It is all about efficiency

As a Media Trader, I am working on digital campaigns that are often (for not to say always) performance oriented. With the technology, we can measure really easily the different KPIs we want to reach and we know quickly if the campaign is succesfull or not.

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency” (Bill Gates)

Therefore, efficiency is a big part (for not to say all) of my work. Since I arrived in New York, I figured out that here, efficiency is a big part of their life!

It seems that everything has been created to be more efficient:

• You are having a long way to work in the subway? There is Wifi in many stations so you can still be connected.
• You don’t find a lot of time to workout? A lot of buildings have their own gym.

• You want to have lunch somewhere but don’t have much time for that?Waiters will bring you the check just after you finished your last french fries! On their side, they really need to be efficient because some of them are being paid only with tips, which can also explain why they are much more friendy than french waiter… that an euphemism!
• Also, this is defintelly not a surprise that Tinder has been invented here…

“Time is money” (Benjamin Franklin)

In Havas, the seek of efficiency is even more obvious. For instance, People are having a lot of “lunch meetings”. Yesterday, a vendor came to present us a new product. We had the meeting in a conference room here (oh god, those rooms are so High Tech I will miss them so much back in Paris!) and she also brought lunch with her for eating during the presentation. In France we would have probably done the meeting first, and then go to lunch (or vice versa).

There is also much more meeting rooms (did I tell you how much I love those rooms?) than in Paris and therefore I really feel that there is more team meetings -maybe because when you have such rooms, you actually want to have more team meetings. People are sharing the maximum level of information they can. Losing information is a waste of time and money, so better avoid it as much as possible.

I have the feeling that in the US, there is no real barrier for talking to someone really higher in the hierarchy. Maybe also because we don’t have here the “Tu / Vous” distance. It can be very important in order to move forward quickly on important subjects.

For my part, I am trying to get the most of this experience during this month. I am trying to be efficient.