to check out Old Town Pasadena this afternoon.

I've also learnt a little more about what World Vision does - it seems I knew less about it than the average person when I signed up for this project! Some of my friends actually sponsor kids under World Vision's sponsorship program, and most of them knew the connection with Bono (a few said before I left, "Get Bono's autograph when you're there" and I was thinking "Huh?"). Now I know how Bono is connected with World Vision, and what the "One Campaign" is all about.

Working with an organisation like World Vision, where every dollar that you save on the project can directly help a child or family somewhere, makes one think twice before taking a taxi or booking that hotel room when a motel is good enough. That extra 30 bucks can keep a child fed and clothed for a whole month! I shall attempt to do my part by taking public transport to the airport tomorrow, as I have to go to Washington DC for a required training program on Accenture Development Partnerships.

First impressions

The hotel we are staying at has no restaurant and so after catching up on our sleep we went in search of a proper American breakfast - the picture shows the kids portion at Denny's (just kidding, it's an adult portion, but it filled both Yean Lin and me up for the whole day!).

Later I met up with Dan, my colleague on this project who has been running the show on his own for the last month while waiting for the rest of the team to come onboard. Apart from helping me get all the essential supplies for our first few days, Dan also briefed me on the project and the people involved. It sounds like I'm getting in to this project at a good point in time as no decisions have been made yet and the visioning workshop only takes place next month. This is something different for me as all my previous projects at Accenture have involved implementing an existing strategy rather than starting from scratch.

Today we started off at 7am (this is the problem when you are in a timezone behind everyone else - the day starts early and ends late, it's now 10pm here and I am in the middle of the Malaysian working day!) and I've already met some of the client team leads. A pretty international bunch - 2 from the UK, one from Australia and one from South Africa. So far, nobody who's actually from California except for Dan!

OK, American Idol results are up now - gotta run...

Jetlag

Jetlag usually hits me on the second or third day after arrival - the first day I'm usually so exhausted that I manage to sleep through the night. Today, however, I woke up at around 1am and I'm not able to get back to sleep. So I might as well be productive!

On the flight over, I was reading the current issue of the Economist and Accenture had inserted in there an excerpt from Outlook (a journal of high-performance business and thought leadership) with the title "Changing ahead of the curve". It gave examples from several companies such as Toyota that were already doing very well but still decided to transform the company to ensure that they would remain ahead of the curve. Reading this, it seemed to me that this must have been the inspiration for Accenture's own transformational program called Horizon 2012. I think the key takeaway from this is that changing before you are forced to change is the only way that you can control your own destiny. Accenture has done this several times already, for example going public at a time when the firm was in a position of strength, changing the workforce model, and aggressively building up delivery centres all over the globe are just 3 key examples of changes that were made before they had to be and as a result putting Accenture in a very strong position, not just in traditional high-value consulting but also in outsourcing and in systems integration.

So with this experience one would expect Horizon 2012 to be a success as well. At the moment there is still a lot of chaos and uncertainty though, which begs the question - why are we so strong at delivering transformational programs for our clients but we can't do the same in our own organisation? Perhaps we should follow our own advice from the Outlook article referenced, which is that up to 30% of the management team to drive the change must come from outside the company...

The journey to LA

As you can see from the pictures, Lucas is quite an accomplished traveller! We were very lucky indeed to have an entire row to ourselves for the long Taipei-LA leg of the journey, and even with this we only got about 2 hours sleep over the whole journey. This is mainly because Lucas was so excited to be on the plane that he refused to go to sleep. We were wondering what all the other parents fed their babies - they all appeared to sleep through the entire journey! Apart from this, however, it was quite a pleasant journey. I think Lucas is the only person in economy class that was referred to by name by all the stewardesses!

We flew on Malaysian airlines, which has a well-deserved reputation for being baby-friendly (we can certainly confirm this), and also it was the shortest flight duration, with only a one hour stop in Taipei. We made use of this time to give Lucas a bath - he had already managed to use up 4 diapers in the short 4 hour sector to Taipei!



Even though we landed early, we had to wait for 20 minutes to get to the gate. Then there was a long queue at immigration, with several flights arriving at around the same time. The immigration officer was very nice, and also called Lucas by name - he's getting all the VIP treatment!

We finally arrived at the Extended Stay in Arcadia, our "home" for the next 3 days at 4pm local time, almost exactly 24 hours after closing the door of our apartment in KL. We will transfer to our more permanent (well, it's for 3 weeks at the moment) home in Pasadena this Thursday, and we will also be picking up our rental car then.

We were so exhausted from the journey that we all fell asleep at 5pm local time and when we woke up 6 hours later there was no place where we could get food. So we decided to have a 24 hour fast (not Lucas of course) and that was good as we needed to be hungry for the American sized breakfast...more on this in the next post!

Some thoughts on career models and compensation

Warning serious rambling post (you will recognise these by the absence of a picture to start the post!)

