10 Nov. 2010
Right, so here I am in Prestons in Sydney.
For those familiar with Auckland, this is the area near East Tamaki or the Airport; a mainly industrial zone where unless you have a vehicle at your disposal you wont really get around very far.
I said my goodbyes and finished up with NZ Mags on the 29th of October and packed my bag and headed over to Sydney on the 31st of October.
Day 1 at work was on the 1st of November. Luckily yellow pages had helped me secure a hotel which was about 10 mins walking distance from GSP, for which I was eternally grateful.
Like I mentioned earlier, not having a vehicle was a serious setback.
GSP is a specialist printer for large-format printing. They produce out-of-home advertising and point-of-sale. They are the only large-format printer to have in-house equipment for every part of a campaign - from screen printing to wide-format digital.
All the nerves disappeared by the end of day one as I met and Andrew Thornberry (Client Service and Traffic manager) who firstly, took me for a tour around the massive 5000m2 purpose built facility and then introduced me to the rest of the team at GSP and then we caught up with Peter Piccione (General Manager).
We quickly got on to business and got an overview from Peter and Andrew about GSP. The way the business had been shaping up; how it fits into APN and the financial results and trends.
Outside of work, Week 1 was spent trying to find accommodation and I was lucky to sort that out with great help from Tammy and Tracy.
So the current situation is that work goes full steam ahead with GSP and I catch a bus to and from work which takes me an hour each way.
Can’t remember how long ago, public transport and I last met up!!
Showing posts with label andrew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label andrew. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Project Rook continues…
14 Sep 2010
The last fortnight has been a bit of a blur. Once the announcement took place, there has been discussion all around with almost everyone taking their own view of what lies ahead. We had gone through and created a FAQ document before the announcement to anticipate questions that people might have from all departments and try and answer those. This was a great help and definitely assisted all of the management team to give correct answers when asked.
I asked Andrew if I could sit in when the announcement was made to his team and was glad that he agreed. It gave me an opportunity to see first hand, the reaction of the team and the kind of questions that people asked and whether our FAQ was adequate or not. It felt great to see that almost all the questions that were asked were ones that we had covered! The team were quite positive and looking forward to having Pac Mags on board.
So what has been happening in the last fortnight? We have had our weekly project meeting which I chair and involves all stakeholders right across the project (from facilities through to IT; advertising through to finance and everything in between). The main thought process behind this was to make sure that people understand the impact their task has on the next area and the flow on effect it creates if not done.
Happy to say that everyone has been quite positive although I can imagine it would be a bit ‘boring’ for people who have nothing to do with another area to sit and listen. I am hoping that this will create a better understanding of what each department does and also how to work better in a collaborative way to be successful. It amazes me to think that these meetings might be the first time that these key people in the business had a chance to get together in a room!
The NZ Mags move has also happened with the new floor layout and desks and people being shifted. As is to be expected, some people are openly unhappy with their new surroundings, the way their desk is facing and I even got one complaint about the colour of the desk not being right!
Things coming up next….
My next project block seems to be pointing to Brisbane but will require a few more finishing touches before its ready to go. Once I get that sorted, I am planning to make a trip to Tauranga and Whangarei to get an understanding of the operations there and build some relationships with some key people there too.
I have just received a meeting invite along with Sarah to give an update on the project to Martin Simons (Group Publishing Chief Executive) and Phil Eustace (Finance Director - NZ) on Monday 20 Sep. Looking forward to it!
The last fortnight has been a bit of a blur. Once the announcement took place, there has been discussion all around with almost everyone taking their own view of what lies ahead. We had gone through and created a FAQ document before the announcement to anticipate questions that people might have from all departments and try and answer those. This was a great help and definitely assisted all of the management team to give correct answers when asked.
I asked Andrew if I could sit in when the announcement was made to his team and was glad that he agreed. It gave me an opportunity to see first hand, the reaction of the team and the kind of questions that people asked and whether our FAQ was adequate or not. It felt great to see that almost all the questions that were asked were ones that we had covered! The team were quite positive and looking forward to having Pac Mags on board.
So what has been happening in the last fortnight? We have had our weekly project meeting which I chair and involves all stakeholders right across the project (from facilities through to IT; advertising through to finance and everything in between). The main thought process behind this was to make sure that people understand the impact their task has on the next area and the flow on effect it creates if not done.
Happy to say that everyone has been quite positive although I can imagine it would be a bit ‘boring’ for people who have nothing to do with another area to sit and listen. I am hoping that this will create a better understanding of what each department does and also how to work better in a collaborative way to be successful. It amazes me to think that these meetings might be the first time that these key people in the business had a chance to get together in a room!
The NZ Mags move has also happened with the new floor layout and desks and people being shifted. As is to be expected, some people are openly unhappy with their new surroundings, the way their desk is facing and I even got one complaint about the colour of the desk not being right!
Things coming up next….
My next project block seems to be pointing to Brisbane but will require a few more finishing touches before its ready to go. Once I get that sorted, I am planning to make a trip to Tauranga and Whangarei to get an understanding of the operations there and build some relationships with some key people there too.
I have just received a meeting invite along with Sarah to give an update on the project to Martin Simons (Group Publishing Chief Executive) and Phil Eustace (Finance Director - NZ) on Monday 20 Sep. Looking forward to it!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Night at the sulky
30/04/2010
Sat down with Andrew today and sough understandings on how MaaX worked and how NSM were using it. Have to say that this is an amazing piece of software which can do remarkable things. The thing that impresses me most is the ability to really drill into detailed analysis about your query or get a more holistic approach of the same.
But, and this is true with any piece of technology, it is only as good as the person using it. Tristan is the super user when it comes to MaaX within NSM and he has been using the software for more than a year now and is really good at it. Will need to spend more time with him on Monday to see what quick wins we can get for NZ Magazines.
I also asked Chris to work through the project KPIs with me to ensure that I was going down the right path. He has kindly agreed to do that.
Sarah Sandley should be back next week so it would be great to spend some time with my mentor.
I am off to the sulky tonight and not as a spectator only but will also take part in one of the races. For those (like me) who didn’t know, a sulky is “a lightweight cart having two wheels and a seat for the driver only but usually without a body, generally pulled by horses or dogs, and is used for harness races”, (source: wikipedia).
Super cool way to end the week and catch up with some people from the Herald.
Have a great weekend… Catch you on Monday!
Sat down with Andrew today and sough understandings on how MaaX worked and how NSM were using it. Have to say that this is an amazing piece of software which can do remarkable things. The thing that impresses me most is the ability to really drill into detailed analysis about your query or get a more holistic approach of the same.
But, and this is true with any piece of technology, it is only as good as the person using it. Tristan is the super user when it comes to MaaX within NSM and he has been using the software for more than a year now and is really good at it. Will need to spend more time with him on Monday to see what quick wins we can get for NZ Magazines.
I also asked Chris to work through the project KPIs with me to ensure that I was going down the right path. He has kindly agreed to do that.
Sarah Sandley should be back next week so it would be great to spend some time with my mentor.
I am off to the sulky tonight and not as a spectator only but will also take part in one of the races. For those (like me) who didn’t know, a sulky is “a lightweight cart having two wheels and a seat for the driver only but usually without a body, generally pulled by horses or dogs, and is used for harness races”, (source: wikipedia).
Super cool way to end the week and catch up with some people from the Herald.
Have a great weekend… Catch you on Monday!
This is me on friday night at the Alexandra Park race course. We came fourth (Don't tell anyone that there were only four horses in that race)
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