I hope you all had a nice holiday season. I'm always amazed how fast it speeds by. In the States, with a week less between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the holiday seemed to go by even faster.
The Olferts have many Christmas traditions. For one, on Thanksgiving, we allow ourselves the pleasure of listening to one Christmas CD -- Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas CD (what a missed talent Guaraldi was). That's it. The day after Thanksgiving, the flood gate of Christmas jazz, gospel and classical flow freely.
We like to kick off December with the local Christmas parade (click here). Pleasanton, Calif. might be part of the greater Bay Area with millions of people, but for one night you feel like you stepped back into time -- some small, Mayberry-like experience. It's everything local: the two high school bands, every Boy Scout and Girl Scout troop in Pleasanton, countless other groups, city council members, fire trucks, the Mayor of Pleasanton and, of course, Santa. This is followed by the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in front of the local museum, and then the town crowd the street to sing Christmas songs. It's corny but fun.
An Olfert Christmas day is pretty well organized, too -- open stockings first, kids play/watch a video while we make French toast for breakfast, then presents. The kids had a great time this year.
2008 started with a new job for me, and I spent the rest of the year just doing a lot of learning. Avanade had its best fiscal year (ended August 30). The global economy is causing us to be prudent and even more focused and strategic -- which is a good thing. The Comms and PR function are working well, but still much more to do in 2009 to become even more effective and relevant to the business. One area to explore and experiment with will be various forms of social media. Frankly, we're still making significant strides to our traditional media and analyst relations program (two strong people leading those efforts). 2009 will require more emphasis on new forms of media (see today's Financial Times article "Companies Use Twitter to Pack PR Punch" ... subscription might be required).
But for my 401k, 2008 can't exit fast enough. What an amazing implosion of our financial system.
As a new administration takes office in the U.S., and countless global challenges await President-elect Obama, I have no idea what to expect. From a business standpoint, here's hoping for a better year in 2009.
Even more important, here's to a happy and healthy new year. I look forward to continuing our conversation in 2009.
2 comments:
Hope you like the Parade in Pleasanton. There is always something good going on in Downtown Pleasanton!
Yes, love the parade. But can Pleastanton City please call it a Christmas Tree instead of a Community Tree? What's a Community Tree, anyway?
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