My Last Blog Post For 2010

As yet another year draws to a close I wanted to take this opportunity to finish it with a blog post.
2010 was a very exciting year for me on many levels, i will write about some of them while other will keep them for my private life.

I learned lots of new stuff, made lots of “new mistakes”, planned and rectified those plans on many occasions, hired and fired people, was tough with some and nice to some others, read lots of books and news, regretted lots of decisions, got stuck in Europe because of Eyjafjallajökull and life goes on.

Business was good to a certain limit, we had our ups and downs. Doing business in Europe is not easy for many reasons specially if you are dealing with a product(s) that is not present in the daily consumption list of consumers.
My company (where i work, i don’t own it) is in the frozen seafood business and our brand is known to many, specially in Lebanon, we are Siblou.

Economy in Europe is suffering, i will not discuss this, so many sites and blogs are analyzing the issue on daily basis. With this bad economy, companies are fighting to keep their margins and maintain the business level, while retailers are pushing for more discounts to compensate the loss due to the poor consumers spending.
So we should be prepared for tough negotiations in 2011, which already started since December 2010 and the early effects started showing up.

As example, Carrefour is asking for more discounts while the yearly turnover of 2010 is down compared to 2009 and they are closing some of their stores and they are squeezing their shelves in order to get the most out of every square millimeter, so you can imagine the meeting atmosphere with the buyers.

Competition is also being very harsh and new small companies are popping up like mushrooms messing up the business of the big boys, exactly the same way some of them are disappearing lack of focus, planning and profit.

On the other hand, we have big plans, expansion in new markets, new products, creating more brand awareness and understanding our consumers more.

In Lebanon, I have seen new wonders and i get freaked out most of the time, and totally forgetting about the old and new wonders of the world, because the new popping ones in the Land of Cedars are the most amazing and people creating them are endlessly imaginative, inspired & artistic *being sarcastic*.

I am not sure if i really want to talk about this, here and right now, as i am afraid the blog post will never see an end so i keep on believing that Lebanon is different and we will all survive.
But if you are Lebanese and reading this, i can already see that smile on your face from where i am standing :-)

I was also fascinated in 2010 by the new technologies on all levels, mainly the online services and how everything is moving slowly to the cloud and i took advantage by using lots of them, specially when it comes to collaboration, because we, as a company, we conduct lots of remote businesses, due to the locations of our offices and time zone differences, so i hope the people behind these products will keep innovating in 2011 to make our lives more easy, simple and productive.

My stocks portfolio is in free fall mode since many months, because i am not following it closely, lack of time zone difference and my frequent trips, i should also admit I made some mistakes while picking some stocks. I should go back asap to my trading motto: “when buying be patient, when selling don’t be greedy”

One of the books i read this year is called “Creating Your Own Destiny”, i encourage everyone to read it, it is so motivating and i like to share with you a quote from the book:

“Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.” ~ William Clement Stone

Some of my new year resolutions are very classical and in random order, eat more healthy, work out often, lose some weight, be a better person, learn and read more.

I will also try to deepen my knowledge in the retail industry as much as i can, by reading, digging and searching for more information and i will do my best to surround myself by people more clever than me so i can learn and get inspired and motivated.

I want also to thank God for everything i have and for everything i got in 2010, this is more than what i do deserve. My close family and myself, we are all in good health and this is a wonderful blessing.

Whomever you are and reading this posting, be well and have a wonderful new year.