Well people, go pop on the kettle or grab a cold one and get yourself comfy. It's time to sit yourself down for a bit, relax, tune in and wile away a few hours of your otherwise boring instead weekend by reading my informative and lengthy ramblings. I have, as per, a few stories to tell and some really exciting news. In true form I'll save the best for the middle section, though I'll gve you a wee snippit to keep you enticed - I've officially been headhunted! Think of this like a cheap newspaper headline where you have to read a fair bit of the paper to get to the crux of the information. There's no page three, though if you fancy a Diana or Queen Mother memorial china plate, I'll happily provide the appropriate PO Box number!
So to this week - well it has been busy busy busy. Was back at work Monday after my business trip to San Fran last week and by 8.45 if felt as though I'd never been away. Was straight back in to the eco project, though now having met some influential people last week was straight on the emailer sending out thank-yous and 'do you think you could help me out with some info' mails. I have Vice Presidents, Senior Directors, Executive Assistants and Chief Engineers in my address book now and I intend to make use of their top-end knowledge. Within a few hours I'd had quite a number of responses either offering help via email or to arrange tele-conferences for this week and next. Exciting stuff. I had my first telephone chat with Jenny McLaughlin yesterday. Jenny is responsible for trying to make Sun's products compiant with Energy Star (E*), a US Environmentl Protection Agency benchmark that is awarded to low energy using household goods and electronic items. We had a 30 minute chat from her office in Sacramento about current products that shape up, others that dont, investments required to meet standards and also about her role in helping to form the forthcoming E* requirements for thin clients (tiny power yielding desk-tops whose main brain is located on a remote server - and might I add the future of office computing!) and workstations. Jenny also gave a me a whole list of engineers and marketing staff who are responsible for some of the other Sun products I have been looking at, so I am eternally grateful for all her help. Thanks Jenny - you are a star.
I probably should add - the reason that E* is vitally important to this project is due to the introduction of legislation such as the US President's Executive order 13423 and the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) policy which stipulate that each fedral agency (in the case of the US) or member state (EU), must formulate a plan to ensure that ICT equipment purchased now and into the future is compliant with E* or other national/supranational eco-policies. Essentially if Sun are to find themselves to in a situation where we are effectively excluded from selling to the US and constituent governments of the EU, we would literally be barring ourselves from hundreds of billions of dollars worth of potential business. It's a major part of my report to attempt to quantify this and to encourage the company to invest in green prodcts now to ensure that sales opportunites are not closed off in the future. Pretty high level stuff I'm sure you'll agree. This week I also spoke with Luiz Maluf (Senior Director Latin America) and he kindly filled me in on the current LA situation re eco policy. In terms of Sun doing business, there's no real problem, so I'll not dwell on that. Though I will say a big thank-you to Luiz for taking time from his busy schedule to call me. Next week I'll be speaking with Dermot Duggan from marketing and Subodh Bapta Chief Engineer. For the following week I've set up some face to face meetings at Sun's SF Menlo Park HQ with some movers and shakers at the company to gage their opinon on my atempted eco-drive through the company. That very nicely brings me on to the main event...
