Business > The American Way...Napo's way !

I’ve been working with Americans for almost ten years now, and it’s been a very rich, challenging as well as rewarding experience.

How did I end up working with the Yankees?... It all started 12+yrs ago (aged 22) when I left the mother land mainly to study abroad.

I was an ISG grad who had the option to continue school in France, Germany or English Canada. My family & friends recommended that I stay away from Europe although some schools are pretty good there, but Europe was getting crowded, and opportunities were scarce compared to North America, especially in the technology field.

I first landed in Toronto, the economic capital of Canada & the largest city, a city where Canadians are now a minority. It didn’t take me too long to obtain a master’s degree from U of T in Computer Science, to start another one in Algorithmics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commonly known as M.I.T, and that’s where I first started interacting with Americans, learn about their culture, speak their language (the American language) and then head to work for Corporate America.

My first assignment as an Engineer was at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) in Maryland, it was short but extremely rewarding, got to work with double Ph.D engineers and scientists, and ultimatly peek at the engines that once propolled the lunar module into space (I always dream of going to space one day…with a Tunisian flag on my sholder) .

Around the 97s, the economy started to boom and the dot-com phenomena started cooking, that’s when I joined Andersen Consulting (renamed Accenture), one of the largest consulting firm in the world. As a Consultant I got to learn and practice -never read before- innovative methodologies, best practices & concepts that could in theory be valid for another 100 years. I was truly amazed how progressive and creative the people working for such a partnership could be. They were landing million dollar contracts with ease and confidence to follow up with delivery of state of the art solutions..., even to date, I still leverage those skills on a daily basis, sometimes crossing onto my personal life.

Around the 2000s, I had no option but to jump into the dot-com boiling market before i miss the train, i had to work the crazy hours, the weekends, build something from the scratch, live the ups and downs of VC shortages, the positive and negative press releases, the down-sizing, the NYSE listing, the good and the ugly. We were a bunch of multi-national team of engineers and techies that worked around the clock to envision an idea, build a market niche/need for it, sell a product and make profit out of it….THAT WAS REALLY TOUGH…but we prevailed at last…

Working with Americans, has no boundaries for creativity, initiative, challenges and innovation. These folks are focused, task oriented, delivery aware and business conscious, no wonder they’re number one the world stage and will probably remain as such for quite some time.

Nowadays, with family onboard, I’m more or less settled as part of the Management Team of a yet another American startup which future looks ‘so far’ promising (crossing my fingers). Needless to mention that concepts such as Job Security, steady stream of income and employment for life are things of the past in this continent. Very few do care about security, since opportunities of cashing out half a million dollar were at some point more likely to occur then loosing own job.