I was involved in a lot of implementations throughout my career and can truthfully say that, although almost every one was different, there's commonality across them that can be exploited. I've mentioned in the past that most of the implementation work we did at my previous employer was related to customer EDI and eProcurement/marketplace connections, but that we also supported our nearly-all-electronic supply chain as well.

Last month, I attended the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the alumni association at my alma mater, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. My wife, Carole, was one of the inductees. It was a fine evening, with drinks, a nice dinner, and speeches from honored guests (most of which exceeded their allotted time limit). Normally, when captive in an audience, I tend to quickly zone out, daydream, think about our next vacation, or nod off. However, the first speech was pretty good, the next was very interesting, the third entertaining…..  heck, every one of the first 16 until they got to Carole’s (which was the best, of course) were excellent. I never got the chance to get bored.

Before I took the great leap of faith into retirement, I used to love this time of year.  Not that I’m that much of a holiday guy, but things sort of progressively slowed down as the end of the year approached and people were generally just a little nicer.  So, it was a time to get caught up a bit and to work under a little less pressure than usual. Plus, with all the people out of the building on vacation, lunch lines in the cafeteria were shorter.

Yet another reason I like this time of year is it’s when the ‘Best of….” lists are published. I wonder every year, though, how the authors of these lists have any credibility left at all. They seem to always get it wrong. I mean, everyone knows The Suburbs by Arcade Fire was the best album of 2010, and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes was the best book, right? Well, rather than getting worked up about the past, another end-of-year tradition, creating New Year’s resolutions, is something I personally find more productive. If you haven’t finished your list, I have a recommendation for you.