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Tag: Leadership

Four Ways to Best Utilize a Senior Business Analyst

In my last post I discussed The Six Key Characteristics of a Senior Business Analyst. If you have not read this post please take a minute to become familiar with how I define a senior business analyst. The post outlines how to identify a senior business analyst if you are a hiring manager. If you’re a BA, you can see if you have the characteristics of a senior BA. Knowing what a senior BA looks like is one step in transforming the business analysis discipline within your organization. Many of you are senior business analysts or work in companies with senior business analysts. Are you or the other senior BAs being utilized to maximize productivity or do all BAs have the same responsibilities regardless of skills and experience? In today’s post I will highlightfour ways to best utilize a senior BA to improve the effectiveness of your overall BA team, which provides the foundation for transformation.

Critical Projects

Critical projects bring a level of risk to the team assigned to that project. These projects can have executive visibility and/or cause fines or loss of market share if delayed or delivered incorrectly. These projects have management showing up at project kick-off meetings, saying “we have to get this right”. Managers want to sleep at night knowing their team has things under control and will take care of business. Senior business analysts have the techniques, experience, and mindset to make the project a success.

In addition, this gives the senior BAs some recognition and junior BAs something to strive for. By staffing the senior BAs on the critical projects they feel valued and will stay motivated.

Scoping and Planning

In my opinion the most important part of a project or sprint is to understand the scope and thinking through a plan. The senior business analyst has enough experience to help ensure the business analysis scope is understood and can determine the appropriate analysis effort necessary for the initiative. The senior BA can be used early in projects to help with scoping and planning then use a more junior analyst to implement the plan.

Coaching

Let me start by giving the difference between a coach and a mentor. A mentor is usually someone identified by the mentee. This is a personal decision made by the mentee to seek out someone they look up to and have an idea of what goal they want to reach through the relationship. The mentee manages the relationship. A coach is assigned to someone based on the job. Think about a hitting coach in baseball, or a strength coach used for many sports. The team management assigns a coach to each player as part of their job. I believe all junior BAs should be assigned a coach. They need support; they need someone dedicated to helping them develop.

The senior business analysts should be assigned to a junior business analyst to coach them up. Many organizations unintentionally leave junior BAs out in the world all alone. Junior BAs should have a coach to help them improve in their growth areas. Left alone during projects junior BAs can easily fall into two traps. They make a wrong decision on a direction to take on a project or they sit there almost paralyzed trying to figure out the best approach to take. Having a senior business analyst with their experience will help accelerate the decision making process for the junior BA and can help recognize where they may need to change direction. Overall this improves the speed and effectiveness of the junior business analysts. An important note is that the senior BA acting as the coach needs to be given the time to coach. This can’t be an added duty to someone’s workload that is already at capacity.

Lead Business Analyst

To help the work of a business analyst group excel, companies need to begin moving some of their senior BAs into a lead role. Here is a simple example organization structure that shows a lead role within each business domain area a group of BAs support.

kupe-bamanager

The role of the lead BA, similar to the coaching role, includes non-project work. The lead can be used to in the first three areas, critical projects, scoping and planning, and coaching. In addition the lead BAs can develop and implement standards and practices for the larger pool of BAs. The lead BA should work closely with the business domain they support and help prioritize projects. One other way a lead BA can add value is helping with resource allocation for the BAs they are leading. Once scoping and planning is complete, the lead BA can assist the manager in determining the best resource to use for project level tasks.

The four ways I highlighted above have the potential for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the business analyst efforts for your team, which in turn improves project outcomes and customer satisfaction. The knowledge and experience of the senior BAs is handed down to the junior analysts allowing them to be more effective. By utilizing senior business analysts in one or more of these ways helps with a BA career path. Junior BAs have the ability to become senior BAs. And for senior BAs, the experienced gained will help them move into a management role, a strategic business analysis role, and a role in the line of business.

How are your companies utilizing senior business analysts?

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The Emotionally Powerful Business Analyst Team Leader

I must say from the outset that when the words “leadership” and “emotions” are used in the same sentence, I cringe.

