Jamaica made $1 120 for Action Against Hunger
Malaysia made $1 000 for Operation Hope Foundation
Y Soft Global Scandal 2014
Czech Republic made $5 048 for Brno Diocesan Charity
YNL Y Soft Newsletter Special issue
Content Scandal EMEA Our trip to Scandal by Vรกclav Muchna Scandal APAC Scandal NALA
SCANDAL EMEA
JUNE 7th 2014
Treasure of Silver Lake Czech Republic
As seen by Václav Muchna Not only many of you, but also myself was quite full of “How would the first non-global Scandal be?“ expectation. The global presence at the previous Scandals had always given this event a specific exotic flavor, so I was afraid that I would miss it. Well, I actually did miss it. But it was the only “not-as-good“ thing that I can say about this EMEA Scandal. Firstly, I was thrilled by the idea of one collaborative event (instead of having competing teams). But when marketing came up with the idea that, based on our collaborative efforts, we would donate a certain amount of money to charity; that was breathtaking. I loved the way in which we all joined forces to help a good cause – and I believe that it helped to build our team spirit too – by demonstrating what Y Soft is capable of. And I can honestly say, that the stones (which were leveraged with real cash for charity) were a great motivator for me to get up and drag my lazy bottom to do many of these activities.
The feeling at the stage at the end, when we calculated how much money we would donate, was one of my best moments in Y Soft ever. I was so proud of this company and what we had achieved! Even later, some people outside of Y Soft told me that they had been in a meeting with the managing director of the charity and they had seen the Y Soft check – and they were excited about it too. So I’m 99 per cent sure that we will continue with this Scandal concept globally in the future, and hopefully improved financial results will allow us to donate even greater amounts to charity. So the way in which Y Soft changes the way how the world prints through Making MFPs think, Y Soft will also change a few lives of those in need through the Scandal event. The one percent is there just for sake of our marketing inventing something even better ;-)
Story Here are few words about the story behind Scandal EMEA, addressing, especially, colleagues from other regions than Central and Eastern Europe. The Scandal story is based on two fictional characters, Winnetou and his blood brother Old Shatterhand. They are well known from the Western novels written by the German writer Karl May, one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies sold worldwide. All the stories took place in America, however, Karl May had never been there. The majority of the novels were filmed, however, The Treasure of Silver Lake is one of the favorites. In Treasure of Silver Lake, there are Indians who are guarding treasure against evil bandits. Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, with their YSofters tribes, come to help them but first they have to prove that they are sufficiently strong, smart and noble to protect it. For every test passed, the members of the tribes get gemstones. The YSofters, led by the goodies, do not keep the gemstones for themselves but donate them to people in need.
And we did not play with fictional money but we really donate the amount of money gained to a charity. In marketing, we were very happy that YSofters all around the world really liked it and did their best to gain as much money as possible. We thank also VĂĄclav, alias Old Shatterhand, that he gave us this chance to be a part of this YÂ Soft donation project.
Our trip to Scandal
Aleš grabbed his muse and added a few more words about the trip
By Václav Muchna
Jamaica. Just think about the first thing that comes to your mind. And in the meantime, I will tell you about my experience...
In my article, I focus on the trip itself, while Richard and Ales will focus on Scandal events.
I did not know what to expect because my first thoughts about this country were all about rum and some... other things with which to “enjoy life”. And the truth? Yes, it probably is a lot about this but for us mainly about something else. Another Scandal event that Vaclav, Richard and I attended.
