A Journey of North American "Home Base" Lifestyle

M.S. Oberoi*

December 8, 2009

Overview

Somehow my experiences of around a decade of Management Consulting career have always reminded me of the 'home base' in the baseball sport. You score runs as you hit the ball and "round" the bases. This analogy came to my mind when I was offered a job as a Management Consultant with one of world's largest consulting firms. I was told that I can choose to make my "home base" in any city of my choice in USA. I would fly to work on Monday mornings and return "home" by Thursday evenings. Fridays were characterized to work from home. My expenses for flights, hotel, food, car rentals cars, etc were to be paid for by my clients.  The preposition was interesting enough to start the baseball match that I am still playing. My initial "home base" was in Seattle, followed by Parsippany in New Jersey, then Jacksonville in Florida, and currently at Toronto in Canada.

Honestly, I am not an ardent baseball follower, though I did my research for writing this article because the more I learnt about baseball, the more I could feel the connection.

Over the years, I have travelled for my projects extensively in North America, Caribbean, Europe, and Asia Pacific. While consulting Bacardi, I learnt to my surprise that they also owned Absolut Vodka and Bombay Dry Gin. While consulting L'Oreal in Miami, I learnt that they owned Ralph Lauren, Lancome, and Diesel, among other fragrances. I also had a chance to consult Swarovski Crystals, Nature's Own Bread (Flower's Foods), and Weyerhaeuser Company among other interesting businesses. Seemed to me like the baseball tradition of spring training that I had read about.

Reminiscing from my experiences, I remember "fire".  An employee, a Texan cowboy was "fired" from his job. He was known for possessing a licensed fire-arm. We were asked to leave in a hurry. Makes me wonder about the firing of manager Cecil Cooper by the Houston Astros in 2009. Another occasion was when the office building was on "fire".

Air travel onboard experiences

Like all air travelers, I had a few in-flight experiences over the years.

I have been into a flight that was the concluding flight of the aircraft and also another flight that was the last flight of a retiring pilot. 

I was on a United Airlines flight from London Gatwick airport to Chicago O' Haire that happened to be the concluding flight of the Pilot, an ex US Air Force veteran's flying career. His family including grandchildren flew with us in the cockpit. As we reached the hangar, a large water tanker poured a stream of water on the cockpit for welcome while the passengers clapped. I could imagine how the fans would have felt during the retirement of Babe Ruth in 1935.

On another occasion, I had to take an 8:00 am Delta Airlines flight during November '07 from Jacksonville to Atlanta and then another flight to Philadelphia. After all passengers were seated, Captain announced that he detected a technical snag and it will delay the flight by an hour and we had to be seated inside the aircraft. Eventually after two hours we flew to Atlanta where I was accommodated in the next connecting flight to Philadelphia. Guess what? After the passengers were seated, the Captain of the next flight also announced that he detected a technical snag in the aircraft. We were again seated inside the aircraft for two hours!!! I remembered reading about how audience had felt during the longest baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox in May 09, 1984. The game went 25 innings and lasted 8 hours and 6 minutes and so did my delay.

Once my flight got delayed by 30 minutes at Raleigh due to a snow storm at the destination in Newark. It took 5 hours eventually to get next landing slot at Newark airport.  The next flight of this aircraft had to be delayed because the pilots had finished their on call time. It was close to the Steve Bartman incidence on October 14, 2003 that I read about recently. One of the fans, Steve Bartman, touched the ball to disrupt a potential catch by the Cubs that impacted the outcome of the National League pennant.

I happened to sit next to a lady in a flight who was a fellow consultant and her husband also worked in the same profession. I asked her how the travel works with the relationship. She told me that she was into her second marriage and this works better because they both get their own space.

Experiences with Storms

I was caught on a severe snow storm on a weekend while all flights into New Jersey and New York were cancelled. My boss who also had "home base" in Parsippany told me that we will drive because he wants to see his kids. And as we rented a car, he handed me the keys and told me to drive. I was taken with surprise, though I realized that even if you are a Management Consultant, Boss is the Boss. So I drove 500 miles overnight from Raleigh to Parsippany through the snow storm. Being a consultant and a driver reminded me of reading about Cal Hubbard, an umpire in a MLB who was in two games, baseball and football.

After completing one of my assignments in Thomasville in Southern Georgia, I moved to Miami to consult L'Oreal. This was the time when 2008 hurricane season was beginning. While watching TV during lunch hours in L'Oreal?s cafeteria, we watched tropical storm Fay gaining strength which was initially projected to affect us in Miami. But as it came closer, it moved slightly to the West and went North, with its eye to hit Thomasville, GA. That was the strongest storm ever that hit the township, though just after few weeks when I had left. And the following five named tropical storms that were initially projected to hit Miami deviated their paths slightly to either east or west of the city. So I thought that I was immune to storms. But lately, I got caught off-guard in a hurricane in Toronto. I got a slight crack on my car's windshield. I reminisced reading about Canadian, Glen Edward Gorbous, who has the Longest Baseball Throw on record. In 1957, the ball left his arm at an estimated 120 MPH.

Driving and Directions

My GPS always helped me navigate in North America. Though, it was easier to get directions in Trinidad in the Caribbean. It was alright to pull over anywhere off the road, even on highways and ask for directions. The island country seemingly was not as big as Gaedel's strike zone that measured just an inch and a half. Carl "Eddie" Gaedel, born in Chicago, was 3 feet 7 inches and the shortest MLB player in August 1951.

While in Lyon, France, every time I asked for directions from a fellow driver; for some reasons, the driver would tell me exactly the same thing that the previous driver had also said - "Follow-me". Bonjour!!! That was easy.

Conclusion

When it comes to baseball, foul poles are really "fair" poles. So is true in the Management Consulting business. Guess, because they are in the fair territory. Please stay tuned if you liked reading about "home base" lifestyle.

*M.S. Oberoi works as Director & Principal Consultant with Dexteyra Consulting Group Inc. He has also worked with large Consulting firms such as  Capgemini USA LLC, IBM, Wipro, and Le Groupe Createch (a Bell Canada company). He specializes in designing SAP Best Practices based banking, finance, and supply chain solutions. Mr. Oberoi has worked on multiple projects across North America, Caribbean, Europe, and Asia Pacific. He was awarded a Medallion by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in 2001.

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