Bombshell in Spain
Sat Nov 23 2019 00:09:00 GMT+0800 (Malaysia Time)
Greetings from Spain
Where we are busy putting together a new distribution warehouse and team in Málaga. Raul (the IT wizard) is here flown in from KL, Malaysia. Rodrigo had to go back to the UK, Tomas (Marketing wizard) s here, and Coco - my wife (and our China agent) just arrived. Last week I was telling you about the Emotional Decisions involved in selecting a team, all the interviews and one very sad story.. You can read about it here. We had 947 applications of which we interviewed 47 people, these were whittled down to 12 contenders, of which we needed to select 4 for the launch team.
So my idea was to write the names of the 12 on 12 pieces of A5 paper with a marker pen, together with the key skills, languages spoken, what job they applied for and a hook so we could recall them. The Chatty Guy.. the Architect, the Instagram Girl and so on.. then we put all the pieces of paper on the table and juggled them around to see how they fitted together. All last weekend we debated - Rodrigo, Tomas, Raul and I all having different opinions. Sunday the sun came out, we went to the beach and ate sardines and debated some more.. we kind of decided who the manager should be.. but I woke up on Monday morning feeling it was a bad call, and we had missed a trick.
Thinking about how the candidates had grasped the AW concept and values, one or two had gotten visibly excited when they understood the concept of what we do. (Which is finding beautiful things to supply to lovely people in the gift trade, who help people buy gifts for loved ones, and we try to do it with integrity and values). Enthusiasm is important - so who was the most grasping of the concept, and excited to work for us..
This rejigged the deck.. and The Chatty Guy came into play.. the team dynamic changed.. by Monday afternoon we had finally got consensus. Rodrigo (now back in the UK) started to call them with the good news, everyone very happy and two available to start right away.
So on Tuesday, The Chatty guy started and The Architect started Wednesday. So Toni and Luis joined the AW family this week, with two more to follow (they had to give notice) over the next two weeks.
Luis, qualified as an architect, but is happy to join us as the warehouse manager (and some marketing), seems so happy and grateful. He is a big gentle guy, a little shy but clearly quite intelligent. Several times in halting English he has thanked me for the opportunity.
Yesterday he asked me if he could have a private word. I said sure and we stepped out of the office, I noticed he was shaking. "There is something I should have told you at the interview".. he looked pale.. Go on - I said apprehensively, all sorts of things sliding around my brain. "I'm so sorry, I hope it is OK.. Next Saturday the 30th November".. long pause.. gulp.. "I should have told you.. I'm getting Married!"...
OMG... Is that it? I blinked a couple of times, smiled and shuck him vigorously by the hand. "Congratulations.. and I guess you need some time off for a honeymoon". "Well two or three days if possible" - he said. Of course, I told him no problem.. lets go see what Tomas thinks.. Tomas laughed immediately and agreed, he can have what time he needs. New wife and a new job.. important to start his new life well.
It's a Bombshell.. but I think this is a good omen for our new company..
I'd like to say AW Artisan is born... but not quite..
We are still working on it.. but a new concept is developing.. where we focus on the Artisan products of Ancient Wisdom. AWArtisan.es will of course be the official and only distributor for all things AW in Spain.. and the authorised supplier of Agnes & Cat in Europe as well as delving into such things as Drop-shipping, Portugal website and in the near future a French website. We don't just want to have a Brexit ready solution, we want to evolve the brand and offer our customers (that's you if you are in Europe). Actually we have so many plans and ideas we are practically bursting with them..
In recent years we have seen a trend away from plastic gifts, a bigger focus on ethically sourced items, a healthy interest in artisan made products. Of course you still need value for money, there is a correct price for everything - but the more upmarket we gently go the better our customers have done. Giving a gift is nothing less than (as I keep on saying) an act of love - as a gift trader (that's you I'm talking to!) you have the hugely important task of being part of this. Enabling and facilitating thousands of acts of goodwill and love.. It's would be so wrong to do that with evil anything fake in the supply chain.. nobody or company is perfect.. but I'm proud of what we do at AW.. join us - if you didn't already :)
It's almost Christmas, Black Friday is upon us.. the bells are a Jing-a-ling.. it's all go. In the UK - Katka is in charge and doing a valiant job in keeping everyone's spirits high. It's getting to be long days, and weekend shifts time of year.. everyone is running.. running like mad.. at one point we tipped a 1000 orders behind - but then a couple of days of magnificent performance all round and we caught up a little. New stock also coming.. late containers from India and China rolling in.. so goods in guys also running.
Lovely Selenite products finally came from Morocco. Regular readers will have followed the two trips I made to Marrakesh this summer.. this is the first fruits of that work. I can't help thinking that the Selenite Mountains are awesome for Christmas, the way you can light them up is beautiful.
So many more things I could report.. but I know you are jolly busy.. so until next Friday..
