Landmark V, Moving to the other side of the world

In late 1994, the Vice President and General Manager for Landmark's Asia Pacific Organization (APO) was let go. I will leave the circumstances of that action to others more familiar with the situation. But it did open up a General Manager role in the Company, a role that I wanted.

To understand why this was an important position for the Company, it is important to understand the structure of Landmark at the time. We were probably about $100 million in sales, and the Company had three regions, or field operations, which were responsible for all client contract.

The largest of these (and the one I was part of for most of my career) was TAO, or The Americas Organization. Very descriptive - responsible for North and South America. I was responsible for the Latin American part - Mexico south.

Then there was EAME, or Europe, Africa, Middle East. You can probably figure out which part of the world they were responsible for. They had a new VP and GM who came from outside the oil industry. He had a good software background.

Then there was APO. Responsible for everything from Pakistan east to Japan, then Mongolia south to New Zealand. Lots and lots of miles.The headquarters for APO was in Singapore.

At that time (it was soon to change) each of the VP/GMs reported to the CEO and were officers of the Company. There were also VPs in charge of Software development, HR, and Legal. Each region was responsible for Sales, Support, Consulting, Training, and everything else that had anything to do with the clients

When asked if I wanted the job I said yes without hesitation. There were 71 people in the organization, much bigger than LAO (the Latin American Organization) and it had much higher sales. I would also be an officer of the Company (which brought with it some benefits such as a nice stock option package and an employment agreement)

So it was pack and pay time.

Moving from Caracas to Singapore was moving to the other side of the world both literally and figuratively. Singapore was a city based on rules, regulations, and a well ordered populace. Caracas was a city based on chaos. For example, in Caracas, nobody stopped at red lights, even in the middle of the day. In Singapore nobody ran red lights, even in the middle of the night.

We still had two dogs and two cats that had to be transported and quarantined before they could be set free on the unsuspecting Singaporean population. It was much easier getting them out of Venezuela than you could imagine, but then letting them sit in a cage for a month in Singapore was not fun.

But we did find an amazingly cool place to live:

From More Singapore

The one behind the scaffolding

It was on Emerald Hill Road, just off of Orchard Road. Close to the MTA (subway) close to everything you would need.

There were covered walkways all over Singapore so you didn't have to walk in the rain:

From More Singapore

supposedly Raffles created an ordinance that forced builders to include these walkways for pedestrians.

Here is another typical Peranikan Shop House:

From More Singapore

Now, Singapore has be variously described as Disneyland with The Death Penalty, or A Shopping Mall that declared independence; but it was an easy place to live.

The malls were, indeed everywhere, and they were generally pretty nice:

From More Singapore

It was hot, but cooler than Houston in July. That allowed for some great plants:

From More Singapore

and more than anything else, the food was great:

From More Singapore

From More Singapore

Our office was on the 18th floor of Peninsula Plaza, and we had a great view of the anchorage:

From More Singapore

And then there was the work.

This post is getting too long, so I will talk about the work next.