I attended the 2016 Vertex Exchange Conference in San Antonio last week on behalf of Perficient, a show sponsor. For the majority of the attendees who arrived on Sunday, it was four busy days of travel, training, meetings and discussions with attendees, sponsors and Vertex. It was good to see and talk to several of our clients who were attending the conference that have all used the Nascent Tax Links to integrate Oracle EBS R12 with Vertex O Series versions 6 and 7.
On Monday morning, the keynote address for the conference was given. The big news Vertex announced last year was that David DeStefano was named President of Vertex replacing Jeff Westphal, one of the family members who ran the business. This year the succession plan was completed when David DeStefano was also named CEO.
The Keynote speaker this year was Dr. Gary Bradt. Gary is a C-Suite executive coach and speaker and he presented some interesting and thought provoking messages. My favorite part of his address is what Gary called a 2 minute value drill. It’s a simple idea which I thought I would share.
Select a person who is under stress or experiencing difficulties to write a short note to. It can be a spouse or other family member, friend, co-worker or really anyone. If they are young (aren’t all young people having difficulties?) all the better. You just need a focus on a particular person for the message. Once you have that person in mind, take 2 minutes and write down the best advice that you can give that person. In 2 minutes, you don’t have much time to compose your thoughts. You just have to try and give them the best advice which you can in a very short amount of time. When you’re done, you don’t even have to give that person who you have selected the message. The exercise of walking through the process helps you focus on giving advice that is actionable and could have a long-lasting impact.
From a business perspective, this general process could also be used to find a solution for a company’s problem(s). Don’t get caught up trying to discuss all of the various detailed options to resolve a wide range of issues. Focus on determining the best solution in a specific situation. In most cases, you should share the message, but there are times when it’s better to keep your advice to yourself!
You can read more of Gary’s thoughts and advice at http://garybradt.com/writing/