This reaction was likely formed early in my career when, as a young engineering technologist, all of my projects were horrendous failures, not because of their lack of technical merit, but rather because of the irrationality, foolhardiness, idiocy (I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea) of equipment operators. Apparently an insidious, deep-seated mental weakness rendered them incapable of recognizing the sheer brilliance and elegance of my ideas. The Director of Engineering apparently shared this weakness since he arranged a most unwelcome transfer to Personnel Records six months into my job. That foolish move cost him a brilliant young technologist who graduated near the top of his class. It nearly cost me my career.

Leaders today rarely fail because they back the wrong product or make a misstep in an acquisition. They fail because they are insensitive, critical, selfish, arrogant and negative. They fail because they are emotionally weak, like that young technologist. They fail because they are unable or unwilling to harness the power of their own emotions and those of others.

The single most powerful force in the domain of leadership is emotion; the emotions of the leader and his or her constituents.

Some of us are born with natural leadership charisma, but I have never met a natural born, emotionally powerful leader. In fact, just the opposite is true. By nature, we are superficial, self-absorbed creatures. To become an emotionally powerful leader takes a real concerted effort…but it can be done. When one simply decides to study and master one’s emotions, connect with and positively influence others, it’s like turning on a light switch. The change is immediate. Overnight your leadership power will increase tenfold. It is remarkably straightforward and doable. Following are four point to bear in mind.

  1. Get up Close and Real Personal with the Real You
    Recognize and embrace your emotions. These are not simply outcroppings of your personality. Emotions are you. Think of spending your life swimming in a pool of your emotions. They are everywhere, and you are always under the influence of at least one of them. While you may think you know yourself well, most of us really don’t. Knowing your MBTI personality type is not enough. Get up on your own balcony. What really makes you tick? What makes you happy, sad, glad and mad? Watch yourself interact with others. Become aware of your emotions as they occur. Note the events that trigger significant emotional reactions.
  2. Become the Master of Your Own Emotional Ship
    Stop being ruled by old patterns of feeling-thinking-acting that no longer serve you well. Get into the habit of pausing and reflecting. Ask yourself, “What’s really happening here? Regardless of how I feel, what’s the next best step for me, as a leader, to take?”
  3. It Really is Not All About You
    Great leaders seek to create selfless, personal connections. This can only happen when people feel good, not about you, but about themselves in your presence. It really is not all about you. Practice seeing the world through the eyes of others. Practice being totally present with others, even for a short time. Great leaders invest considerable time and energy in understanding others and seeking ways to serve them. Others are not simply pawns in their game but real people with unique needs, fears, and aspirations.
  4. Stop Sucking the Light out of the Room
    Are you a pervasive, positive influence on the people in your organization? When you walk into a room, does it become brighter or do you suck out all the light? Moods make all the difference. And the leader’s mood is especially infectious. Great leaders have a contagious optimism about their organization’s future and constantly convey a strong sense of confidence in themselves and others.

If someone has recommended this article to you, you might want to take notice. There may be some good advice for you personally in the above points. The good news is this: Someone cares about you and your effectiveness as a leader. They believe in you and see the potential of your becoming a much more powerful leader. You can. And it will make all the difference.

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Gregg Thompson is the President of Bluepoint Leadership Development and can be reached at [email protected]. He would be thrilled to discuss any and all aspects of leadership with you. Please feel free to contact him.

Future Leaders Learning Program Puts Business Analysis at Core

futureleaders1Background

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. is a leading property and casualty insurance provider based in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The company distributes its products through independent agents across the country. Established in 1852, The Hanover has grown to rank among the top 30 property and casualty insurers in the United States with more than 4,000 employees.

The Challenge

One of the core skill sets identified as being critical to The Hanover’s continued business success is that of business analysis. For the past five years, The Hanover has partnered with ESI International to deliver instructor-led learning to business analysts in its technology division. There were, however, business analysts in the business areas of the company as well.

With approximately 200 business analysts across the company, The Hanover’s leadership sought to formalize an enterprise wide strategy for positioning the business analyst role as a pipeline for analytical and operational roles. With the implementation of its Future Leaders Program in 2009, work was begun on developing a consistent profile for entry-level business analyst talent at The Hanover.