Last Friday I attended the KL office Partners (now called "Senior Executives") and Managers meeting and a fair portion of the discussion was our compensation and the Senior Executive Career Model. One of the challenges facing the firm is that it has become more difficult to make the jump to Senior Executive whereas the relative compensation of a "Junior" Senior Executive is not really much different from that of a "Senior" Senior Manager. The question then arises whether it is worth it to make that jump at all. Accenture used to be a private partnership (hence the term "Partner") and making it to Partner was a really big deal, as you were then a part owner of the firm and you collectively made decisions on the future direction of the firm without having to get the approval of external shareholders. Now, however, as a public listed company with over 150,000 employees, making it to Senior Executive (SE) is really not the same - you have all the additional responsibility, but you are still just another cog in the wheel.

All this would not be an issue except for the following feature of career progression in Accenture's consulting workforce, which is that rising through the ranks from analyst to consultant to manager to senior manager (SM) is fairly automatic (you may be a little faster or a little slower than average, but you'd have to be seriously flawed to get kicked out - most people leave on their own due to lifestyle choices or better compensation as a contractor). Then you have this huge barrier from SM to SE, which involves being responsible for several million $ of revenue on a sustainable basis, amongst other requirements. That used to be worth aiming for back when the firm was a private partnership, however the targets and expectations are now no longer commensurate with the package, at least at the lowest "level of responsibility".

So what seems to be happening, at least in Malaysia, is that everyone is making it to SM and not really seeing an attractive proposition after that. The revenue for the Malaysia office can only support a limited number of SE's and even if we achieve our growth targets there will be quite a lot more Senior SMs qualified for promotion than promotion slots according to business need. Managers and SMs seeing the writing on the wall are leaving the firm as a result.

I think several things need to happen before this situation can be improved:
1. Think about making SM a landing point - or else do away with "automatic" promotion at levels below SE.
2. Start having an equity portion of base compensation, not just at SE level but even at M/SM level.
3. Start teaching even analysts and consultants about the revenue requirements and get them to understand the P&L for their projects.

All three of these points above are really meant to make it clearer to all consulting workforce employees (not just SEs and SMs) what makes the firm tick and instill some ownership mentality even amongst the ranks of analysts and consultants. Otherwise there will be 2 Accentures - one for SEs and one for everyone else, with the non-SEs not really sure how to get to SE and why they should want to.

Last day in KL

Less than 24 hours to go before we start the long journey - Lucas' first flight and it is 17 hours in the air! About four and a half hours to Taipei, an hour layover, and then another 12 hours to LA. Just hoping the flight is not too full and that we will have some empty seats next to us. This is unlikely though, as it is the bulkhead and the only place where they can fix the bassinets - well maybe Lucas will have a new friend to play with!

I am glad that I changed our flight from Friday to Monday - the original plan was to wrap up everything in KL and then spend the first couple of days in LA (the weekend) acclimatising. Then the company decided to have an office-wide partners and managers meeting last Friday and I thought it would be good to attend this before going off (at least so that my colleagues know I exist!) - I have not been based in the office for the last 3 years! Turns out that this was a good decision as it is the last bit of packing that always takes the longest - this involves ensuring that all the cables, adaptors and batteries for all the equipment we are taking is not forgotten, looking for all the various membership cards that I use to get discounts, upgrades, etc (those of you who know me from projects know that I have not paid for any vacation flights or hotels in the last 3 years, instead using accumulated points for everything!), and most importantly, getting our last taste of good Malaysian hawker fare before leaving.

Yesterday we had Sarawak Laksa and Chee Cheong Fun for lunch; and Satay for dinner - both at our favourite places in Lucky Garden. Today we just got back from lunch with Yean Lin's family at Extra Supertanker in Damansara Kim - they have some pretty unique dishes there - if you want to know more about this place, click here. The food was good as usual, but the service was very slow today, probably because it's Mother's Day and everyone decided to take their Mum there! I guess tonight's dinner is a toss up between banana leaf rice, tandoori or if we can't make up our mind, maybe this. As you can see from the picture on top, Lucas enjoys his food as much as his parents do.

So it's not been too stressful as we have 2 full days to pack, say our goodbyes and fill our tummies :-)

Update @ 10pm: we decided to have Roti Canai and Paper Hat Thosai for dinner at Devi's Corner. I think we covered most of what we wanted, and now we are looking forward to some giant steaks and I heard the sushi in California is pretty good (wonder what the "real" California roll tastes like...).

Preparations and packing

This is the view of downtown KL from our balcony at sunset - we're going to miss it! But I'm sure we'll have a nice view of downtown LA from the foothills as well... we will be staying around Pasadena, and looking at Google Earth, it's just a short drive into the hills.

It's now less than two days until we leave and we've completed most of the preparations except for the actual packing (more on this later).

This is the partial list of stuff that we've had to take care of in the last couple of weeks:

- Assign beneficiary for Employee Provident Fund
- Buy travel and medical insurance for the duration of our stay
- Renew car insurance and road tax
- Send car for servicing
- Transfer enough money for next 4 months mortgage payments
- Pay bills for next 4 months
- Get international drivers license
- File income tax forms
- Apply for US visa (involves lots of paperwork, payments, interview at US embassy, collection)
- Stop all subscriptions (newspaper, cable, phone)
- arrange flights, accommodation and rental car

This is apart from wrapping up all project work, ensuring a proper handover to the client and my project team and taking Lucas to the hospital a couple of times including 1am on the Labour day public holiday as he was running a fever of 39.5C (103F).

