Day 4 & 5 With the Customer.....well kind of....does the building count?

I am sorry this may be the beginning of the end of the tourism section.
We have to get to work here!
As described in the first blog, this is a Copoate Service Corps, we are here to help those in need.
There are four subteams, I do not know what the others do, I am somewhat myopic.  I know some are e govenment, health, and e education.  I could not tell you who is on what except the health folks as they got to visit hospitals in the surrounding area.

When I should have been paying attention, I would have learned during the kickoff section what each team was a part of.  My team was first to talk about the project at the kickoff and after that, I was too busy meeting the client.


We had a kickoff session at the Sci-Bono centre (see that spelling?) The meeting was very nice, the subteam that I am a part of is below

A little secret with my suits fo this trip, they all go with my brown shoes.#Savinonpacking 

Larger IBM Team with clients and DOT the group that put this together

We met the customer, they are a government mandated group to help grow small business in the province that includes Johannesburg and Pretoria. It is no small task.  Is there limited funding?  Yes.
After being shuttled to the office, we saw the security they took my finger prints to enter the office.  There is more security here than I am used to, but it is different.  For example, they really want to check your laptop on the way out of the building to ensure you are not taking anything.  I had to sign in the serial on my laptop.
They told me it is not safe to go out for lunch (I love eating in anyway ask anyone in the office).
Sadly on an official basis, besides the group head, I was not able to meet anyone due to meeting conflicts. 
I did not get alot of client face time..... so I talked with just about anyone..with a pulse. 
 I wanted to do something at least so I conducted my own interviews.

• I interviewed the security at the door, and learned how many visit the office, my initial assumption is that they had a problem getting the word out...oh no that is not the case.
• We talked with the IT guy who helped set up the wifi
• I also spoke to the administration assistants, who honestly were so down to earth and nice

I love finding out about people, how they got their position, what keeps them up at night.  I actually gained insight just chatting, not a full scale interview, but just asking about the work and what they do.  We worked up some scenarios which helped us figure out a model we assumed about the customer.

I exercised after and worked up such an appetite, I got a filet Mignon at the local Italian place.  Yes I am still trying to lose weight and I have tried many local foods, but man that filet was soooo good.  Anyways after currency conversion my total bill with a generous tip is $20.  I love strong currency!
One member has a bank limit on how much they can withdraw and that is tough. 

Day 5
On the fifth day I was looking at commonly published financial data that is readily available to help with benchmarking.  There was little, so the morning I was very sad.
I am just trying to find any public benchmarks for entrepreneurial financing, but the findings are mostly one off academic studies.  i am looking for a benchmark that all can use.

Our team did more of an ad hoc unofficial interview.  The guy setting up the printers was kindly interrogated, but he was great.   Toward the evening, after I learned the name of the contact.  I spent over 30 minutes finding out with the accents if her name is Yolanda, Yolinda, Jilonda and Jolinda. It was Jolinda but two doors down from her is Yolande.  It turns out everyone in the office pronounces it with their accent.  
Jolinda gave me the first taste of some real data from the customer
I was like a kid in the candy store...all this data!  I was loving it.  I stayed up late just analyzing and putting it together. 


In the evening we had a security briefing.  She went through all the typical issues, don't walk around with large sums of money, be aware, don't sollicit prostitutes.  I shared my day 2 adventues and she appreciated the money in the shoe story by saying "Wow you are really lucky."  I know.

Food Update
For breakfast there were little blue herrings on a toothpick.  It was delightful.  Apprently this is common in Europe nd I reintroduced myself to the British Beans, Cooked Tomato and Toast.  It was good.  My calories in the morning are usually over a 1000!

Matthew from another CSC team is in the picture, I told him I wanted to snap photos of his fine clothing

Lunch we ate out and had to be escorted.  We went to the TransNet building, We saw alot of Johannesburg from a high level.  I am told we are OK to go another time on our own. I only carried cash, the women in my group took off earings and did not bring thier purse.  We followed two people from the office with just a  few bills wadded within our pocketed fists, we stayed together.

For dinner we went to a high end restaurant and I had Lamb Curry.  Yummy.
In all this high end place came to $20 USD per person!
The finance minister was arrested and the currency tanked today.  Oh it was a good day to do an exchange.
That is the update so far

Jamon
#IBMCSC #CSCSA16