The challenge before ESI and The Hanover was to develop a learning program for the Future Leaders Program effort that could indoctrinate new team members within various business units quickly and focus on raising the bar for the entire company, steering a course for continuous leadership development.

The Strategy

With approximately 200 business analysts stretching across multiple lines of business, bringing enterprise-wide focus to this role as a career-growth opportunity is a winning strategy.

Planning for the program focused on a number of key strategic goals, including:

  • Identifying and effectively recruiting outstanding university students and recent graduates
  • Determining a consistent, common approach and language around business analysis
  • Delivering learning through a range of modalities to ensure skills and knowledge are reinforced and effectively applied

The Hanover chose to partner with ESI International to guide the development and implementation of this new program. “It was clear that they were the ideal choice as our partner for this program,” said Irene Brank, Assistant Vice President and Director of The Hanover’s Future Leaders Program. “Their direction, commitment and support have helped us chart the path to this initiative.”

The Solution

The first task was to map a set of core competencies for the Future Leaders Program, which was divided into two broad career focus areas: business management and risk management. Assessment tools to effectively benchmark and evaluate the progress of program participants were also developed.

Once recruited into the two-year program, candidates are assigned an IT or non-IT career track. At the conclusion of the two years, candidates will find placement in a role that allows them to continue to grow their career. To ensure participants have the skills and knowledge they need to be leaders, the Future Leaders Program guides participants through a range of learning opportunities:

  • Traditional instructor-led classroom curricula
  • Reinforcement workshops delivered in person and via webinars
  • A participant forum promoting formal group interaction, including program coaches
  • Corporate-wide access to online reference materials
  • Practical, on-the-job application of new skills and knowledge
  • Continued mentoring after program completion

The program’s design ensures that learning and reinforcement take place before, during and after classroom training. Pre-class webinars create a foundation that prepares participants for specific learning events and reinforcement workshops conducted after courses further reinforce key competencies.

“We believe that offering a range of learning opportunities greatly increases the program’s success,” said Ken Joseph, Business Learning Manager, The Hanover. “By combining what we could offer in-house with ESI’s various, interactive modalities, we’ve achieved a robust solution.”

The Future Leaders Program also offers coaching and mentoring, as well as the opportunity to earn professional and technical certifications including Actuarial, Business Analysis, and INS certifications.

As university graduates progress through the program, the company’s current leaders also undergo targeted learning based upon position and role, which promotes consistent knowledge across the organization. These include:

  • Traditional, instructor-led classroom courses
  • Executive level workshops and webinars that overview key program knowledge areas
  • Skill specific workshops and webinars

Results

The Future Leaders Program builds upon the success of the two companies’ partnership which has demonstrated:

  • Significant improvements in project completions and adherence to budgets
  • A dramatic reduction in project change requests
  • A reduction in project errors
  • Faster time to market for new products

While still in the early stages, the Future Leaders Program has begun to deliver decisive impact by:

  • Charting a clear and fast track for new leadership
  • Defining a consistent approach and language around business analysis
  • Improving recruiting and retention
  • Increasing organization-wide competency in business analysis

Each year, approximately 75 future leaders are accepted into the program. At this rate almost 10 percent of the company will have completed the leadership program in the next five years.

Planning Forward

The Hanover and ESI are identifying ways to further enrich the program. Specific considerations include:

  • Enhancing The Hanover’s company-wide business analysis methodology
  • The addition to the core learning program of a “live” practicum project
  • Inclusion of a set of business consulting and skills curricula focused on such topics as financial literacy, critical thinking and leading organizational change
  • Inclusion of additional project management specific curricula
  • Executive workshops to refine the mentoring skills of those managing Future Leaders Program participants to help them more effectively reinforce the program’s competencies
  • Ongoing individual and organizational assessments to add value and uncover areas for greater learning emphasis

“Despite the early stage status of the program, it’s already delivering clear benefits to us,” said Greg Tranter, Senior Vice President and COO, The Hanover. “Much of the benefit is a direct result of the emphasis we’re placing on business analysis for decision making, which is changing the way our company approaches its decisions.”

