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A bit over one week ago, Shereen and I left the US, final destination Orleans, France. The last several days we have lived in our apartment in Orleans, adjusted to jet lag, and made liberal use of the GPS to navigate the stores in the area. Last Tuesday we picked up the company lease car we will use for the next year: a brand new VW Golf. A much nicer car than the Cavaliers we ditched in the US! Fortunately it’s an automatic, so Shereen is free to roam, which she has taken full advantage of. On several days she has dropped me at work and taken the car to explore during the day. Last week this included a trip to the nearest Ikea (not very near, there are several Ikea stores around Paris). Unfortunately the Ikea’s here are not as nice as the ones in the US and we decided to purchase furniture for the apartment elsewhere.
As I mentioned before, the apartment is unfurnished, which means it is virtually bare. So the first priority is getting some semblance of furniture. Working within the budget we were given, Shereen has done a great job of almost filling the apartment with purchases at But and a local used furniture store. It will take a few weeks for the kitchen cabinets to be delivered, but we should have a dining table and chairs, china cabinet, 2 sofas, bookshelf, entertainment cabinet, dresser, and wardrobe by the end of the week. The container with our stuff from the US arrived this Monday; we are in the middle of unpacking everything. We have been given several items by my American boss, Matt (he is actually 2 steps up, I have a French direct manager), including rugs, lamps, and a small table.
The one major aggravation is that we have not been successful in setting up internet access yet. We received the “Livebox” (modem) last week, but we’re not sure if we are doing something wrong or if the phone line has not been activated yet. Unfortunately my office contacts who could call the company have been in Germany the past few days. We hope to clear this up soon.
We have had some success finding food to Shereen’s liking at the local stores. She dislikes French food, so we have minimized visits to French restaurants and had dinners at Asian, Algerian, and Arabic restaurants. There is a nice store that sells exclusively frozen food near our apartment. The milk at the store comes in small bottles that are stored at room temperature. Only after opening does the milk need to be stored in a refrigerator. We guessed wrong with our first milk purchased and bought whole milk in a red bottle. With advice, we now know to pick the milk in the blue bottle if we want something closer to skim.
On Saturday we stopped at Matt and Julie’s house (they have been living in Orleans since last December). We were planning to just pick up a few items, including a toaster and coffee maker, but ended up staying the entire morning. They have two small children, a 3 year old boy and a 20 month old girl. We had an interesting time building a track for their toy train while the Olympics played on the Slingbox. I’ve been getting all my Olympics news from the internet, so it was nice to see some events live. In the afternoon they escorted us to some nearby stores.
At the third store, the boy was getting tired and obstinate. At one point Shereen and I were left alone with him as he began a fit. We stood helplessly for a few minutes as he stretched face down on the tiles screaming in the middle of a store about the size of Walmart, a Walmart crowded with shoppers. An older Frenchman pushing a cart stopped and spoke French to the kid. Hearing something strange he put his head up to see and then back down to continue screaming. The man smiled at us and moved on. Next a mother and her young son came by and tried to help. She bent down and actually grabbed the kid to help him up. This produced no change in the situation. Then the French kid grabbed him by the arms to help him up. I thought this might guilt him into behaving, but only briefly did the screams stop. After this nice French lady gave up, I grabbed him off the floor and we began walking to another area, hoping that Matt and Julie would come to our rescue soon. The kid is screaming loud enough to reach all corners of the store, I’m looking sheepish, and all the French are turning to look with disgust. Not the favorite moment of my day! Fortunately Matt came around the corner soon and he quieted down once back in his dad’s arms.
