Michael Richard Murphy

I just got back from a week in Orlando visiting some of Disney’s different theme parks. My parents tell me that when I was much younger, we went almost every year just before school started. I only have vague recollections of some of it and of course the Wonder Years-style home movies of the experience.

The various parks are all adjacent to one another and inter-connected either by parkings lots, tram, the monorail, or ferries. Even though each park is massive, there are still only three or four ways into the complex and then visitors are sent in different directions to each park. I don’t remember the exact wording but above each entrance is a sign that says something to the effect of “Welcome to Disney World” and under that, “The Happiest Celebration on Earth”

Like I said earlier, I have only vague memories of Disney but wasn’t it always referred to as “The Happiest Place on Earth”? Maybe I made that up but that’s the way I remember it.

The happiest celebration is certainly more fitting since it can reasonably be assumed that anyone celebrating is happy. Maybe they secretly and quietly changed it from the happiest place because some of the people that I saw weren’t all that happy.

They weren’t happy about trudging around in the hot hot sun for 12 hours on a death march to see everything or waiting in line for 40 minutes to ride a 3 minute ride. They weren’t happy to pay $2.50 for a bag of Doritos that would cost 99¢ anywhere else. It should be noted that while I experienced all of those things, I’m not complaining about them. I fully realize that that is the cost of vacationing. I’m merely reporting what I observed. Parents upset with their children, children upset with their parents, couples frustrated with each other. Everyone with their own idea of what vacation means.

Anyhow, this is all just a convenient segue for me to explore the idea of happiness in future posts. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Different people have different ideas of what happiness is and sometimes it’s not even what they think.

Here it is, The Student Loan Corporation/Citigroup/Smith Barney shirt for the 2006 JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge:

I got a call yesterday from a good friend and former coworker of mine.

A year or so ago he sat next to the CIO of well known company on a flight back here from the West Coast. They talked, he impressed this gentleman, and they stayed in touch.

He called to tell me that he was offered one of their coveted project management internship positions this summer (he has one semester left). He also wanted to thank me for my support all these years and the opportunities he had while working for me to get the experience necessary to get this internship.

Clark, I wish I could take credit for your success but that’s all you. I just let you do what you’re good at. You’re one of the most motivated, hardest working people I know and I’d work with you on any project, any time.

Congratulations, you deserve it.

I read recently in the New York Times that Mc Donald’s has moved some of their drive-up window order taking to centralized call centers in an effort to improve service and cut costs.

While you probably won’t might not be ordering Big Macs from customer service reps in New Delhi or the Philippines anytime soon, orders from some customers in Hawaii, Oregon, Maryland (and others places I’ve forgotten) are traveling as far as California before being routed back to computers inside the local restaurants. The article says this new process is designed to speed up order taking and fulfillment. Hmmmm.

If the writing here seems spotty or few and far between lately, it’s likely due to scope creep. Also known as ‘Give an inch, take a mile’ or ‘Why can’t I say no?’

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the term, scope creep is those little extras that seem to sneak into projects (of any size) that manage to make them one or two or more sizes larger than originally intended. I’m sure it has a much more technical definition, but I think that breaks it down just fine for my purposes.

I’ve been working seven days a week lately on a number of projects. As usual, there is work work (what I consider my full time job) and within that there are “volunteer” projects. When I say volunteer, I mean a combination of being a true volunteer and a conscript.

I was asked to put together a registration web site for Take Your Kids to Work Day which somehow. Originally it was supposed to record whether employees were bringing their children or not and how many. Somehow that’s mushroomed into allowing employees to register each of their children for different sessions, closing these sessions when maximum occupancy is reached, and since some sessions are different lengths, disallowing employees from registering children in overlapping sessions. It will also dump registrants into an Excel sheet so that administrators can print out agendas for each employee’s children.

The Corporate Challenge logo is also running into multiple iterations because the different groups represented all want their names to appear first. Hopefully all the time I’ve spent on that will be coming to an end soon and a consesus will be reached.

I’ve also had a bunch of freelance work lately (which is a situation I hope I never complain about) and I’m getting ready for a much needed vacation.

Stay tuned over the next two weeks for those announcements. One will be the unveiling of the Corporate Challenge logo and the other will be a new web site.

I’m pleased to announce that this year I’′ll be designing the shirt worn by the local Citigroup companies in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. This includes local offices of The Student Loan Corporation, Citibank, and Solomon Smith Barney (my apologies if I forgot any group). Check back for an unveiling of the design after final approval by the powers that be.

Check back for at least two major announcements coming with the next few days. Details need to be finalized but I have some great news coming! Stay tuned…

As part of a promotion, I was enrolled in something called a Card Protector Benefit after signing up for a new credit card. The idea is that a percentage of your monthly balance is paid back into a fund like an insurance policy in case you’re ever in a situation where you can’t pay your monthly bill.

I try not to use my card too often and I don’t anticipate losing my job so I wasn’t totally excited about this program. But people get busy and several months went by before I called to cancel it. Naturally the woman on the phone tried to convince me not to leave the program by informing me of its other benefits. It turns out that they pay out for more than just job loss. They pay out for other life changing events such as purchasing a new home, having a child, graduating from college, things like that.

Having purchased a home a little while ago, she convinced me to stick it out at least until I received what I had coming to me for that event. Turns out that’s two months of bill payment (courtesy of the card company) and a refund of those two months of the program fee.

I didn’t intend to give it too much more thought until I had received those benefits (and it was time to cancel again) but for some reason I’ve been thinking about it this morning.

This whole concept is genius for many reasons. Like insurance, the company bets that not everyone they collect from will use the benefits so they make money. They still win when you collect because you’re providing them with valuable personal data that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

For instance, I collected my benefit because I purchased a new home. Since most people don’t purchase homes on credit cards, whether I rent or own would be information they wouldn’t know unless they asked. I’m voluntarily providing them with this information. It just so happens that this credit card company also provides many other services such as mortgages, student loans, auto financing, etc. Now that they know I own a home, how long do you think it will take before I’m bombarded by marketing material asking me to consider refinancing or describing home equity products?

I find this person’s writing and insight so spot on that I would consider going to work for them immediately if:

1. I lived in Silicon Valley
2. I knew who this person was
3. I knew where this person worked

Numbers 2 and 3 are relatively easily solved with a little detective work but it’s just not worth it considering number 1. So for now I think I’ll simply continue to enjoy his writing.

Visit the link above to soak in some ideas on how decisions are made and ideas created. I find I work much the same way. Maybe that’s why I enjoy his articles so much.

The Student Loan Corporation has a new CIO. One of the programs she has carried over from her work at Citigroup is the Top 10 program. Each month the organization honors the top performers in each department.

I am pleased to announce that this past Friday, my boss presented me with the Top 10 award for January after only 8 weeks in my position. Ok, they’re a little behind but that’s not the point. It’s quite an honor to be chosen out of a department of 60 people whose work I respect. It’s also nice to know that my work is having an impact and being noticed.

• I could be your top performer. Download my resume.