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Nancy Y. Nee, PMP, CBAP, CSM, Executive Director, Project Management & Business Analysis Programs, ESI International, provides thought leadership in the field of project management and business analysis while incorporating the industry’s best practices and professional advances into ESI’s portfolio of project management and business analysis courses and services. She is a member of numerous professional associations including the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®), and the Scrum Alliance where she is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP®) from the PMI®, Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®) from the (IIBA®), and a Certified Scrum Master from the Scrum Alliance. www.esi-intl.com.

Business Analysts; The CEO’s Army

As the economy slowly recovers, businesses and governments continue to look at ways to maximize their organizational potential with the human capital they currently have. Over the years several management strategies have been presented to ensure consistent long-term performance (and outperformance). Methodologies such as Six-Sigma quantify results to identify opportunities for improvement and monitor subsequent performance. Others take a more qualitative approach and look to unleash the most important asset any organization has – its employees.

One management strategy that was formalized in the 1980s focuses on organizational improvement through ‘inverted strategic analysis’. Management by Wandering (or Walking) Around (MBWA) was introduced in Tom Peters’s book “In Search of Excellence“. Instead of coming up with ideas in the boardroom and communicating these initiatives to lower-level employees to implement, MBWA flipped this model upside down. Management (particularly the CEO) is encouraged to meet with as many personnel (particularly front-line staff) as possible to understand the current state of the organization, learn what is working and get suggestions for what can be improved and how.

Several companies over the past 30 years have followed this management style, including HP, GE, Pepsi, 3M and Wal-Mart. Recently Costco’s co-founder and CEO Jim Sinegal was designated as one of America’s Best Leaders in 2009 by US News & World Report magazine. For decades Jim has effused the MBWA ethos by “store hopping … about 200 days out of 365”. Former Procter and Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley also made it a priority to listen to employees and customers to ensure that strategy and operations at one of the largest corporations were aligned as much as possible.

These examples demonstrate that it makes sense for leaders to keep a pulse on their company by staying in contact with as many people within the organization as possible. However, the larger the company the harder and more impractical it is to spend a large amount of a leader’s time on such activities. How can a CEO get the knowledge needed to ensure they can devise appropriate and relevant strategy while at the same time receive feedback on whether the strategy can and is being executed effectively? I believe that business analysts can fill this gap by becoming the CEO’s “eyes and ears”

As a profession, business analysts have the qualities required to listen to a group of people and then communicate essential information elicited from this group to others. Whether it’s software requirements, product ideas, operational efficiency suggestions or customer feedback, business analysts have the skill set to gather, prioritize, manage, maintain and collaborate with stakeholders to meet the strategic goals of the organization. Most BAs experience this on a day-to-day level, typically between internal business units and the IT organization. But I believe that business analysts can leverage these skills to help the organization in a far greater capacity.

Some business analysts are already well-suited to play the role of the CEO’s sounding board. Those who are assigned to one or more business units typically become intimate with the people and processes that make up the sub-organization. Often these BAs will be privy to knowledge that otherwise has no outlet; whether it’s hearing about issues as to how a certain process operates, or hearing first or second hand feedback from customers about a product or service offered.

Business analysts need a channel to be able to relay this information throughout the organization and ensure that ideas can be systematically evaluated and executed in the appropriate context. Usually, BAs know how to handle this information and leverage it to improve the organization if it’s IT related, but there typically are not structures in place to handle suggestions that would impact other external units.

As business analysts, we often see or hear about opportunities before the decision makers in the organization know they even exist. In order to successfully capitalize on opportunities, decision makers need to have such information in their hands so they can decide whether to act on it. How can we get this information to them in a timely manner?

