Paul Turner (keynote presentation)

Introduction by somebody who did not introduce herself. SHe explained how some sessions were canceled or when some people did not come, so there is a revised list of sessions. Ask at the welcome table if there are any questions. This should end by 10:15. There will be more coffee that is added. Lunch will be in the Medio restaurant, past the bar in the afternoon (but don’t stop at the bar!).

The dinner tonight leaves at 7:15. It is pricey – 45 pounds (around US $100).

Paul was introduced by Jim Stewart, the Chair of UFHRD. Jim stated that Paul personifies the meaning of the term scholarly practitioner. He has Trotsky’s 3-volume history of the Russian Revolution. Paul has written 3 books that are used within the UK in teaching HR. Paul just returned from a conference in Thailand. Paul was the HR director of Lloyds and Convergis.

Paul seems to be a practitioner who conducts research and teaches in Nottingham Business School.

People really seem to be dressed up here. Lots of ties and jackets. How European proper. Needless to say, I am not that dressed up.

Paul spoke about the conference with the opening session. The person had those in attendance look at the person next to them, hug them, and tell them you love them. As a British fellow, it was a bit much for him, especially as he was going to speak about Change Management next.

Paul then spoke about Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat, with significant economic implications. Friedman spoke about glocalization as well, where some counrties are able to adapt global forces and cultures into their nations. He spoke quickly with a lot of interesting issues raised in Friedman’s book, but his slides did not really support what he was saying. It would have helped if there would have been the definitions that he was using. The text on his slides was too small, which was distracting especially for a global presenter.

Really interesting material, but I could not follow the point of his presentation.

He distinguished between globalized nations (which are fully integrated) vs. international or regional corporations. Global strategy is utopia, and glocalization is on the way to that utopia.

He then stopped to consider that this is a very messy situation, and instead to look at some cases rather than discuss his learned paper.

He tried to show a portion of a Convergys DVD, but the sound was not working. It seems the equipment was not tested prior to his presenting.

I REALLY wish he would have written the definitions of his terms on a slide, as I cannot remember how he used the two terms–globalization and glocalization. His presenting strategy did not meet the needs of all the learners (by which I mean my own style).

Global–can manage economies of scale.

When he was in the US company, Convergys, he brought his non-union team from Cincinnati (all staunch Republicans) to meet with some of the trade unionists from Germany (including one who was tattooed head to toe). I did not understand the point for this story.

His PowerPoint slides has a lot of text and bullets. One slide had seven bullets with on average 9 words per slides. I took a photo of it for an example.

Interesting how this liveblogging is an outlet, in narrative and visual form, for my experience in this conference.

He then told a story about another American company, about which the person sitting next to me commented how he had worked with that firm and knew the story first-hand. He named the firm as Avaya.

His second case study was about another company which he named as AB and Amro, which is a target of acqusition sby Royal Bank of Scotland / Barcley’s. I wonder why he named these companies as his case studies, and what the purpose of his case study research was all about.

He is speaking in tangents and pointing to parts of his slides that people in the back (me included) cannot see. I am not following his point at all, especially since I cannot remember his definitions. 

I found that he has been speaking and giving a lot of examples, but I have not been paying attention for the last ten minutes or so, since the slides were overwhelming and I was not able to follow his point (what was it again?).

Jim’s summary slide (which I took a photo of and will upload to Flickr) helped me to finally make sense of what he was discussing. I wish this slide and a definitions slide were included up-front.

He mentioned that his views have changed considerably since he was asked to do this presentation based on his research. This is the most refreshing thing he said, that this area is open to research (glocalisation), as this is a messy area of study that is not as simple as he initially thought. I really like the fact that he spoke about how what he initially perceived as being simple and able to be put in a box is certainly more complicated and messy.

There were then some questions. In the process, he stated that the challenge is how to get economies of scope with the need to understand local cultures and how they are implemented. Once  again, this is very helpful and would have been useful to have stated closure to the front of his presentation.

I wonder if he did state this but since there were not visuals to support this, then I just missed it?

It seems that HRD programs in Europe (or at least the UK) have HRD in business schools.

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