What it means by an enabling infrastructure:
It was Feb 01 2015. Midwestern USA was being pounded by a
blizzard. Both the major airports of Chicago, O'Hare and Midway,
were shutdown. The air travel was at its worst delays and cancellations.
I was flying from sunny Orange County to Minneapolis and
to catch a connection to Midland MI. Completely oblivious, I had no idea that the Midwest was this
bad until I landed at MSP and the gate monitor said my flight to MBS was
cancelled. This is the only flight to MBS everyday.
No issues, once I am away from home I do not care where I
sleep, until it is a Marriott! :) I walked over to the nearest customer service
area, captured a desk, picked up the phone (direct reservation line), explained
to the agent and sent her off to find me options.
At this moment I understood that Airline was not going to
offer a hotel accommodation because this was a cancellation due to weather. While I was on
hold I pulled out my laptop, connected to Internet - went to my
corporate portal, went over to my booking engine. Searched for hotels next to
Airport, found two - most airport hotels (hotels near airport) offer a
shuttle service. Confirmed that they do.
Meantime the agent on the phone needed some information
and correction, it took approx 20 minutes to get all booked. I called the hotel
were I would have stayed and changed my reservation, called rental car and
changed it, all the while I was on hold.
Because of my elite status with Marriott and rental car
company, all the reservation changes happen seamlessly and in literally a minute without any penalties.
I landed at MSP around 6:45 PM, and was watching Super Bowl
in my hotel room at 8:15 PM.
New England Patriots won after all that controversies of
the deflated ball!
It is important to recognize that I had never put a foot
into Minneapolis, before.
Next day, I had my full morning breakfast, worked till noon and headed to the Airport. There was no impact to the required productivity
of the project. I could participate in key calls.
Morale of this story is: this is what it means by
enabling infrastructure.
- clearly defined processes within airlines and
infrastructure to get to them.
- airport infrastructure of WiFi and its consistent
functionality.
- hotel services and processes clearly defined and
consistent across the globe.
- the Marriott consistency and familiarity
- ease of use of corporate portals and technology which work
seamlessly.
- not to mention - clean and abundant toilets and
washrooms.
PS: The context of this post is developing countries. When McDonalds, Malls and roads pop-up in these countries - the feeling of "infrastructural sufficiency" evolves. The intent of this post is to define a level of maturity required to enable the human growth.