While each organization is different, here is a proposed framework for enabling business analysts to relay the pulse of the organization to upper management:

  • Have at least one business analyst assigned to work with each business unit on a regular basis. This will allow the BA to get a level of expertise in the business area and will provide staff within the unit with a go-to person to discuss requirements or suggestions for improvement. The number of analysts you need per area will vary greatly depending on the size and structure of the organization. You may only need one BA to cover several units or several BAs to cover one unit.
  • In addition to informal information gathering that will occur as part of a BA’s normal activities, hold formal sessions occasionally to generate new ideas. This does not have to be your typical brainstorming session, and the activity can be targeted to a specific group based on their skill set (although I recommend allowing everyone to do the same activities, as you never know who has a hidden talent in a certain area). For example, have new product contests that pit teams from different areas against each other. As West Paw Design found out, employees from any area can have a creative bent that will improve the company’s offering.
  • Come up with a process to evaluate the information you receive. First you need to classify the information – is it a business requirement, a process improvement suggestion, a product or service offering suggestion, etc.? Each type of information will need to be dealt with via its own process. For example, business requirements may need to be collected and a business case developed for meeting the identified needs, either through technology or process changes.
  • Ideas and suggestions may need to be channeled through some sort of review process. Depending on the size of the organization, it may not be feasible to have all suggestions placed in front of upper management. A vetting process is recommended, performed by individuals who will be held accountable for the decisions made (i.e. which suggestions are to be brought forward). I would recommend that business analysts are responsible for overseeing this process and can participate but are not the ones who make the decisions – this should be left to a group that upper management has confidence in with such matters. As part of the review process, I would look to have an absolute grading threshold rather than a ‘Best X ideas’ threshold. This is not meant to be a one-time event – some months you may get several great ideas while others you may get very few.
  • Have the originator of the whittled-down list of suggestions and ideas present their suggestions to upper management on a regular basis. I would recommend allocating a flexible amount of time based on the number of ideas that have passed the review process. BAs should be in the room to hear the feedback and thoughts of upper management, and to help make suggestions on how to implement the ideas, particularly if it requires effort from many different areas of the organization. BAs can also collect feedback from management to improve the overall process and to communicate decisions and results back to others in the organization.

If such ‘internal engagement’ concepts are foreign to your organization or your organization is not used to tackling opportunities across organizational boundaries, setting up a structure similar to the one above may take a great amount of effort. Here are some suggestions on how to get started on the road to a formal structure.

  • Learn how upper management sees their own roles and how they divide their time currently. Ask them what they’d like to see improved internally in the organization and what sort of things they would do if they had more time. With this information, look for ways to suggest having BAs do some of the ground work on their behalf.
  • Talk to front-line employees and ask if a) they feel they understand the higher level goals of the organization and b) if they feel their voices are heard higher up in the organization. Use straw/anonymous polls to have some concrete numbers to discuss underlying needs with upper management.
  • Leverage the PMO or BA Centre of Excellence within your organization to cultivate ground-level staff buy-in and build awareness for Management by Wandering Around principles. Look for case studies that have demonstrated how such techniques improve financial and operational performance within an organization such as yours.
  • Get BAs on board through the Centre of Excellence. If you don’t have one, start an informal community of interest and discuss ways for BAs to play a more prominent role in the organization.
  • Implement the technique without the structure – find a relatively small opportunity that you can execute on and take it all the way. For example, let’s say BAs are hearing about how everyone dislikes the vacation approval process. Talk to HR about the chance of improving the process by getting people from around the organization involved. Hold a lunch session where people can break up into teams to come up with a new process. Have HR managers review the ideas and pick a winner (with a small prize going to the winning team). They don’t necessarily have to implement the idea as-is, but follow up with them to see how feasible it is to implement a variant to improve the process. Once you have some informal successes, present your results to upper management.

CEOs have many people they need to work with in order to achieve the goals of the organization. They simply can’t be everywhere all the time. Business analysts can extend the reach of the CEO by being a two-way conduit for information that will impact the strategic direction and operational excellence of the organization. A strong, formal structure to perform these tasks will help everyone in the company know that they have a chance to play an important role in the direction of the organization, regardless of their job description.

Do you already have a framework like this set up in your company? If so, do BAs play a part in the process? If so, let me know in the comments section below.

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Jarett Hailes is a Business Consultant with Larimar Consulting Inc. He has worked with large and small organizations as a Business Analyst and Project Manager, and is also a Scrum Certified Product Owner and ScrumMaster.