So it finally happened. Y Soft’s business outside of Europe grew to the level that continuing in one centralized Scandal would affect our support contingency to an unbearable level. So we decided to create three Scandals: EMEA, APAC and NALA. However simple this sounds to do, there were lot of unknowns in front of us – and as usual, YSofters accepted this challenge, so that me, Ales (Head of CSS) and Richard (Head of Sales & Marketing) could head out to Malaysia on Wednesday, June 18th… Well, not exactly… in an ordinary company it could have worked like this but not in global Y Soft :-). One day earlier, I had to “jump” for an important meeting with Boeing in Seattle. I can’t forget the faces of the cabin crew after my answer to the obligatory question on the flight from London to Seattle: “And how long are you going to stay in town?” (the answer was – 22 hours exactly :-)) Eventually, I met Ales and Richard in London. Richard took my luggage from Brno (so that I didn’t need to travel with luggage to Seattle) – I wanted to pack something smuggled in the luggage so that, in the worst-case scenario, they would catch Richard ;-), but as I might have needed him to deliver the Scandal training and presentation, I didn’t do it.
After arriving at the hotel, another surprise was already waiting for me. I entered my room and there was no other than Milan Fujita. It wasn’t the first time we had shared a room together, and as always we spent a good amount of time accusing each other of unbearable snoring. The APAC Scandal was fabulous. I’ll admit that I was little bit “unsure” of how the whole thing would work, yet it was perfect. The biggest impression that remains was my ability to talk to a lot of different people – almost the whole team – which was impossible at the big EMEA Scandal with over 200 attendees. That allowed me to gather a lot of feedback and information on the regional situation and their needs, and also make some commitments, such as that I would attend the region more often. I was positively surprised how these guys were interested in our global strategy and what’s going on globally. That really felt like we were all one big family – which is the way I feel it. So guys, if you are reading this, I’m already planning to go to Australia (and perhaps Singapore) sometime during November. When we left Penang for our next destination, my feelings were only a little sad that it was not longer. Anyway, we were already on our way to Japan with two very important meetings at Konica Minolta and Fuji Xerox in front of us. And in the meantime, I had to attend our annual shareholders meeting. A busy schedule is the best cure for jet lag ;-)
We jumped on a plane from Japan on Wednesday at noon and arrived in America the same day at 9am. Weird, but on the other side it saved us some time of our lives. Then, via Miami, we finally arrived in Jamaica. The arrival was as scheduled and we were already expected by a travel agent. Immediately outside the doors of the plane, two things hit us: It was really hot and, all of the people had a kind of „no problem“ attitude. Seriously, there seemed to be enough time for everything. A „mañana“ kind of time. Anyway, after one hour of waiting and 7 minutes driving we successfully arrived at our hotel complex. The first surprise awaited us just behind the doors of the hotel room. Imagine looking at the wall of a hotel and seeing a „small“ bar box there – with four big bottles of rum, vodka, gin and bourbon. Okay... that is an interesting start. Then looking at your room and seeing that Richard and I should share one bed together. With one blanket. No way, we had known each other for some time already, but this? Never mind, this place is not the kind of thing you
Martina (my assistant) was so kind that she booked a “shortcut” flight to Malaysia via Hong-Kong, which added 3-4 hours to our trip. That upset me a little, so I asked her why she did that… the answer was kind of stupid: “Vaclav” she said, “it is not safe for you to go with Malaysia Airlines – remember, they just recently lost a plane near Australia – I don’t want you to travel with them.” Well, I am a welltraveled, well-experienced explorer, so I explained to her: “Martina, you don’t know how things work. The fact that they just lost a plane means that nothing will happen for the next five years. It is absolutely safe!” But it was too late to change the ticket. Of course, the reason why am I telling you this story is that a few weeks later, Malaysia Airlines lost another plane over Ukraine. BTW, many airlines (including BA, which we took) had been flying over these war territories a long time before the MH17 accident. So there we go. Three guys at Hong Kong airport. You shouldn’t be surprised that the first topic of our discussion was Malaysia being a predominantly Muslim country, which means there is kind of strict/ difficult access to any alcoholic beverage. Anyway, we realized it soon enough to plunder a local liquor store to stock up. In the next few hours, after 32 hours from my departure from Seattle, we reached Penang island – the place of the Asia & Pac Scandal. Everything was perfectly organized, the car driver was waiting at the airport and he greeted us with a good joke: “Your final destination is on the other side of the island.” Only later we realized that it was not a joke :-), anyway it was a small island, so the drive took about 80 minutes. To entertain ourselves, we used Wikipedia and studied things about our next destinations (so we found out that Jamaica island – which is an independent country – is even smaller than Penang).
