Although KSF Global has offices all around the world, we are a very close-knit team. Technology has made communication across time zones and languages much easier but to be honest, very little can beat having a face-to-face conversation. That is why I make a point of making special trips to America, China and across Europe to catch up with my team to find out what is going on at a grass roots level.
After spending 24 hours travelling I eventually arrived safely at my hotel for some well-deserved rest. I spent my first morning in beautiful San Francisco’s China Town. After hunting down an authentic Cantonese breakfast, allowed myself sometime to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city. Our vice president of sales; Ken was flying in New York that morning so we met up and headed straight over to the HQ of Levis. We took the opportunity to look around their offices and take some picture of their displays. I am always impressed with how Levis are always striving for innovation in their retail design. Ken and I took a stroll down to Gap’s head offices the next day for more meetings. Located near the famous Bay Bridge, you could tell you had walked in to ‘Gap territory’ from it cool air of sophistication. Once we had finished up at Gap, we took the time to take some pictures of the stunning Bay Bridge. It’s difficult not to be inspired by such an amazing feat of engineering! Continuing with our tour of San Francisco, I could not resist stopping at Market Avenue to look at the cable buses that are world famous. After that, it was straight back to business at KSF Global for the rest of our time.
Although Ken and I could very easily caught have caught up on projects and tenders over Skype I feel it is important to build and maintain relationships in person. Creative ideas seem to flow better over a coffee in the sunshine and it something that managers of all levels should remember. I am so pleased that we were able to take the time in San Francisco to listen to our team and plan a strategy for coming month based on those views. Returning to the UK I felt refreshed and full ideas while also being aware of what was going on with our team in America. I can’t wait to act on the plans from America.