W. Michael Allen –After more than 30 years as an indentured servant Mike left corporate America in 2008 and has never looked back. He doesn’t miss the 12 hour days, the hectic worldwide travel, the back to back meetings conducted all day and in the wee hours of the night to accommodate the global time differences and the most hated of all, the constant barrage of eMail. Just how do you answer 100 eMails a day with five minutes between meetings? One would think managing data centers would be pretty straight forward, keep the machines running with the highest reliability and lowest cost possible. Well corporate America is always about the next big program, enlighten and empower employees this week, right size and eliminate them next week. Don’t forget while you have them on the hot seat to write up a useless performance review to keep HR happy. That career had it’s moments of fun and great people to work with but ended with over 10 years of outsourcing and offshoring and dealing with a lot of very stressed out employees.
Luckily Mike honed his writing skills on hundreds of technical project proposals and became adept at making a complex subject accessible to everyone. Today he tickles the keys of a laptop hoping to make a literary contribution, while watching the waves lap the shore and enjoying a post card perfect view.
He is now retired and when not golfing, he writes and speaks on success and future trends. Residing once again in northern Michigan he enjoys life with his wife (and editor) Rhonda.