If Richard tells you he doesn’t eat seafood, don’t believe him. On the plane, when they served scallops, this bastard ate it in front of me without sharing it at all! (Previously, when they had served seafood, he would always give me his portion;-) Well, this is story is long enough, so I will jump forward in time a little bit and we were already sitting in a Japan Airlines plane on our 13-hour trip to Chicago, followed by another flight to Miami and another one to Montego Bay – the capital of Jamaica – the place of the American Scandal. Though it was a long trip, Internet was available for most of the flight and the great Japanese service made it feel shorter than Prague to London. It seems all drivers have a good sense of humor. The driver who picked us at the airport in Jamaica told us that the drive would take about 70 minutes, which didn’t surprise us, until – after 5 minutes – when we arrived at the destination. Also the Jamaican Scandal was just great. I am in close touch, especially with our North American office, so it wasn’t such a wow factor as with the APAC team, but by all means it was a great event, where we all felt like being on one boat conquering the world with SafeQ. The opportunity to speak with our LATAM colleagues, however, reminded me that, no matter how big the company is, it is very valuable for me to be in touch with all our employees. When I returned home, I was tired, having made a 1.5x round–the-world trip in just about 12 days, but I was happy that I was given a chance to experience something so exciting. Thank you to all YSofters, because it was you who actually made all this possible.
visit every day (or month, or year), let‘s enjoy it. So we took a little trip around the place and stopped at the bar for a short time. After that, we did take a little walk to see the beach. During the very first minute on the beach we were approached by some guy with a typical „Wagwan...“ something. That‘s supposed to mean „How is it going?“ or „How are you?“ The second question was whether we were interested in something good to smoke or … and he sniffed significantly. Well, no thanks, mate! And we rather left the beach. On the way back, we did not forget to ask to exchange our room for something less “intimate”. With few complications, and yet a „no problem“ attitude, we got it done successfully. The next morning, we had a great breakfast with a huge amount of unknown fruit. There were fruit that I don‘t even remember the names of, however, the bananas, pineapples and mangos were sooo good that I finally understood why I didn‘t eat it that much back home. Somebody also came with an interesting idea of how to make a local dessert, a caramelized banana, even better. We put a little rum into a plastic cup together with banana and enjoyed it as an extraordinarily good compote. Well, it probably wasn‘t that good because Vaclav and I were the only ones who ate it... :). The first day was about a bit of relaxing between bits of work. Just to recover from the extensive traveling and also jet lag that had seriously hit us. During the day, we already started meeting all our colleagues from both Americas...
SCANDAL APAC JUNE 21st 2014 Under a hot sun Malaysia
As seen by Richard Brulík To make a Scandal event outside of the Czech Republic was little bit weird for me and I was not able to imagine how the whole concept would work. But when I arrived and met with James and the other guys in the Hard Rock Café bar in Malaysia, drinking beer from the Beer Tower, and listening to November Rain (the Guns N’Roses song) sung by a local Malaysian band – I simply felt that, yes, it was going to be the real Scandal atmosphere I knew from the Czech Republic. The first day was full of training sessions, presentations and workshops, but I have to say that I really enjoyed it – the discussion about GOE brought many nice ideas, open questions that nobody had asked before, etc. Have I already mentioned that I love Asian food? If I haven’t, yes I do and it was great surprise for me when we (the whole team) arrived at our restaurant and it was an authentic Malaysian restaurant with many aquariums full of fresh fish, crabs, lobsters, etc. After a full day of meetings, I finished the day with a full stomach of great Asian food – yum :).