On Sunday we drove southwest toward Tours and visited 3 chateaus (castles). The Loire region of France has many castles; one could easily spend a year visiting nothing but castles. We visited 3 of the more famous: Chenonceau, Cheverny, and Chambord. These are very different castles, but impressive in their own way. Chenonceau is built over a river and was home to queens and mistresses during its heyday. The castle was given as a gift to Diane de Poitiers, one of Henry II’s mistresses. After Henry II died, his jealous widow Catherine de Medici forced Diane out into another chateau, moved in herself, and became famous for the huge parties that she would hold here. This is a very impressive place, both in architecture and the story behind the chateau. Cheverny is more of a large mansion than a castle. It is still owned by the family that built it hundreds of years ago, and was lived in until 20 years ago. The rooms are fully decorated and have the almost lived in feel. After Chenonceau, we were not too impressed and passed quickly through. Chambord is a monstrous place, fitting exactly my mental image of a castle. It was built as hunting palace and is surrounded by huge grounds for hunting deer and boar. The large rooms are located in a cross pattern around a massive spiral, stone staircase that goes up 4 stories. There are over 300 fireplaces in Chambord, but it has a distinctively cold feel: large rooms made of stone, with high ceilings. Big enough to house an army.
I had another French lesson today that went very well. I’m far from being able to speak French, but at least seem to be retaining what little I’ve been taught so far. On Thursday Shereen and I have a 3 hour “orientation” where we will learn about French culture and have a chance to speak English. We hope to find out more about the opportunity for Shereen to work at the language center after this orientation. I brought it up again today and Isabelle seemed enthusiastic about having Shereen assist.
This weekend I think we will visit the French Riviera. Shereen is a fan of sun and the beach, of which the Riviera has plenty. It is about a 6 hour drive, which we plan to do on Friday, and then camp overnight through Sunday. We picked up information on campsites at the tourist information center in Orleans and I have found a few nice websites for camping also. Apparently campsites in Europe are very nice, usually with hot showers and camp stores. We shall see…
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Going to work...
What does a “financial analyst” do? I’ll try to answer that and give you a feel for the flavor and character of the office here in Sully.
The value driver in any manufacturing business is operations (manufacturing): a company functions to produce a particular product. More fundamentally the idea that led to this operation is the true value driver, typically coming out of engineering/research work. Once you have these, the remainder of a company’s internal functions are designed to support and expedite manufacturing. Finance falls into this category (even in the banking industry where the “product” is finance, you could look at the bank as a support industry for businesses that manufacture products). Finance is related to accounting. Accounting is a categorization function. To understand how a business is performing, the various costs and revenues must be put into “buckets” to allow a human to understand it. Accounting is the framework that determines what dollar value goes into which bucket.
Finance uses the tools of accounting (balance sheet, income statement, etc.) but leaves the generation of these tools to the accountant. Finance is first focused on understanding how a business is running (revenue, profits) and second on where to acquire the money required to fund new projects. Using the tools generated by accounting, the financial analyst attempts to understand where a business is functioning well and where it needs improvement. In any large company there are too many moving pieces to allow for easy understanding. The layers of management between the shop floor and the office, combined with geographic distance make it very difficult to “see” where the problems are. Much of business is about “seeing” what is going on when you are not physically present. It is human nature to make ourselves look good, so it is not as simple as just asking the appropriate operations manager. Although firsthand input is always valuable, data that is more objective is necessary. Hard numbers eliminate the weight of personality and exposes who is truly performing. Step one for the financial analyst is to review the accounting statements and process the data in a way that exposes the true story. This means preparing spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations that tell the correct story in a way that brings focus to the areas that need attention.
Each year the finance team leads a company wide planning process to project sales and profits for the next year. This forecast is then used to evaluate how well a business performs. Each month, on a less extensive scale, the forecast is updated to account for changing conditions, both internal and external. The monthly numbers provide a high level snapshot of performance. It is the job of the analyst to understand the numbers and identify specific actions needed to improve. Once the business performance is understood, the decisions on how to allocate capital can be made. This includes strategic decisions on how much to spend on projects and where the money will come from (cash, loans, sale of stock, etc.).
