One of the unfortunate trends I’m seeing in the business world is a lack of agility. Meaning people and organizations that do not have the ability to react quickly and efficiently. Here’s an example:

True story. I’m currently trying to buy “something”. Now, I don’t want to be flip but the cost of this “something” is in the thousands of dollars (versus something that might cost $5). So just like other companies, I’ve identified several vendors, set up meetings to discuss their products, and requested price quotes.

The first vendor (who I know on a professional level) not only didn’t supply a complete quote but hasn’t responded to my requests to get a complete quote. At this point, I’m convinced they’ve received a better piece of business (or a large inheritance) and my paltry couple grand doesn’t mean squat.

For the second vendor (who I also know on a professional level), I actually gave them a ballpark of what the quote needed to come in at (based on research and my other quotes).   So, what do they do? Provide the highest price of all of them. *sigh*

Meanwhile, a potential customer calls me last week and asks for an outline of my services. Needed it the next morning. Did I stay up all night (well not literally all night…but you get what I mean) to make sure they had it on time? You bet I did.

When customers have money to spend, they’re in the driver’s seat. If you want to keep them as a customer, you need to be agile – answer their questions quickly and completely, respond to their requests, and deliver your best information – on time. If they tell you the budget is $3000…don’t quote $4000. I’m not Einstein but this just seems logical to me.

Yes, these examples are very tactical in nature. On a simplistic level, my experience could just be attributed to poor follow-up skills or the inability to competitively price products. But if left unaddressed such things could become a systemic problem for a business.

In today’s economy, businesses will be successful (and profitable) if they can respond quickly and correctly.   Speed and accuracy are the name of the game. It can all go bad if you don’t pay attention.

As I registered for my St. George Triathlon earlier this year I was asked to enter what my actual weight was. I proudly entered 226 lbs. After tabbing into the next field a message popped up that said I would be classified as a Clydesdale. What the hell is a Clydesdale? Do I have to pull the beer wagon? Is this like one of those Super Bowl commercials for Bud Light? Do I get paid endorsement fees for this new title and responsibility? Sadly no, it is just another classification.

I am proud to say I’m a C-L-Y-D-E-S-D-A-L-E! Many people in the Triathlon Sport know the division is there, but many of them think that it is the “fat boys division.” That is what I thought after being labeled as such. So what constitutes a Clydesdale? A Clydesdale Athlete is usually defined as any male athlete over 200 lbs. and any woman athlete over 145 lbs. (aka Athenas).

The American Clydesdale Horse Society says this about the breed of horse: "Male or female, a Clydesdale should look handsome, weighty and powerful, so that the impression is given of quality and weight, rather than grossness and bulk."

I guess that could be a compliment.

I have done my training and now I am ready for my first Triathlon. Honestly I am still nervous for the swim. I am glad I took swimming lessons finally and learned some technique. Nothing like a 33 year old that can’t swim yet signs up for a triathlon. My bike is tuned and my running gear has a couple of miles under her belt. The only thing to do now is show up and start the race…oh and finish the damn thing.

I am sure my “Little Sissy” will rear its ugly head and taunt me 200 yards into the swim, telling me that I am drowning or that feeling I just felt on my legs was a shark ready to attack. I will  push my “Little Sissy” to the back of my thoughts, but it will come wiggling back out during mile 10 of the bike section as I start to ascend the dreaded hill. Once again I will force it back into the depths of my subconscious. That self doubt I refer to as my “Little Sissy” will make its final appearance  2 miles into the run telling me that my legs are done and that they are refusing to move. That I should back out now…that I should quietly walk off the course and give up. It will be then, that I see off in the distance… the finish line! 

Watch Out…… The Clydesdale is Unleashed!!!

Ohhh what an adventure today has been. Today we said good bye to half of our travel group and Fred, Rick and I took off towards Mendoza, Argentina. We had planned on spending three days in Mendoza to explore a new city and try a new wine region. We left around noon from Santiago and headed north east up to cross the Andes Mountains. We drove through some beautiful small towns along our drive before starting to climb up the Andes Mountains. We decided to cross at a place called Portillo. Portillo is a Ski Resort in the winter, but right now it just looked like a big pile of rocks and it is not like any ski resort we have in Utah. I am sure they get a lot of snow, they should at 13,000 feet. We climbed numerous switch backs on our way up the mountain.

