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Thursday, 25th April 2024 |
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| Thalius Hecksher, account & new business manager for Reuters Ireland Ltd keeps an eye on the markets while scouting for new business. |
6.55am Radio alarm goes off. Wake up to the sound of Sheryl Crow singing ‘All I want to do is have some fun’. What a way to wake up. On comes the 7 am news and get the low down of what happening around the world. Fingers crossed no more news of another company hitting the wall. Up, shower and get dressed, choose the shirt and tie depending on the day ahead. Very important, sets the mood.
7.20am Once dressed and ready head for the kitchen, have a pint of water (read that’s the best way of kick starting your body - don’t know where I read it but I’m sticking to it!). Grab a banana, say hi to Kayla and Zach (the two dogs), and put them out. Grab the sports gear and kit bag and make for the front door.
7.45am Get into the car and hit the road. Straight away I’m into the heat of the traffic, if all goes well it should take 40-60 minutes to get to the office (school is off - thank god). Put on the radio and tune into Today FM with Ian Dempsey and Gift Grub. Bertie’s always good for a laugh first thing in the morning. How do they get away with it?
This morning the topic is the FAI and SKY. Bertie gives his rendition of ‘I got Sky’. Usual route, come off the Southern Cross Road onto the Bray by-pass at about 60km/h, feels like LA. If you don’t hit the motorway at 60km/h you won’t make it on. Keep it going until the 1km sign before the Loughlinstown roundabout - gridlock begins. A good indication of what the traffic will be like. Top road all the way into Donnybrook.
8.40am On the final leg make a couple of calls ahead pre-empting the start of business for the day. Tune into Newstalk 106FM, listen to the topic of conversation with Dave Williams. Down Anglesea Road, round the corner and into the office on Lower Mount Street.
8.50am Rush hour in the kitchen, grab first freshly brewed coffee of the day, say ‘morning’ to the crew and head straight for my desk, dodging a few curve balls (my golf leaves a lot to be desired!)
8.55am At my desk, back to the usual, log onto Lotus notes, quick scan over incoming mails respond to top priority ones immediately, review and print off today’s schedule, already looks busy. Log onto my Reuters 3000 Xtra and have a look to see if there’s anything interesting happening in the markets, and how everything closed up the previous day. Elan is getting hammered and would you believe it Last minute.com is making a considerable come back. Ask Gary to run some analysis on it. He’s better at it than me. Key date reversal! Is where it’s at? View top stories and have a quick glance at my stagnant portfolio!
9.45am Print off reports, agenda and other correspondence for the morning’s first meeting at 10am. Head off to meeting accompanied by two colleagues. The agenda of the meeting is to introduce myself to the directors as their new account manager going forward, review any issues arisen since the last meeting, and discuss forthcoming projections and future developments of the client. I aim to put in place a structure to build and develop a strong relationship with them for the foreseeable future. We agree on some action points, to take effect over the coming weeks.
11.30am Back to the office stop by the sales manager on the way back to my desk, a quick summary on the meeting discussing new ideas of how to drive the relationship and better improve the level of service to the client. Settle back at my desk, quick review of emails, log onto instant messaging (IM) and open up a conversation with one of the specialists in Reuters London to research and get feedback relating to topics raised at this morning’s meeting. Another colleague from Reuters Milan joins the conversation; we thrash out a few ideas before reaching a resolution and then close off the conversation. IM is great as you can have a phone conversation while talking with someone else on IM, and no one is any the wiser. Generate minutes of the meeting and put an action plan in place, to ensure we meet the customers’ needs, which is keeping in line with Reuter’s goal of great service.
1.15pm Nip out for a quick sandwich, the old reliable OCBs for a BLT with swiss cheese. Back to the desk, and review notes and agenda for the 2.30 pm meeting. I collate information from incoming emails from the solutions side of the business and prep and test my laptop for the presentation. The presentation is aimed at showcasing some of the enhancements to the current service, new products and technology. Have to ensure to tailor the presentation to the specific requirements of the client. Got the format and we are ready for action.
2.15pm Gather everything together and head to 2.30pm meeting in IFSC. Going to meet a prospective new client for Reuters, the purpose of which is to predominantly understand the needs of their business with the intent that Reuters can satisfy their key business drivers. The client is heavily involved in the treasury side of business, and they have recently become the European treasury HQ for their company. Get to their office with few minutes to spare.
3.45pm Great meeting, looks like we might be doing business and helping them achieve their strategic goals Wrap up the meeting and head back to the office. In the door, grab a freshly brewed coffee (daily dose of two!). Get to my desk to find the weekly sales report and order book, all looks very interesting. So far sales are going well and orders for installation are going according to schedule. Quick call to the planning engineer in the UK to run through a couple of figures and installation dates.
4.30pm Weekly technical meeting sit down with the planning engineers, systems engineers and the technical manager to run through outstanding delivery of infrastructure, installation schedule, new developments on the technical side of the business. Just about to release a satellite with a 4meg broadcast. Finish the meeting with confirmation of final install dates for projects. Sales manager joins in for quick summary to confirm that all is going according to plan.
5.15pm Is it that time already? Time to work through the backlog of mails and phone messages, got to keep on top of them or that exponential thing kicks in. Still trying to get a hold of Josh in the New York office, hard man to catch - probably out enjoying the sun, speaking of which - maybe next year?
6pm Pretty much wrapping up the day: sent off last of the proposals, make the plan of action for tomorrow and a list of all objectives to be achieved. Last thing is to throw a quick eye over Lotus notes calendar for tomorrow’s schedule and then log off before heading to the gym (training for triathlon at the end of the month).
7.30pm In the pool and another day over. |
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| Article appeared in the July 2002 issue.
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