Now that I’ve talked in generality, what do I do specifically? In Detroit I supported the Light Vehicle Systems (LVS) business. My primary project was to improve the collection of money from customers. As in any industry, not everyone pays on time. This was a learning experience for me, since I had minimal background in this area. In addition, I supported the capital spending decision process. This included reviewing projects submitted for approval and joining the management review meetings. This was an exceptional chance to see how spending decisions are made, as I was sitting in the same room as the President and VP of Finance. The monthly consolidation of the business results came through our department and I assisted with running standard reports. The remainder of my time was spent on ad hoc projects, for example, one was to analyze the individual business units to determine the return on invested capital.
In Sully, I will still be involved in the capital spending process, but at one step sooner in the progression. The last few weeks my time was fully devoted to the annual planning for next year’s forecast. Going forward I will be given a process improvement project similar to the one in Detroit to improve collections, but that is yet to be defined. Beyond that, I have set a personal goal to improve communication with the corporate office back in Detroit. There are many areas for improvement in ArvinMeritor and communication between the geographic regions is a significant one.
Sitting in Sully are five members of the finance team: the VP of Finance for our Body Systems group (an American who worked at Chrysler in finance for many years), my direct manager (a Frenchman with a prodigious memory for history and culture), and two other analysts (also Frenchman, about my age) who report to my manager. Finance is renowned for requiring long hours on the job and my manager and the VP have no qualms with grinding out 16 hour days for weeks, as we did to complete the forecast (forget what you’ve heard about 35 hours workweeks, that’s only for hourly workers, the salaried French can work long hours, but are required to have at least one day off every 10 days). The interpersonal dynamic is very intriguing within the office. A well respected Englishman had been the VP of Finance, but left within the last year. His name comes up periodically, always in a reverential manner as the locals mention something he would say or the way he did things. The new VP has this going against him. He is extremely intelligent, but I can see he is working uphill to build camaraderie with the group.
My manager is a particularly fascinating individual. He speaks excellent English, but at a much slower pace than we are used to. The first night I was in France we went to dinner together and I enjoyed watching him interact with the waiter on the wine and food selections. I haven’t had a long conversation with him about history, but I’m told he knows it all when it comes to France. He is more open to outside ideas than most Frenchman; we guess this comes from his having worked for several years in the US. Early in his career he worked as a manufacturing engineer before transferring to finance. A discussion we had recently exposed this background. To tackle the issue he started using similar triangles. No need to worry about what that means, suffice it to say that similar triangles are a tool more relevant to engineering, and is not a method I would expect in the toolbox of someone with a strictly finance background. As with most of the French I’ve worked with the level of urgency I am used to working with is not there. He allows things to develop at a much slower pace. The other two analysts are very courteous. I have had difficulty discerning what their career aspirations are. They have both been working here for several years and I can see they are somewhat bored with their jobs. We have developed a good relationship; I discovered that they really did not like my American counterpart who left a few weeks ago. I have been complemented that I speak without much of an American accent (basically I speak slowly and avoid using slang); whereas my coworker made no effort to adjust his speaking patterns for the locals. This was not appreciated.
There are several other non-native employees, including the General Manager. The GM is an extreme extrovert; you can see his energy level shoot through the roof anytime someone approaches him. I believe he is originally from Turkey, but he speaks English with expressions that come across well in any culture. I was impressed on my last flight to the US both he and another VP were sitting in coach, and as always he was smiling about it.
Overall an absorbing place to work!
The value driver in any manufacturing business is operations (manufacturing): a company functions to produce a particular product. More fundamentally the idea that led to this operation is the true value driver, typically coming out of engineering/research work. Once you have these, the remainder of a company’s internal functions are designed to support and expedite manufacturing. Finance falls into this category (even in the banking industry where the “product” is finance, you could look at the bank as a support industry for businesses that manufacture products). Finance is related to accounting. Accounting is a categorization function. To understand how a business is performing, the various costs and revenues must be put into “buckets” to allow a human to understand it. Accounting is the framework that determines what dollar value goes into which bucket.
