After I left the power plant and went to work for Dell on August 20, 2001, I wrote letters back to my friends at the plant letting them know how things were going. This is the seventy fourth letter I wrote.
5/9/03 – Money Matters at Dell
Dear Friends at Sooner Plant,
Do you guys remember when we had those Money Matters meetings? They gave us a water bottle, or a cup or something that had Money Matters on it (oh, I remember, it was a coffee mug). I’m sure you guys remember that. We went to a workshop where they had a poster that had a bunch of cars and trucks racing down a road with the names of different power companies written on the side. — How could you forget that?
We also went to one like that where there was a big canyon and management was on one side and the workers were on the other side and some people were trying to build a bridge across while some managers were just staying on their own side of the canyon yelling across trying to tell the workers what to do. — Do you guys remember that?
Note to reader: To read more about Money Matters at the Power Plant see the post Power Plant Men Learn how Money Matters.
Well. The reason I’m asking is, because I went to a class this morning called “Business Acumen”. It was about how Dell is competing in our industry. Instead of vehicles racing down a road, they had sailboats and ships at sea racing to their customers.
There was a wind blowing the ships toward their customers, and our competition was all there trying to get their first. It had a whole bunch of things to look at on the picture that had to do with how we stacked up against our competition.
The whole time I was looking at this, I kept thinking, “I’ve seen this before.” — Yep. It had the same design as those “Money Matters” posters where they were trying to teach us where our company stood with our competition and where our revenue came from and all those other “Money Matters” matters.
I just thought I would share that with you guys, in case you were wondering if OG&E was the only company that had workshops like that. — Of course, that was quite a while ago when I last went to a “Money Matters” workshop at OG&E. Are they still doing stuff like that there?
Next Month I’m supposed to go to another one called “Financial Acumen”, which sounds a lot like “Money Matters”. It has the same type of poster with the symbolism of people climbing a cliff or some such thing. That one kind of reminds me of the canyon one we had at OG&E when the Managers were all on one side and the workers were on the other.
Well I’m glad OG&E worked that out and built that bridge across so that Managers and Workers could all communicate a lot easier….or was it where they threw up their hands and all walked away….. I don’t quite remember.
Well. I hope everyone is doing well up there and that everyone has been able to avoid the recent round of Tornadoes. — I know Austin gets a tornado here and there, but it’s nothing like up there in Oklahoma.
The weather reporters down here are not as good as those in Oklahoma. They are usually right about the temperature within 10 degrees down here. So when they say it’s going to be 85 degrees tomorrow, you can usually count on it being anywhere from 75 to 95 degrees.
I remember in Oklahoma those guys on Channel 4 would say it was going to be 85 degrees the next day, and if it made it to 86, the weather man Mike Morgan or Gary England on Channel 9 would look embarrassed for missing it. Down here all the stations just rely on the National Weather Service to tell them what their weather is. It’s not like in Oklahoma where each TV station has their own weather computers that are the best in the world.
I’ve noticed that when they give the weather report down here, about half of the time, they don’t even tell you what the weather is going to be like today. — So in the morning when I am watching the weather to find out what is going to happen today, they will often skip today’s forecast and tell you what it’s going to be like in two days (as if they know — because they change it every day).
They have a 5 day forecast, and it basically is the average temperature for that day of the year for this area. — I think the Farmer’s Almanac would be just about as accurate. — Not that I’m complaining. I realize that I have been spoiled by Oklahoma Weather Forecasts.
Well. I guess I better get back to work. I need to hang up my “Business Acumen” poster in my cubicle. I think I’ll put it over here right next to my Hardhat safety stickers from OG&E. — Let me know how things are going up there. I’ll Write to all of you later. — Next week I’m supposed to be in training all week (this is for the course that was cancelled about 2 months ago for C# — pronounced “See Sharp” — As in “See Robert Sharp Run”), so I’ll be back after that.
Your friendly Dell Programmer,
Kevin James Anthony Breazile
______________________
Kevin J. Breazile
Programmer/Analyst III
Dell Computer Corporation
(512) 728-1527
Power Plant Men 