First Year With Autodesk – Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Posted on May 8, 2023May 8, 2023 by ppandria

I got out of Birmingham International Train Station and got into the Uber. I closed the door and sank into the seat, shattered. That was the final leg of a rare 4-day whirlwind trip across Europe. I was wondering how many miles I put on this week alone. Then again, after a year on the new job, how many miles did I travel for work anyway? Did I go around the world? And what did I learn from all these travels in planes, trains and automobiles?

Planes

Flying has taken me to two vastly different cities this year, two places I never visited before. I am not a musician and I never listen to country music. However, there I was in a honky-tonk in Nashville, away from the cold UK spell in March. A local musician was doing her best rendition of Dolly Parton’s Jolene. It was a perfect mix of warmth, the smell of barbeque spices, a local brew and the southern drawl coming out of the speakers. You even sing along after a while. You can forget about all of that when you get off the plane in Milan. It’s all about design, dah-ling. There already was Andy Warhol pop art at Malpensa Airport. The whole evening with Car Design News got me even more immersed with fashion, car design and circularity. When I got off the subway the next day, the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II towered over me. Breath-taking. I love flying (sorry about the carbon footprint) but how else can you get quickly to the places you need to go to? Turns out all the beautiful people love it too and they know where to go. You should have seen the fleet of private jets lined up in a row at Milan’s Linate Airport.

Trains

The first time I ever visited Birmingham almost 9 years ago, it was a nightmare to get around by car. I got a ticket for driving in a bus lane by accident. That was a charming souvenir to get in the mail a few weeks later in Michigan. I never drove into the centre of that town ever again. I am a car guy indeed but my appreciation for the railways only got deeper, especially over the last year. Heading down the M42 from the airport, you could see all the new roads and new bridges in preparation for the new HS2 railway. Any quick way to get down to London is welcome in my book, no matter how long that gigantic worksite is going to take. I am amazed that I did not travel by train more this year because the network in Europe is phenomenal. I can leave Birmingham at 9h00. I can work while I am traveling and be in downtown Paris by 16h00. Of course, just keep an eye on the strikes or the delays here and there. Case and point, I will point to my memorable race to London from Germany

Automobiles

In the end it is always about the cars. All over Europe, I was fortunate to see behind closed doors what our clients can do with our software. It truly is inspiring. Here are a few other random observations.

· The Lucid Air is really striking in the metal. I mean, there I was in Tennessee visiting the Acropolis and there it was. Yes, I really enjoyed writing that sentence.

· The same observation goes for the Rivian Amazon van. Just as the sun was setting it looked futuristic in the desert.

· In the UK, the garages are just too small. It is not convenient to use them to you know, park a car in it. My Michigan garage was big enough to easily park two cars, a motorcycle, and a barbeque. Then again, some cars will never fit anywhere…

Even if you are well over six feet tall, you can still feel small…

Bottomline

I am fortunate and thankful to work for a company who appreciates and understands the needs of its workforce. In the office or not people get their work done and then some. I really enjoy working from home most of the time. However, there is only so much that can be accomplished via Zoom. The biggest takeaway from last year is travelling remains one of the best things you can do in life. First it is great to meet clients face to face, wherever they may be. Second, there is something magical about experiencing life somewhere new, somewhere you have never been, out of your comfort zone. You can feel the neuro-synapses lighting up in your brain. It puts your mind in another dimension. Travel indeed forms the youth (and the seasoned). In case you were wondering I went around the world indeed. Almost 1.5 times to be exact. And now, off to Frankfurt for the 2023 Automotive Innovation Forum. See you there!

3 (or 4) Great Reads For SBF

Posted on February 15, 2023 by ppandria

“I would never read a book. (…) I am very sceptical of books. I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that (…). I think, if you wrote a book, you f***ed up, and it should have been a six-paragraph blog post.”

Sam Bankman Fried – Interviewed by Johnny Diamond

To never a read a book??? Finance for Dummies is longer than six paragraphs, but it was the first book recommendation that came to my mind for our friend Sam Bankman Fried. The former crypto wunderkind known as SBF is in seriously hot water these days. I am not an avid reader myself for a simple reason: I am surprisingly slow at reading. Therefore, I find it a lot easier to fit audiobooks in my schedule. The school run is one of my favorite times to catch up. I listened to a lot of books last year and fear not SBF, here are a few about business that you would have found highly entertaining. I even condensed the key takeaways for you. Enjoy!