Finance uses the tools of accounting (balance sheet, income statement, etc.) but leaves the generation of these tools to the accountant. Finance is first focused on understanding how a business is running (revenue, profits) and second on where to acquire the money required to fund new projects. Using the tools generated by accounting, the financial analyst attempts to understand where a business is functioning well and where it needs improvement. In any large company there are too many moving pieces to allow for easy understanding. The layers of management between the shop floor and the office, combined with geographic distance make it very difficult to “see” where the problems are. Much of business is about “seeing” what is going on when you are not physically present. It is human nature to make ourselves look good, so it is not as simple as just asking the appropriate operations manager. Although firsthand input is always valuable, data that is more objective is necessary. Hard numbers eliminate the weight of personality and exposes who is truly performing. Step one for the financial analyst is to review the accounting statements and process the data in a way that exposes the true story. This means preparing spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations that tell the correct story in a way that brings focus to the areas that need attention.
Each year the finance team leads a company wide planning process to project sales and profits for the next year. This forecast is then used to evaluate how well a business performs. Each month, on a less extensive scale, the forecast is updated to account for changing conditions, both internal and external. The monthly numbers provide a high level snapshot of performance. It is the job of the analyst to understand the numbers and identify specific actions needed to improve. Once the business performance is understood, the decisions on how to allocate capital can be made. This includes strategic decisions on how much to spend on projects and where the money will come from (cash, loans, sale of stock, etc.).
Now that I’ve talked in generality, what do I do specifically? In Detroit I supported the Light Vehicle Systems (LVS) business. My primary project was to improve the collection of money from customers. As in any industry, not everyone pays on time. This was a learning experience for me, since I had minimal background in this area. In addition, I supported the capital spending decision process. This included reviewing projects submitted for approval and joining the management review meetings. This was an exceptional chance to see how spending decisions are made, as I was sitting in the same room as the President and VP of Finance. The monthly consolidation of the business results came through our department and I assisted with running standard reports. The remainder of my time was spent on ad hoc projects, for example, one was to analyze the individual business units to determine the return on invested capital.
In Sully, I will still be involved in the capital spending process, but at one step sooner in the progression. The last few weeks my time was fully devoted to the annual planning for next year’s forecast. Going forward I will be given a process improvement project similar to the one in Detroit to improve collections, but that is yet to be defined. Beyond that, I have set a personal goal to improve communication with the corporate office back in Detroit. There are many areas for improvement in ArvinMeritor and communication between the geographic regions is a significant one.
Sitting in Sully are five members of the finance team: the VP of Finance for our Body Systems group (an American who worked at Chrysler in finance for many years), my direct manager (a Frenchman with a prodigious memory for history and culture), and two other analysts (also Frenchman, about my age) who report to my manager. Finance is renowned for requiring long hours on the job and my manager and the VP have no qualms with grinding out 16 hour days for weeks, as we did to complete the forecast (forget what you’ve heard about 35 hours workweeks, that’s only for hourly workers, the salaried French can work long hours, but are required to have at least one day off every 10 days). The interpersonal dynamic is very intriguing within the office. A well respected Englishman had been the VP of Finance, but left within the last year. His name comes up periodically, always in a reverential manner as the locals mention something he would say or the way he did things. The new VP has this going against him. He is extremely intelligent, but I can see he is working uphill to build camaraderie with the group.
