On being different..................

Over the past month or so, I have had some extended business travel and some free time in the European Union (EU). Having spent time in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, France and Italy, you see a few things that are different. No, not just the obvious things like different languages, or driving on the other side of the road, but the more subtle things. For example, in Europe the grocery shopping carts (trolleys) have 4 wheels that swivel. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you come from the United States and you are used to the carts traveling in two dimensions and suddenly you are faced with three dimensions, it can be a big change.
In Paris, I noticed that a lot of people seem to litter. I’ve seen Parisians eat a sandwich and throw the wrapper on the ground. I watched a lot of Parisians open a pack of cigarettes (from my limited point of view, I’m pretty sure that all Parisians smoke, although there may be one older gentleman in South Paris who does not…) and the wrapper ends up on the sidewalk. In Ireland and the UK, a large percentage of the people smoke as well, but they are not allowed to do it indoors. So the sidewalks are filled with smokers. I spend most of my time walking down the sidewalks coughing; so much that I’ve found that you have to ‘step inside for a breath of fresh air’.
In the United States, when we go to the beach, there are teams of people watching us and blowing their whistles to make sure we don’t swim out too far. If we do, they are ready to swim out and rescue you (remember the TV show Baywatch…). But in Europe, if you want to do something stupid and you end up hurt or dead, it is your own fault. “Oh, he swam out to far and drowned. Bummer, he should have known better” (It is best if you read this quote with a French accént).
But, being different is interesting. After cataloging some of the differences between the US and EU (which would fill a whole book), I started thinking about differences in organizations and in particular, B2BGateway.Net (yep, here is the tie in). At B2BGateway.Net, we are different; not just in what we do, but in how we do it. People at B2BGateway.Net enjoy what they do and take pride in their work, but they also have personalities that are different and unique. This newsletter and some of our future video clips will show some of the different personalities that make our company great. I hope you enjoy.
Thanks , Kevin

Attaboy

Attaboy,

The expression was first explained to me by an old Navy Chief many years ago when I worked in the US defense industry. The Chief said, “An Attaboy is what you get from your boss when you do a good job. However, one “Dammit” (the reverse of an Attaboy), can take away 10 Attaboys.”. At B2BGateway www.B2BGateway.Net we have our own Attaboy program. Whenever someone goes above and beyond the “call of duty”, we can submit a e-mail to our Attaboy e-mail box. Several times a year the contents of the Attaboy mailbox are reviewed and the winners are chosen.

The most recent winners are Riona and Vinnie for staff members dealing with our clients and trading partners. Tom and Jill were the winners for staff members who only deal with other members of the staff. They each receive a $100 gift card and the satisfaction of knowing that they did a great job. Oh, in case you were wondering, we do not have an “Dammit” e-mail box.

Kevin