Boundless – Nick Kostov & Sean McLain

His childhood is a surreal path through the Brazilian jungle, Lebanon, and France. He started his career with Michelin before becoming the globe-trotting, cost slashing CEO of both Nissan and Renault. Carlos Ghosn was larger than life in the automotive world. He was so famous he had his own manga comic book in Japan and a stamp in Lebanon. After a while, it seems Ghosn believed his own press, especially with a ridiculously lavish birthday party in Versailles. His head did not roll in France but he was arrested in Tokyo right off the private jet. Four charges were levelled against him, including one accusing him of hiding more than $85 million in compensation. He might end up more famous with his escape in a music box from Japan than his business career. In Lebanon, he is a free man continuing to plead his innocence, but he is still a wanted man in Japan, and more recently France. The authors do not make claims about his guilt or innocence, but the depths of their investigation certainly raise a lot of red flags: the yacht in his wife’s name, the LLC in the Netherlands that paid him off the books, and the flow of money from a Nissan distributor in Omman. The SBF takeaway is that as a business leader you must know how to count. Carlos Ghosn knew how to count, maybe a little too well.

The Missing Crypto Queen – Jamie Bartlett

This was a cocktail for the ages. The main ingredient was a charismatic and pedigreed female founder, Doctor Ruja Ignatova. Add the best multi-level marketers in the world. Combine the technology du jour, cryptocurrency, and finally the masses’ fear of missing out on the next BitCoin. OneCoin was supposed to revolutionize finance and to make cryptocurrency accessible to all, according to Doctor Ruja anyway. When Ruja promised to double the coins in people’s accounts, people cheered. They never stopped and thought it was impossible. Isn’t the number of coins you can mine a fixed quantity (you know, Crypto 101)? Jamie Bartlett hosted a fantastic podcast about Doctor Ruja as he chronicles her modest upbringing in Bucharest before becoming a world wide celebrity. The SBF takeaway is that yes, you can successfully run a crypto market exchange. Unfortunately, it is the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. You will be forced to disappear because you are at the top of the FBI’s most wanted list.

Billion Dollar Loser:

The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork – Reeves Wiedeman

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber – Mike Isaac

To spare SBF too much reading, we will lump those two books together about Adam Neumann (We Work) and Travis Kalanick (Uber). First, they shared the vaunted status of “founder”. They started their companies from scratch and turned them into unicorns, the adored Silicon Valley term when a start-up’s valuation passes one billion dollars. Up until the 2016 US election, a tech founder was worshipped and could do no wrong. Most important, they even shared the same benefactor, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. Son was among a group of venture capitalist firms that poured an obscene amount of money into both companies. With no shareholders to answer to and a freedom to spend and expand at will without oversight, We Work and Uber used their billions to “blitz scale”, to bury their competitors, or anyone or anyhing standing in their way. Both men were comfortable pushing ethical boundaries. Kalanick deceived authorities worldwide using Greyball. Neumann milked WeWork starting with $80 million of real estate, after he sold WeWork stock, something most founders or Kalanick never did to his credit. Unfortunately, both personified everything the public despised. Neumann was notorious for doing tequila shots with his subordinates in the office. Kalanick called Uber “Buber” because his newfound fame made it a lot easier for him to meet women. The SBF takeaway is that you can behave like the worst “white men tech bros” in the world and still make a legal and insane amount of money, three commas worth. The downside is that some people will really hate your guts.

But at least you won’t go to jail…

3 Tips For A Richer Life

Posted on January 6, 2023February 15, 2023 by ppandria

Ronni Ancona, the Skoda Light Design Team, some lucky guy, James McLachlan – Photo Courtesy Car Design News

“Woke up in London yesterday
Found myself in the city, near Picadilly
Don’t really know how I got here
I got some pictures on my phone”
One Republic – Good life

The music comes to a stop, and I hear my name, pronounced with great Italian flair. That is my cue to walk on stage. I can hear my heart beating in my chest. I am not even looking in the crowd. If I did, I would realize that at this very moment, the eyes of the entire car design were on me. As seen in countless award shows, I softly announce “and the award goes to”. After seeing enough award shows go wrong, I made sure with our host James McLachlan that I had the correct name on the envelope. Six hours earlier, I was sweating over the major train delay that might keep me stuck in Germany. Yet somehow, there I was on stage in London at the Car Design News People Awards. After a few laughs in the audience, I announce the winner for Best Exterior Lighting Team sponsored by Autodesk, Skoda. Cue the claps, the handshakes, the award handover, the accolades, the pictures. I casually walk off stage, smile and marvel at this one fact: “how did THAT happen?” It boils down to three things: ask, observe and be there.