We finally arrived at the smallest border crossing I had ever seen. It was a combination of a few old and when I say old, I mean REALLY old buildings. we pulled up to a window and spoke to an old gentleman and he asked us for our papers and where we were headed. We told him we were headed to Mendoza and handed over all of the papers we had for the rental car. After he looked through everything he shook his head and said that our car didn’t have a VISA to go to Argentina and we couldn’t continue. I pleaded with him to let us pass and finally said I had to go speak with the boss of the border crossing, so we pulled over to the side and went into this old ramble shack to find out if we could cross over.

I called Hertz International and they confirmed our itinerary and that we had authorization to go from Santiago, Chile over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. They said we just needed to contact the local Hertz store in Santiago and have them provide us the correct papers. I called the local Hertz store in Santiago, but of course it was Sunday and no one could help us. The paper that we needed had to be notarized. The Chileans love to have papers notarized here. I always see people standing in line at places of Notary. The lady informed us that we would have to return to Santiago and then take the paperwork to be Notarized on Monday and it might take until Tuesday to confirm. That is not what I wanted to hear. I am stubborn and so for an hour I tried every possible way we could think that would allow us to cross the border. We finally admitted that they were not going to allow the car across the border. They said we could leave it up there and talk to one of the many tourist busses that crossed occasionally and see if they would take us with them to Mendoza. We honestly thought about it … but decided to return to Santiago.

So we will stay here in Santiago for the next three days and then just drink wine and visit the wineries here in Chile. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow even when you don’t want to. This is something that I have a VERY hard time with.

Today we took a tour of Santiago. I really like this city. I don’t know it as well as I do Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso, but I would love to live here. I would love to live here for a year or so and really get to know this historic city. There are some great restaurants and shopping mixed in with some very cool Chilean culture. We toured through the city and visited a few of the beautiful Catholic Churches that have been around for a lot longer then United States has existed. We saw many of the legislative buildings and learned more about the history of Santiago. We saw the Palacio de Moneda, Cerro San Cristobal, Cerro Santa Lucia, and a few of the historic sectors of Santiago.

Santiago is a mix of cool architecture. There is old Colonial Architecture and then a big boom of 1950’s buildings and now there is a great mix of some very modern buildings. Two of South Americas tallest buildings are currently being built and are very beautiful. Due to all the people that live here and the many buses and taxis and of course now the numerous cars that are becoming more and more available create and incredible amount of pollution. There is a constant filter of dirty air hanging over this city, at times it is even difficult to see the mountains.

Today we headed up to Cabildo to have lunch with the Ficher Family. I was very excited to go up and see Mamita y Papito and the rest of everyone else. I lived with the Ficher Family for 7 months during my first visit to Chile. They were wonderful to host me and I love going up to visit them every time I come back to Chile. Cabildo is a small mining town about two and half hours north east of Vina Del Mar. I really like it, I don’t think I could live there full time, but I enjoyed staying there while I was in Chile.

Mamita prepared us lunch. We had wonderful Empanadas, which are absolutely wonderful. They are filled with ground beef, a quarter of a boiled egg and an olive. She also made us some Chilean salads. It was fun to stop and see them and of course my mom crocheted them numerous different kitchen hot pads, towels and pan scrubbers. They were so excited to receive the gifts. I also brought some peanut butter which they love. You can buy it now in Chile, but it is to expensive for them to buy. They are happy and doing well. I would love to come back and visit them for a week and stay with them.

On our way up to Cabildo to visit the Ficher Family, we stopped at the school to playground equipment. Fred and I went up to the school at midnight last night and the playground equipment had finally arrived. The Rotarians hired a few local guys to install the equipment over night. I am pleased to say…these guys worked all night and we got the equipment all set up. There are a few final things that need to be done to the floor and then new playground will be opened up to the kids. There were a few kids that we allowed to play with on the new playground equipment so we could take a few pictures. They were very excited and I think it was a successful project. These kids will really enjoy this new play area.

We changed cities tonight. We are now in Santiago. Santiago is a big city, six and a half million people live within this city. Here you can see the extreme difference between those that have money and those that don’t. There are multi-million dollar homes for sale and down the road there are eighteen thousand dollar houses. Many people here in Chile don’t own homes though. Individuals that have money buy the properties and then rent them. Santiago is an old Spanish city that has a lot of history and I am excited to see more of it tomorrow.

To see more of the pictures from today…

CLICK HERE