Indulge my reminiscences.

45-years-ago today was supposed to be my first day of work at IBM. I had written my last university exam the previous Friday and was excited to start a job they had been holding for me since January.

I didn’t make it into the office. A freak April snowstorm had dumped 12 inches of snow that shut Hamilton down. When I finally started work the next day, I walked into a business world that we would not recognize today. I wore a navy-blue three-piece suit, white shirt, conservatively patterned tie and shined black shoes. The office that greeted me didn’t have computers on desks. Word processors and fax machines had not been invented yet, nor had email, voicemail, the Internet or mobile phones. Advanced technology consisted of push button phones on desks, which were an upgrade from rotary dial telephones which still existed in many homes.? Sophisticated electronic typewriters were present, but they were the domain of secretaries who typed formal correspondence to customers.

To meet customers, I got in my car to travel to them. That first year, I logged over 30,000 business kilometers. Returning to the office, I was greeted by a pile of little pink message slips of missed phone calls. Presentations were done via clear transparencies made from photocopies that were thermally transferred to clear sheets of plastic and presented on an overhead projector. As a Systems Engineer, I was a master of this technology in a similar way to how today’s Solutions Consultant is a master of PowerPoint for sales presentations.??

Fast forward. Today I work from my home; in video meetings with people around the world; use email and Teams chats to communicate; create, review and share documents and presentations that are stored and accessible from anywhere via the Cloud; have search capabilities to instantaneously find almost any piece of information in human history; and carry with me a mobile device hundreds of times more powerful than the largest computer in the world in 1979. Looking forward, it feels like we are at the cusp of the next major disrupter as we wrap our arms around the power, benefits and potential threats of AI.

So, what is the purpose of this story, other than to establish that I am old.

18 years ago, after 27 years of corporate life at IBM, PeopleSoft and IRI, I did a career pivot and started my own sole practitioner advisory consulting firm. Since that time, I have worked with 68 companies as an advisor, mentor, facilitator, trainer, and/or board member. In addition, I have worked with an additional 30+ start-ups through the startup incubator, Innovation Factory. Through these relationships, I have expanded my perspectives, skills, experience and hopefully the value I bring. To all that I have worked with over the past 45 years, and especially my clients of the past 18 years, thank you for the trust your have placed in me and the friendships we have built.

Onward we go… more thoughts tomorrow.