Ask

If you want something, did you ever think that the best way to get it is to simply ask? Let us travel in time to illustrate. The French have an incredibly special sentence when you go down in flames asking a girl out: “tu t’es pris un rateau”. You got yourself a rake. In the head or in the gut? Unlike you are Bruce Willis, no one knows. Either way, it hurts (emotionally speaking). As a young teen, I was a jedi gardener. Like many teenage boys, it was a horror show trying to get acquainted with the opposite sex. This rite of passage was an ugly spectacle, cringe worthy, sad, and everything else in between. Today I look back with zero regrets. At least I asked. Fantastically enough, there have been some wonderful times when I did go out with the girl, and it was magical. I even asked a beautiful woman on a dare once (ask my wife about that). Back to more recent times, I was travelling round trip from Birmingham to Germany to meet some clients. I learned that Autodesk was going to have a table at the event. I simply asked my boss if I could change my travel plans to attend and he said yes. That is all it took. Here is a first tip for you. You will never really know unless you ask.

Want a selfie with a very gracious legend? Just ask.

Observe

For the last six years I have trained as a public speaker with Toastmasters, and I could not believe my luck. I was going to get a free professional level lesson from a 2-time BAFTA winning actress and comedian no less! Ronni Ancona was the MC of the evening, and she was on fire, right from her intro monologue. In my mind, I put myself back at one of our Toastmasters meetings, as I was dissecting and analyzing her speech. She was funny, brilliant, coordinated with the current news events, and with the perfect dose of edge (ask Patrick Le Quément). Preparing your speech is half the battle. You could tell she researched her audience. She caught on early that the designer population was a very well dressed and flamboyant bunch. I would like to thank her for pointing out Pontus Fontaeus’ shoes (they were glorious, you just had to be there). Her quip about black turtlenecks was a line that kept on giving. Her auto-scroll notes were not working but as a seasoned pro she carried on with the evening without missing a beat until it got fixed. Sit back and listen. That is all I had to do to enjoy this public speaking masterpiece by a pro. Here is a second tip. Observe. There is awesome stuff that constantly unfolds before your very eyes.

Be There

“That’s why we line up on Sunday”. Those are the immortal words of the late MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden. Anything can happen in a race, said the beloved American. All that is required of you is to get out of the house and show up. And that is the third piece of advice: just be there. When I was stressing out about being a decent father, my wife said that the most important thing was to be there every day for the little things. She was right. When I interviewed for my last manager job, I only found out later that my odds of getting the job were long. I was only the third choice for the position. For several reasons, both candidates ahead of me dropped out. I showed up and the job was mine. That night in London, I just wanted to enjoy the evening and to reconnect with some old friends. My co-worker Phil was supposed to hand out the award. He and I were texting each other all day as we raced to get to London. My train in Germany was delayed but I miraculously still made my flight. Racing from Heathrow in the London underground, I got to the event when dinner started. Phil got stuck in Manchester because of the strikes. If we go by what Ronni said in her speech, he got the full British experience. And just like that, I was asked to hand over the award.

How do you make your life better? There is no shortage of advice out there. You can find gurus to help you. They will flip your life upside down. They will transform you (and it will cost you). The self-help market size will go north of ten billion dollars in the next few years. If I learned anything in life, tremendous changes in our lives do not have the biggest or longest lasting impact. How many people assault the gym in January only to end up back on the couch in February? It is the cumulation of tiny steps that add up to transformational changes. Eat one less cookie. Skip a drink one night of the week. Walk one more block with the dog. Be grateful, one more minute. Ask. Observe. Show up. Those are my three free pieces of advice for you. You will be amazed how much richer life can be.