J’arrive a’ Montreal

Earlier this year, I had been invited by iNovia Capital to be among three panelists to assess a series of presentations by start-up companies.

iNovia Capital “has over $158M under management across two seed and early stage funds (MSBi Investment Fund, L.P. & iNovia Investment Fund II, L.P.) and MSBi Valorisation.”

My host is Joško Bobanovic, a principal in the firm. Some of the presenting companies form part of his portfolio. These are:

Metafoam
Nanoledge
Plastic Knowledge

I will be joined by Austin Hill and Bernie Li.

Wahyd at CIBC Tower, home of iNovia Capital

London under the snow!

Monica Murphy is in London working with Bain Capital… right on time for the worst snowfalls in 18 years. She sent us this report.

wow, what an adventure so far! London is very crazy now. This is the most snow they have seen in 18 years! Yesterday was incredible. All of the Busses were out of service. The tube only had 1 line running, the schools were all shut and the roads……

Cold Times, Cold Thames.

I found the communication from the television stations very interesting. The whole day is to refered to as a “disturbance” . In fact, the local stations were not able to conduct their regular programme since guests were not able to travel in to the station. The anchor man and woman kept repackaging the same information in different ways, adding their own personal thoughts obviously, they kept interupting each other, the producer must have been trying to keep them conversational.

I was able to walk to work at the Bain Capital office in Mayfair. It is just off the main road. I am staying at Le Merridien. This is just 5-6 blocks walk. Along my walk I saw many excited people out making snowmen in Green Park. In fact, I snapped this photo of a snowman in the parking area in front of the Royal Academy, just a few doors from my hotel.

It is the chinese new year. On sunday there was a great parade. There are chinese lanterns hung in the streets, so many people you could hardly

Kuala Lumpar Journal – Part 6

Today, I made another note about how similar the world really is. I was working with a Muslim manager, a woman, fully covered. And as she began to open up, I realized that I could have been in any corporate organization back in the states. The culture and implementation of communication is different, but the problems and core solutions remain consistent as always.

Also, tonight, I’m being introduced to royalty. You gotta love this job! Oh, and I learned that Bill Clinton will be coming to the hotel and staying 2 floors above me. It’s no secret, the secret service stand out like a sour thumb and have been here all week.

Kuala Lumpur Journal – Part 3

I finally made it to the hotel. It’s great to be back, but I miss home already.

It does make a difference that the hotel staff is familiar with me. They had my Guitar waiting for me upon arrival. They keep it for me here. Now, I’ll go downstairs to the 5-star restaurant, and deliver the ingredients to my friend who is the head chef.

Which ingredients you might ask? Well, Chocolate Chip cookies of course! They make them for me here during my stay. It’s amazing what a little “Effective Communication” will get you!

Kuala Lumpur Journal – Part 2

I’ve finally landed in KL. My bags made it through. I flew on Singapore Airlines, which is a great airline. Now that I’m on the ground, I’m over heated. I keep my Red Sox hat on in hopes of meeting up with some familiar faces along my journey. Now that I’m in town, I’ll start tagging friends and clients with my local phone number to let people know I’ve arrived. I have another 45 minute drive to the hotel, where I’ll decompress.

Singapore Airlines

Kuala Lumpur Journal – Part 1

Ethan Becker is on his way to Malaysia to work with SuriaKLCC. He will be sending regular updates on his trip in a series we titled: “Kuala Lumpur Journal”.

Ethan Becker, Senior Coach/Trainer

Four flights, 1 entire season of 24 and 36 hours later, Ethan landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ethan is working with Executives to help them strengthen their managerial communicaiton skills. This is follow up work with the team that has shown incredible improvement over the years.

The weather is hot, and humid. Boston of course, is much colder. Back home it’s snow and shoveling while here it’s rain and warmth.

I find it amazing how similar people are around the world. When I travel, I meet and profile people along the way. I’ve met people from countries and cultures all over the world. It’s a real lesson to get to work with so many cultures and see how human beings are similar and different.

The teachings of Aristotle regarding communication cross culture barioers. I’ve yet to find a culture where the communication fundementals don’t apply. They are not “American” teachings, they are tools and techniques that can help human beings communicate. What is unique is the implementation of tools and technques. That can vary by culture. But concepts like having strong relationships in business reamain a constant.

Malaysia is similar and different from home. I often joke that it’s a lot like Natick Ma. In the city, you find many high end brands and an Americanized city, as most cities are similar. Once you leave the city, that is when it becomes unique.