Treat Your Career Like Weight Watchers

This week I caught the Joy Behar Show on Headline News. Joy is one funny lady. This segment of her show was about weight loss/maintenance. One of her guests was the CEO of Weight Watchers, David Kirchhoff. The one thing that has always impressed me with Weight Watchers over the years is their philosophy. Mr. Kirchhoff explained it in three words, education, support, and behavior change. As I was watching the show I kept thinking, that philosophy is what needs to be a part of our daily lives as business analysts.

Education

As we have discussed before, many business analysts are moved or hired in from other areas. Many come from the technical side of the house and others come from the business side of the house. Not until recently have you seen universities teaching students some of the skills needed to be a business analyst. Actually I am starting to see elementary schools breeding future analysts. My daughter’s third grade class was learning about process flows. I almost cried when I reviewed my daughter’s homework. Her teacher thought I was a freak when I ran into the classroom the next day and would not stop thanking her for teaching the kids about process flows. But I digress.

What this means is many of us got into a BA career without any kind of formal training. It is critical for newcomers to get foundational training on the techniques available to business analysts. The projects we work on are critical to the success of our companies. How can we expect consistent positive outcomes from those that have not been trained properly? Why is this tolerated in our field?

Education is on-going and not a one-time event. You don’t go to a class and check off a box saying you did the education piece. I hope blogs like mine and others are educational. There are more advanced classes, books, conferences, online forums dedicated to business analysis and, of course, your local IIBA chapter. My advice is never stop learning.

Before we move on, I want to make sure everyone knows my background/bio. I do work for a business analysis training provider, B2T Training.

Support

In the United States, January is National Mentoring Month (NMM). Created by the Harvard School of Public Health and MENTOR, NMM is marking its ninth year in 2010. By focusing national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us-individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits-can work together to increase the number of mentors, we assure brighter futures for our young people. I think it is wonderful that these organizations are promoting mentorship for children. Learning at an early age the value of having a mentor or mentors will help these children succeed in life.

Now more than ever it is so important for us as business analysts to find a mentor. At the same time, we should open ourselves up to become mentors for someone else. It is very enriching to be a mentor. Without mentors, BAs will continually be set-up to fail.

A mentor is someone with experience in a field or subject that helps a less experienced person advance in their career. In the past, companies had a layer of management that moved up the ranks. Part of their role as a manager was to guide and mentor the less experienced team members. Although I am seeing a shift in that BAs are growing up to manage BAs, there is still a large gap. Many BAs are managed by people who have never played the role of a business analyst. This presents the situation where many BAs cannot look to their manager for guidance around the BA activities they do day in and day out. We need the support because we can’t do this alone. Even the greatest Jedi to ever live, Luke Skywalker, had a mentor in Obi-wan Kenobi. Find a mentor that can help you grow as a business analyst.

Behavior Change

It is not enough to get the education you need and find a mentor. You have to make the commitment to change. At times, I am just as guilty as the next person when I come out of a training class/seminar. I am fired up and excited just thinking about how I am going to implement all these new things I learned. I wake the next day, bounce out of bed, and I rush to the office. I sit in my chair day-dreaming about all the new skills I have, and then do the same thing as I did prior to training. This is natural. Sometimes it is hard to determine which of the new skills you should try out and when.

My suggestion is start small and keep building. Brad Childress, the Minnesota Vikings head coach, said he starts his rookies off with a small menu, but with deep knowledge. In other words, he gives his rookies a few plays to focus on instead of the entire playbook. As the rookie gets comfortable with the few plays, he adds more to their plate. Use this philosophy as you learn new things. Don’t try to make a complete change all at once.

Take a few minutes to think about where you may need some education and look for avenues to acquire what is necessary. If you don’t have a mentor, please begin your search to find at least one. Lastly, begin changing your behavior now in small chunks. I think we all know Albert Einstein’s definition of Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Together let’s stop the insanity.

All the best,

Kupe

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Jonathan “Kupe” Kupersmith is Director of Client Solutions, B2T Training and has over 12 years of business analysis experience. He has served as the lead Business Analyst and Project Manager on projects in various industries. He serves as a mentor for business analysis professionals and is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) through the IIBA and is BA Certified through B2T Training. Kupe is a connector and has a goal in life to meet everyone! Contact Kupe at [email protected].