My manager is a particularly fascinating individual. He speaks excellent English, but at a much slower pace than we are used to. The first night I was in France we went to dinner together and I enjoyed watching him interact with the waiter on the wine and food selections. I haven’t had a long conversation with him about history, but I’m told he knows it all when it comes to France. He is more open to outside ideas than most Frenchman; we guess this comes from his having worked for several years in the US. Early in his career he worked as a manufacturing engineer before transferring to finance. A discussion we had recently exposed this background. To tackle the issue he started using similar triangles. No need to worry about what that means, suffice it to say that similar triangles are a tool more relevant to engineering, and is not a method I would expect in the toolbox of someone with a strictly finance background. As with most of the French I’ve worked with the level of urgency I am used to working with is not there. He allows things to develop at a much slower pace. The other two analysts are very courteous. I have had difficulty discerning what their career aspirations are. They have both been working here for several years and I can see they are somewhat bored with their jobs. We have developed a good relationship; I discovered that they really did not like my American counterpart who left a few weeks ago. I have been complemented that I speak without much of an American accent (basically I speak slowly and avoid using slang); whereas my coworker made no effort to adjust his speaking patterns for the locals. This was not appreciated.
There are several other non-native employees, including the General Manager. The GM is an extreme extrovert; you can see his energy level shoot through the roof anytime someone approaches him. I believe he is originally from Turkey, but he speaks English with expressions that come across well in any culture. I was impressed on my last flight to the US both he and another VP were sitting in coach, and as always he was smiling about it.
Overall an absorbing place to work!
Domestique
The last few days we are making progress on becoming domesticated in Orleans. Thursday I received the keys to our apartment, after spending an hour with an inspector going over every inch of the rooms. Two of the women in the HR department at ArvinMeritor, Monique and Tekfa (Monique is older and has lived in Sully for some time, she has a picture on her desk of the bridge in Sully after it was destroyed by ice in the river in the 80’s, Tekfa is an intern of Algerian descent who was born in Verizon) were kind enough to accompany me and act as interpreters. At the gate we met an older lady who handed me a large set of keys: 3 copies of the key for our door and the car park, 3 for the mailbox, 3 for the “poubelle” (trash cans) and “velo” park (bicycles), 3 electronic keys for the door to the building, and an electronic opener for the front gate and car park gate. In a minute the inspector joined us, so we made a party of five. The apartment building is very 21st century: the lights in the stairwells are triggered by motion detectors or turn off after a few minutes if a switch is used, the gates are automated, the door to the building greets you in French after recognizing the electronic key, and there is a video screen in the room showing callers at the building door. The only complaint I’ve discovered so far is the place we have been allocated in the car park. Typically European the car park is in the basement and there is no more room than necessary for maneuvering a car. Our place is at the very back of the car park, through a narrow opening with 3 concrete corners grasping at your bumpers. It is easy to pull into the spot, but backing out is not fun. I was able to back through the narrow gap and into an empty spot to turn around. So far I haven’t been there when the car park is full; I’m not sure what we will do in that case. It would be difficult to turn the car around, so we may need to back all of the way to the door. Doable, but challenging.
As I mentioned before, the apartment is virtually empty. The kitchen is a bare room, excepting a small sink against the wall. Everything will need to be purchased, including some sort of cabinets and counters. There is also a toilet (ensconced in its own private room as is the European custom), shower/tub, bathroom sink, towel drier, and heaters in each room. That is it. I was given a budget of 5,100 Euro to purchase what we need, certainly not an extravagant amount. On Friday I was escorted to a local home goods store (called But, pronounced “boot”, there marketing people will need to work on the name if they decide to compete with Home Depot in the US) by Tekfa. I had permission from Shereen to purchase appliances and a mattress. Fortunately the salesman at But had gone to school with Tekfa, so he was able to deduct a large discount when we finished. We progressed from refrigerators to stoves to “micro-ondes” (literally microwave) to clothes washers and driers to mattresses. At each the salesman would give his spiel, pointing out the model he would recommend, and Tekfa would translate while also mixing in her suggestions. I tried my best to scan the prices and identify the high and low end. Having done zero research on European brand quality, my decision was highly dependent on their input and price. We selected items that seemed to be mid-grade, as far as I could tell. Tekfa seemed enthusiastic about the choices, so I think we did OK. The refrigerator is actually quite large, comparable to one in the US. The stove is a bit smaller and has a uniquely European hinged metallic cover that hides the burners when not in use. The microwave and clothes washer are very similar to American ones. Since the apartment does not have an exhaust vent, the clothes drier has a bottle that captures moisture and must be emptied periodically. The mattresses seem to be comfortable; I didn’t see any pillow tops, they are not as thick as in the US, or as large. I only picked one, since if Shereen doesn’t like it she can pick another and our guests will have the privilege of trying this one out. The grand total for this came to 2,004 Euro (that would be roughly $3,200), including a discount of 328 Euro. Better than I was expecting. I’m feeling a bit more comfortable about being able to furnish the apartment with the remaining amount. Still quite a bit to purchase, but the most expensive pieces are behind us.