Wishing you a magical weekend.
Take care.
Where we are busy putting together a new distribution warehouse and team in Málaga. Raul (the IT wizard) is here flown in from KL, Malaysia. Rodrigo had to go back to the UK, Tomas (Marketing wizard) s here, and Coco - my wife (and our China agent) just arrived. Last week I was telling you about the Emotional Decisions involved in selecting a team, all the interviews and one very sad story.. You can read about it here. We had 947 applications of which we interviewed 47 people, these were whittled down to 12 contenders, of which we needed to select 4 for the launch team.
So my idea was to write the names of the 12 on 12 pieces of A5 paper with a marker pen, together with the key skills, languages spoken, what job they applied for and a hook so we could recall them. The Chatty Guy.. the Architect, the Instagram Girl and so on.. then we put all the pieces of paper on the table and juggled them around to see how they fitted together. All last weekend we debated - Rodrigo, Tomas, Raul and I all having different opinions. Sunday the sun came out, we went to the beach and ate sardines and debated some more.. we kind of decided who the manager should be.. but I woke up on Monday morning feeling it was a bad call, and we had missed a trick.
Thinking about how the candidates had grasped the AW concept and values, one or two had gotten visibly excited when they understood the concept of what we do. (Which is finding beautiful things to supply to lovely people in the gift trade, who help people buy gifts for loved ones, and we try to do it with integrity and values). Enthusiasm is important - so who was the most grasping of the concept, and excited to work for us..
This rejigged the deck.. and The Chatty Guy came into play.. the team dynamic changed.. by Monday afternoon we had finally got consensus. Rodrigo (now back in the UK) started to call them with the good news, everyone very happy and two available to start right away.
So on Tuesday, The Chatty guy started and The Architect started Wednesday. So Toni and Luis joined the AW family this week, with two more to follow (they had to give notice) over the next two weeks.
Luis, qualified as an architect, but is happy to join us as the warehouse manager (and some marketing), seems so happy and grateful. He is a big gentle guy, a little shy but clearly quite intelligent. Several times in halting English he has thanked me for the opportunity.
Yesterday he asked me if he could have a private word. I said sure and we stepped out of the office, I noticed he was shaking. "There is something I should have told you at the interview".. he looked pale.. Go on - I said apprehensively, all sorts of things sliding around my brain. "I'm so sorry, I hope it is OK.. Next Saturday the 30th November".. long pause.. gulp.. "I should have told you.. I'm getting Married!"...
OMG... Is that it? I blinked a couple of times, smiled and shuck him vigorously by the hand. "Congratulations.. and I guess you need some time off for a honeymoon". "Well two or three days if possible" - he said. Of course, I told him no problem.. lets go see what Tomas thinks.. Tomas laughed immediately and agreed, he can have what time he needs. New wife and a new job.. important to start his new life well.
It's a Bombshell.. but I think this is a good omen for our new company..
I'd like to say AW Artisan is born... but not quite..
We are still working on it.. but a new concept is developing.. where we focus on the Artisan products of Ancient Wisdom. AWArtisan.es will of course be the official and only distributor for all things AW in Spain.. and the authorised supplier of Agnes & Cat in Europe as well as delving into such things as Drop-shipping, Portugal website and in the near future a French website. We don't just want to have a Brexit ready solution, we want to evolve the brand and offer our customers (that's you if you are in Europe). Actually we have so many plans and ideas we are practically bursting with them..
In recent years we have seen a trend away from plastic gifts, a bigger focus on ethically sourced items, a healthy interest in artisan made products. Of course you still need value for money, there is a correct price for everything - but the more upmarket we gently go the better our customers have done. Giving a gift is nothing less than (as I keep on saying) an act of love - as a gift trader (that's you I'm talking to!) you have the hugely important task of being part of this. Enabling and facilitating thousands of acts of goodwill and love.. It's would be so wrong to do that with evil anything fake in the supply chain.. nobody or company is perfect.. but I'm proud of what we do at AW.. join us - if you didn't already :)
It's almost Christmas, Black Friday is upon us.. the bells are a Jing-a-ling.. it's all go. In the UK - Katka is in charge and doing a valiant job in keeping everyone's spirits high. It's getting to be long days, and weekend shifts time of year.. everyone is running.. running like mad.. at one point we tipped a 1000 orders behind - but then a couple of days of magnificent performance all round and we caught up a little. New stock also coming.. late containers from India and China rolling in.. so goods in guys also running.
Lovely Selenite products finally came from Morocco. Regular readers will have followed the two trips I made to Marrakesh this summer.. this is the first fruits of that work. I can't help thinking that the Selenite Mountains are awesome for Christmas, the way you can light them up is beautiful.
So many more things I could report.. but I know you are jolly busy.. so until next Friday..
Wishing you a magical weekend.
Take care.
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