Then there's our packing list. The recent restrictions on taking liquids and gels on board aircraft are a real complication - we won't even be able to take hot water to prepare Lucas' formula. Anyway, we will only take what we need for the journey itself, i.e. bottles, small can of formula, lots of diapers and a few changes of clothes. We decided not to take all the other things like playpen, high chair, infant car seat, even toys, as we will be moving around and are not sure whether we will be in the same apartment for the entire duration. Right now it looks as though we'll fill 3 medium-large suitcases and have 3 pieces of carry on luggage plus the stroller - not bad for a family of 3 away for 4 months! So we will live like nomads and buy whatever we need over there. It's a good thing that Lucas' favourite toys at the moment are remote controls and newspapers, both of which we can get on the plane. Although knowing Lucas, he will successfully press the right buttons on the entertainment system to make a satellite call :-)

More on the project

Perhaps I should say a little more about how this opportunity came about. ADP is scheduled the same way as for normal projects, that is, we should update our availability regularly and at the same time we are sent a list of projects that require people to start over the next few months. I had actually not been updating my availability and also not really checking the upcoming projects as I had a new "project" to deal with at home - a 24x7 project called Lucas! But one day I just happened to open the mail and saw this role that actually fit perfectly with the skills I had developed over the last 2 years in implementing regional shared services for multinational clients.

Also, my wife Yean had not yet started work (she's a freelancer, so it's up to her when to get back into the job market) and she was quite keen on the idea. It was only Lucas' grandparents who were not so happy as they would not see him for a few months. I thought I would take my chances and ask whether it's possible to bring my family along and when the answer came back positive that was the beginning of the story! I then checked with my boss and the current client whether they would support this, and they were both positive as well! So now things were really progressing - I just had to make sure my project team would be able to keep things going while I was away, and make sure that my bank account would be able to handle all the bills coming in over the next few months. We decided that since the duration is quite short, we would only pack the minimum (mostly Lucas' stuff) and we would just lock up the apartment and go. 4 months is a little short to rent out, and also we did not want to move all our things into storage.
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The project itself is to help World Vision in planning and implementing their Shared Services strategy. Basically, transactional functions such as IT support, Finance, HR etc. can be standardised and centralised, allowing for greater efficiencies and cost savings. If the Shared Services is located in a developing country, it also helps that country to develop a skill base and fosters longer term economic advancement. India is a good example of how this has changed the prospects for a country not so long ago written off as an economic basket case. At the same time, World Vision itself, as a charity organisation dedicated to improving the welfare of children worldwide, benefits from any savings that they make to their operating costs which can be used to fund more childrens education and healthcare programs.

For all these reasons, I feel that this is the perfect ADP project for me, and I believe I will learn a lot which can be of benefit even in a normal consulting project. At the same time, I look forward to experiencing the "LA lifestyle" with my family - note I did not say Beverly Hills or Hollywood lifestyle... not possible on half a salary unless Lucas becomes a child actor ;-)

Background

Just under 2 years ago, participation in Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP) was first made available to employees in the Malaysian consulting office. I was one of the initial batch of 3 staff who did the ADP assessment and qualified to participate in an ADP project.

Not long after that, I had the opportunity to join an ADP task-force to assess the post-tsunami recovery efforts in Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka. The task force consisted of a group of "young" managers (some of us were over 40 years young!) from various multinationals and we toured the tsunami impacted areas, talking to the local fishermen and traders, government officials as well as representatives from NGOs, charities and local companies who had contributed resources and money to the initial relief and subsequent recovery and livelihood building efforts.

That was a great experience and all members of the task force learnt a great deal and we all were fired up to do more in the area of voluntary work and helping those who are incapacitated by disaster, illness or dire economic circumstances.

As mentioned in the beginning, that was almost 2 years ago - in the meantime, I got caught back up in the normal consulting environment, that is, helping successful businesses become even more successful by applying my knowledge of best practices, process improvements etc. At the same time, I became a father 7 months ago, and that meant less business travel and also more expenses - not exactly conducive to doing an ADP project which has as one of the conditions that I take a 50% pay cut for the duration of the project (this is so that consulting expertise is affordable to organisations that would normally not be able to engage consulting resources).

However, in the back of my head, there was always this niggling feeling that I should contribute my time and knowledge more to those who really could use it, rather than to companies that are already successful in their own right. One could of course argue that this is the way the world works and that trying to change the system is not going to make a difference (I am sure this will be the subject of some of my subsequent blogs). In any case, my perspective has changed as a new father, and I want to be able to at least say that I tried making the world a better place for the majority of the population who do not have access to all the things we take for granted like clean water, electricity, a decent education, a long enough life expectancy to pursue happiness.

So when the opportunity came up to do a project with World Vision, I jumped on it. Luckily my wife was supportive, as well as my client, my team members on my current project, and of course my boss. I think my son is supportive too, as he gets to come along for the ride!