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Enron Mail |
I will only make this pitch once, but did want to pass along some thoughts =
after reflecting on what I understand to be Jan's rating at yesterday's fun= ctional PRC. First, I have no issue with the criticism of his behaviours a= nd interpersonal skills. I have sent him several notes of coaching/admonis= hment when he copied me on e-mails that were too strongly worded. While so= me account should be taken of his being "Bavarian", I do not think that is = an excuse or cover for what is clearly an area for improvement. Having sai= d that, I would add the following: 1 This is his first rating with the company, I think. After the 6-8 month= s he has just turned in, I think a rating of 4, which is what I understand = he got, is going to be a bit demoralising. In additon, people rarely move = up two notches between periods. If he is rated a 3, and fixes his behaviou= rs, there is no doubt he would be a 2 at year-end, if he continued to perfo= rm substantively as he has. If he is rated 3 now, and continues to behave = as he has, he can go down to a 4, and suffer the financial penalties associ= ated with that. 2 Jan has had a half-year of results that most people hope for. He fixed a= number of erroneous license applications initiated by Donald Lassere, and = in so doing, secured licenses for EBS Europe in Germany, France, Belgium, T= he Netherlands, and Spain, I think (and I think all or most were from about= mid-December onwards). =20 3 BIG WIN: After much to'ing and fro'ing, Jan (not Tax, not Legal, not ou= tside counsel, not Accounting) came up with the business structure for trad= ing bandwidth in the Far East. The first deal done there, before Jan's app= roach, required 6 contracts with multiple entities. It may now seem obviou= s, but Jan came up with the idea that each of the national telco's trades i= n its own name, across borders, securing licenses in the name of the same e= ntity in each country, so why not EBS Asia. This was a huge breakthrough f= or EBS Asia. 4 Jan helped secure the Pioneer Tax Status (zero corporate tax for at leas= t 5 years, maybe ten) in Singapore, thus helping to secure Singapore as our= Asian location of choice (as opposed to more expensive Hong Kong), along w= ith the big success noted in my item 5, below. 5 Jan secured the necessary clarifications on the license fee assessed in = Singapore to make Singapore our location, and EBS Asia, licensed in Singapo= re, our vehicle, for Asian bandwidth trading. There was initially a clear = and justified concern that we would be charged 1% on gross turnover. This = has now been reduced to 1% of the fees associated with Singapore traffic (p= hysical, not financial) only. The repeated exchanges between Jan, Tax (Way= ne Gardner), and Fred Cohagan did get snippy, so I would not be surprised i= f this elicited bad feedback. My explanation (not an excuse) is that Jan a= sked for "final" issues/questions several times, and after each clarificati= on from Singapore regulator (IDA), he got a barrage of questions internally= , and had to go back to IDA. Some of the questions were legitimate, some s= hould have been thought of earlier, so Jan's frustration was partly underst= andable, partly not. Second, I think Jan got all the clarification he coul= d in a farely opaque regulatory regime (at least on the license fee questio= n; remember, IDA was not too sure what we were up to, and what they were op= ining on). I think Jan, and me, recognised that regulation is not always a= s transparent in Europe and Asia as in the US. Conversely, you had a trade= r (Fred), who I think has not had a big trading responsibility before, and = he was seeking transparancy that simply was not going to happen. Jan told = him so, again, after a few tries, perhaps too abruptly. 6 As a team player, Jan made the effort to support the Asian effort (long,= hard travel), including going out to interview the EBS regulatory affairs = candidates (we ended up with two qualified candidates, even if we have now = chosen to go with yet another/third candidate). His willingness to help/be= a team player seems completely overlooked in focussing on his other behavi= ours. 7 Finally, Jan's biggest problem, is also his biggest asset. There is no = doubt in my mind that he knows more about the telecomms industry, technical= ly as well as the substance of regulation, than anyone else in the Company.= He does not suffer those who know less than him very easily. This is wro= ng, and needs to be addressed, but I am concerned that he is effectively be= ing taken down two notches for his interpersonal skills. It seems the mess= age we are sending is that we are, in effect, valuing good interpersonal sk= ills over results. A commercial person who has a big year, but acts out of= line (gee, can we think of any?!), would not get a rating below acceptable= for being abrasive. It seems to me too harsh to rate Jan below acceptable= for being abrasive, if we also consider his "Bavarian" background, and, as= I have shared with Rick, the fact that Jan got a heightened sense of urgen= cy from Jim Fallon that I think made Jan think his (Jan's) behaviour was ac= ceptable, if all that mattered was getting results, "yesterday" as Fallon p= ut it. =20 Enough said. Thanks for considering my views. mcs
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