thirteen
With the Marianne lunch under my belt, the next stage in the journey was my meeting with James.
Marianne didn’t like James, but I did. I know that CIOs and CFOs are meant to be sworn enemies – at least if you read the IT press – but he and I got along well. We are about the same age and have some common interests, both professionally and personally. People think that James is very serious-minded because in public he’s generally quiet and doesn’t often smile. They’re partly right, but I was there when he started cracking puns and firing off-the-cuff humor, and then he was probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. His favorite line is when someone asks him how he is, he says ‘never better’, and when they say ‘good’ he replies ‘I never said it was good’. Gets them every time. Ha, ha. It must be the way he says it.
The previous CIO and James definitely hadn’t gotten along at all...