A Butcher, a Baker, a Candlestick Maker
Regardless of the field, connectivity is changing the way people work.
By Teresa von Fuchs

Whichever side of the WTO debates you’re on, there’s no disputing we live in a world economy. Most Fortune 1000 companies have national and international offices, partnerships with enterprises anywhere from the next state to halfway around the world and customers from New York to Tokyo and back again. Managing mobility is a major concern today, both for businesses and the executives who represent them.

Mobile Enterprise set out to find top-level mobile professionals whose jobs demand they traverse the globe while remaining productive. We’re proud to present four stellar executives who not only meet that challenge daily but do so gracefully through continuous connectivity.
Cheers to them, and to the many trendsetters like them.

Joel Warady
President of Wisdom Oral Care, CP2 Distribution and The Joel Warady Group

Calling Joel Warady a busy man is a grand understatement. As president of two international consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and founder of an international consultancy, Warady spends about 30 percent of his time in his office and 70 percent on the road. While based in Wilmette, Ill., Warady can more often be found as far from home as Scandanavia, Australia or The Czech Republic.

As an early technology adopter, Warady has had some form
of mobile computer since Radio Shack’s T1000 (which required downloaded cassettes). He also used a lot of hotel fax machines. Today he uses a Palm Tungsten T3, a Nokia 6310 tri-band phone and a Sony Vaio Tr Series notebook. Warady uses T-mobile for both cellular service and hotspots. He checks e-mail on his Tungsten T3 via his phone and a Bluetooth connection. So far his phone has worked everywhere in the world he has.

“People question why I want the additional stress in my life of always being connected,” says Warady, “and my answer is it’s a stress reliever for me. Because I’m able to get calls and access my e-mail from where I am, I don’t come back to the office and find 200
e-mails waiting.”

Warady also believes expectations have changed. “It used to be possible to tell someone, ‘I’ll get back to you within a day or so,’” he says. “Now if someone sends an e-mail and I don’t answer within four hours, they think I’m dead.”

Warady’s companies also use Intuit’s QuickBase, a Web-based content management system, to manage daily sales and inventory reports. When he hot syncs his Palm, all the info is automatically downloaded, so he doesn’t have to open his laptop to stay current on numbers.

“I’m always amazed when people say they don’t find it necessary to stay so connected,” says Warady. “I see my system as just the basics, and I can’t imagine functioning without something similar. It’s necessary to remain globally competitive. My biggest challenge,” he adds, “is keeping up with all this and still getting some sleep.”

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SOURCE: Mobile Enterprise Magazine