So the title of this blog entry should be more than enough of a hint as to what I'm about to reveal, but I'll spell itout for you loud and clear just to make sure. This week coming will be my last week here in Washington DC. No, I'm not running home to Scotland silly - I've been properly headhunted by some senior Sun staff out in the San Fran Bay area - better known as Silicon Valley! Now you'll all remember that I was going to be heading back out to SF to meet with Crawford Beveridge and was supposed to spend a week at the most there. Not anymore. I've been asked to relocate to SF to work with some senior folks in order to formulate a plan to help Sun realise some of their key financial year (FY) 09 goals. Now at the moment I'm not really able to discuss what the projects may entail, but what I can say is that these projects, should I perform well, will form an integral part of Sun growth push amongst students in the coming year. Yikes. According to my manager Lowell, I really impressed alot of influential people at the Global Communities all hands with my honest and 'insightful' opinions and hence my being headhunted. I'm flattered to say the least. I was going to be in a hotel but the company have now arranged a stupidly fantastic apartment in the South of Market are in San Fran's Downtown area. It's within walking distance of Sun's Downtown office and 35 minutes on the BART train to the Menlo Park HQ further up the bay. I've also just found out that the Museum of Modern Art is right outside my door and there is a Frida Kahlo (think Mexican mono-brow) exhibition running at the mo, so I'll definitely be checking that out. I have to say that I'm massively appreciative of Sun for giving me this fantastic opportunity and putting so much faith in my abilities. You know I had imagined how this intership may have panned out over the eight weeks and I can tell you that the expeience so-far has gone way beyond even my most wildest expectations. I wouldn't be here without the Saltire Foundation, so a big thank-you goes out to Irene, Melissa and Jen (and Innis). Your confidence in me has allowed me to flourish in a decidedly challenging enviroment and compounded my self-belief in my abilities. Oh and I've also been offered a traineeship with Sun in Brussels but I'll tell y'all a bit more about that next week once I've got the lowdown!
Great news. It's my birthday a week Friday (15th) and Iain and Lorraine are flying down from Bellingham on the Saturday to help me celebrate and come experience all that San Fran has to offer. It'll be great to catch up with some other interns and to share our experinces at the mid-way point of this amazing adventure. If there's something I've learned from my life back in Scotland, it's that having the opportunity to discuss and debrief on a regular basis ensures that you can make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead. I have of course been keeping up to date with everyone elses blogs via the Saltire Foundation website and it's great to hear of the differing experiences that each of the other interns are having across the globe. Well done guys - you really are doing Scotland proud.
As for the weekend so far - well today I went back to Bread and Chocolate in Capitol Hill to savour their fantastic brunch for one last time before I depart DC. Sob sob. Was as good if not better that I remember from my first morning here. I even managed to get an outside seat which are normally 
reserved for groups (thanks to my being Scottish). Washington Post in hand I devoured my omlette, pastries, fruit salad, grapefruit juice and tea under the blissful morning sun, enjoying people watching and conversation nebbing. Life is sweet. After I'd finished I headed over to the local flea market and picked up some gifts for family and friends that I'd been up for a few weeks. I even managed to buy myself another pair of ridiculously cheap sunglasses ($5) - DC total: 4! Well when it's sunny EVERY day you really do need a few options! This afternoon I headed to the Mall and checked out the National Art Gallery. Or should I say galleries. The campus is split over two buildings - the original neo-romanesque West Building housing a plethora of masterpieces from the early 20th century backwards such as Vincent Van Gogh's Self Portrait and Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci. I also seen works Monet, Manet, Rubens, Raphael, Titian, Cezanne and Vermeer.
I then hopped over to the newer East Building, which houses the gallery's modern collection. More up my street and with as many impresive names as it's older cousin - Picasso, Warhol, Pollock, Matisse, Dubuffey and Calder. My favourite pieces were by Piet Mondrian (Tableau No. IV) and Roy Lichenstein. East is also showing an exhibition on loan from the National Museum, Kabul, Afghanistan. It was really interesting to see some tangible examples of the rich history of this ever-troubled nation. I think all too often we forget that Afghanistan was an integral part of the former Silk Road trading network - a global trading route stretching from China to Syria that predates christ and certainly the European global trading exploits. It really puts the notion of globalization as a new thing into stunning perspective.
Hope you've enjoyed my blogging thus far. Keep tuning. Will write soon. Rory ps Apologies re the randomness of where the photo's are placed - this is where the blogging software has decided that I put them even though I keep going back and fixing them - sorry.
Wow - headhunted within 3 weeks? Guess you're doing an incredible job out there - good on ya! Washington DC to San Francisco ... let me know if you're relocated to Chi-town in the middle! Have a brilliant time in SF! Andy
Posted by: Andy | August 04, 2008 at 07:36 PM