Traveling Man

You travel a lot for work. You're on the road more than 40 weeks a year. With all the technology that's available today, why? Why not connect virtually and travel less?

A lot of people ask me that question. I think there is no substitute to face to face contact to seeing somebody in whites of the eye, breaking bread with them and getting to know them as a person. And today, we have a lot of technology from tweets to text to emails. You can always follow up with that. But unless you know where that person is coming from, you can see the body language... You can always supplement it with other social media and technology. But unless you get to know the person, you're going to miss out on certain things that you don't get in PowerPoint or in emails.

Can you give us an example of a situation where perhaps you had maybe an online relationship with someone and and you wish that you had that in-person relationship where you think it would have moved things along a little better or maybe vice versa?

Yeah, I think I'll give you an example of vice versa, because I run a global organization and have colleagues from Japan and the rest of Asia, Europe, Latin America and the US. And when I get an email or I get a PowerPoint presentation, if I have the context of the person I'm dealing with, it's very easy to pick up the phone or text that person. And I think life has become much easier or decision making has become easier when you already know that human being as a person rather than just an employee with a badge number. So I think it has helped me make decisions on opening offices, shutting offices, starting new businesses, because I know where that individual is coming from.

Do you have any instances where it's the opposite, for example, where things could have gone really wrong had you not known that person?

Yeah, I think it takes me back many years ago when actually I was at the World Bank and there was a colleague of mine in Asia. And if I didn't know his personality and where he was coming from, it was a very easy decision to shut down that initiative. And he was not great in communicating in English. He was strongly in his native language. And the way his emails came across, they were out of context. And so the committee back in Washington, D.C. at that time said, "Oh, let's shut this business." And if I didn't know him and I didn't know his passion, we would have actually made a disastrous decision, which ultimately was a success. That business was a success, but it all kind of goes back to us knowing that individual and where he was coming from.

That is a great lesson. And I think it's a testament to the global experience that you've had, because globally, people communicate in very different ways.

Yeah, I say we are all speak the same language, which is English. But, you know, hundreds and thousands of different nuances.