The appliances should be delivered next week; we will set a date today. Once the mattress arrives, I plan to move in to the apartment. An evening trip to Auchan (equivalent to Wal-Mart, another local store similar is Carrefour, both are reasons why Wal-Mart has failed to penetrate the French market) landed me a shower curtain and rod. The colors are terrible, white curtain with sea green shells and bright blue rings, but the other choices were worse. It will do until Shereen decides she can’t stand it.
So the apartment is well on its way. The leased car we will use has arrived, but I am waiting for the secretary to return from vacation to complete the transfer. I expect when Shereen arrives in a few weeks it will not take long at all to button things up.
As I mentioned before, the apartment is virtually empty. The kitchen is a bare room, excepting a small sink against the wall. Everything will need to be purchased, including some sort of cabinets and counters. There is also a toilet (ensconced in its own private room as is the European custom), shower/tub, bathroom sink, towel drier, and heaters in each room. That is it. I was given a budget of 5,100 Euro to purchase what we need, certainly not an extravagant amount. On Friday I was escorted to a local home goods store (called But, pronounced “boot”, there marketing people will need to work on the name if they decide to compete with Home Depot in the US) by Tekfa. I had permission from Shereen to purchase appliances and a mattress. Fortunately the salesman at But had gone to school with Tekfa, so he was able to deduct a large discount when we finished. We progressed from refrigerators to stoves to “micro-ondes” (literally microwave) to clothes washers and driers to mattresses. At each the salesman would give his spiel, pointing out the model he would recommend, and Tekfa would translate while also mixing in her suggestions. I tried my best to scan the prices and identify the high and low end. Having done zero research on European brand quality, my decision was highly dependent on their input and price. We selected items that seemed to be mid-grade, as far as I could tell. Tekfa seemed enthusiastic about the choices, so I think we did OK. The refrigerator is actually quite large, comparable to one in the US. The stove is a bit smaller and has a uniquely European hinged metallic cover that hides the burners when not in use. The microwave and clothes washer are very similar to American ones. Since the apartment does not have an exhaust vent, the clothes drier has a bottle that captures moisture and must be emptied periodically. The mattresses seem to be comfortable; I didn’t see any pillow tops, they are not as thick as in the US, or as large. I only picked one, since if Shereen doesn’t like it she can pick another and our guests will have the privilege of trying this one out. The grand total for this came to 2,004 Euro (that would be roughly $3,200), including a discount of 328 Euro. Better than I was expecting. I’m feeling a bit more comfortable about being able to furnish the apartment with the remaining amount. Still quite a bit to purchase, but the most expensive pieces are behind us.
The appliances should be delivered next week; we will set a date today. Once the mattress arrives, I plan to move in to the apartment. An evening trip to Auchan (equivalent to Wal-Mart, another local store similar is Carrefour, both are reasons why Wal-Mart has failed to penetrate the French market) landed me a shower curtain and rod. The colors are terrible, white curtain with sea green shells and bright blue rings, but the other choices were worse. It will do until Shereen decides she can’t stand it.
So the apartment is well on its way. The leased car we will use has arrived, but I am waiting for the secretary to return from vacation to complete the transfer. I expect when Shereen arrives in a few weeks it will not take long at all to button things up.
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