Day 21 – Tuesday, March 8th.

I went to the office in the morning in anticipation of seeing the “new” office.  Our local office is moving in to a modern facility in a couple of months.  The visit was supposed to be part of the executive tour, but it didn’t happen.

As luck would have it I was able to set up a last minute meeting with a local telecom company manager.  As with the other meetings I got a lot of advice on how to approach business and living in Doha.  The meeting was at the Four Seasons hotel.  This seems to be one of the common locations for folks to meet.  He agreed to look for ways for our two companies to work together.

While I was at that meeting I got a message from the PM from our airport project.  One of the contractors wants to move his scope from one PM company to our company.  I got a ride from the Four Seasons to the Intercon where he was having his meeting.  Amazing two back to back meetings at two different hotels.  It was a good meeting and another opportunity to meet others working in the region.  At the meeting two of our senior executives joined us.  At the end of the meeting, our regional president asked me how I was doing.  I’m fine I said.  He asked again.  I told him I’ve spent the last three weeks getting my feet under me and absorbing as much as I can.  He asked me to be patient and told me it took him two years to feel like he had hit critical mass in the region.  Two years, this is really going to be interesting.  I’m heading back to the states tomorrow.  Should  make for an interesting conversation with Mrs. You know who. 

The day was spent in the office day.  Caught up on expenses and spent the day compiling notes and preparing for the trip home.  The biggest issue was the overhead proposal.  Our production numbers are way down from the projections for the current year.  I think the recession has finally hit our business.  We are going to have to make cuts in areas that only hurt the business in the future.

I called the Siemens manager to find out what he knows about the Education City project.  No news.  He did tell me he was closing the deal on his Porsche and would be taking me for a ride when I return to Doha.

Back at the office I cleaned up some last minute stuff and went to the hotel to pack.

I went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  I ordered the shrimp fajitas.  They musta been tiger prawns, complete with the head.  The damn things looked like baby arms laying there.  It was good.  No complaints.