The next day, the real Scandal started. The morning session was with Vaclav’s presentation about Global Strategy and after lunch, we started with a special set of sporting activities. Can you imagine playing team games on a Malaysian beach in 33° C (91° F) during a sunny day next to a sea that is full of poisonous jellyfish? I was sweating like hell, as everybody else was. But it did not mean that we gave up any of our sports games – not at all. In fact, it was the other way around :). Everybody was fighting for every single point. And I fought so hard that I broke a toe, and Ales injured his shoulder. And when the sports part was over, after hours in the crazy Malaysian sun, can you imagine a better way to relax than sitting at the pool bar with everybody from the APAC team, drinking cocktails and beer and making funny small talk? :). These moments I love the most from all of our Scandals – sharing our stories, experiences, having a lot of fun. It was great fun and I almost missed
our joint dinner. And the next surprise came at the dinner – our APAC team would donate a nice amount of money to Charity in the APAC region. So not only at EMEA but also here, our team in APAC joined in with this idea and donated part of the revenue to charity. I was proud to be part of this team. The Malaysian Scandal was many things for me “for the first time”. It was the first time for me of flying all over the world within 10 days (an amazing experience that I do not want to repeat again for the next few years :)), my first time visiting Malaysia, also, the first time staying in a Hard Rock Café Hotel, the first time playing Scandal sports activities on a beach, and the very first time for me I drank at a pool bar. And I really enjoyed it all. Special thanks to everybody that participated in the preparation of the Malaysian Scandal – ALL THE APAC team really enjoyed it.
SCANDAL NALA JUNE 28th 2014 Treasure of Silver Lake Jamaica
As seen by Aleš Neveselý The Scandal with our colleagues from both Americas was similarly entertaining as it was in the Czech Republic and Malaysia. After breakfast, we moved to a big meeting room that was split by a curtain for the first two sessions, where Richard presented his topics about sales and I did similar things with the CSS guys. Richard and I had to keep our voices low because the curtain wasn’t exactly soundproof. After that, the curtains were removed and we continued with the training sessions about the Wiki, the Standardization Portal and also GOE. Even though it took us the entire day, my perception was that it was running very smoothly and I appreciated the participation of the team in the discussions regarding the topics. It was really great to see that everybody was already familiar with the topics to some level. Frankly speaking, I also enjoyed a day with a fully working air-conditioned place for a while...
After the training sessions we had dinner together where we again experienced the „no problem“ attitude of the local people when we found out that we were not expected at the restaurant. So it took a little more time to get seated, but at the end of the day, we had the opportunity to enjoy a variety of food and conversation with our colleagues and their family members. The day was concluded, surprisingly, by some drinks in a reasonable amount at the bar – there was another day ahead of us. Another day came in the standardized regime. First, Vaclav‘s presentation of the Global Strategy, followed by activities, which were very well aligned with the Scandal in the Czech Republic. The theme was the same, with even the same printing on the t-shirts. However, it‘s fair to say that it was rather difficult to explain to our colleagues from the region who the famous
Winnetou was, it’s sort of EastEuropean-ish only... We also got the chance to show our skills in handcrafting dreamcatchers and painting a totem – actually, not just a totem, also our faces – and then moved from the enjoyable shade to the killing sun. To the beach... Yet I don‘t know why, when it came to protection of the treasure, we had all forgotten about our injuries and the sun, and we tried our best to protect or get back as much of the gold and stones as we could. And we did really well. Sometimes pictures say more than words...
nice amount of dollars for charity. When the time came, we moved to our hotel rooms to finish the day, because the next morning, we were leaving Jamaica and going back to our homes.
After all these activities, we all had some spare time to enjoy the swimming pool and bar, again, the literally-pool bar, which was very comforting, especially for my bald head after an afternoon in the sun. The great day ended again in the local restaurant with dinner where we were also presented with the results of our efforts – another
Thank you!
Here I would like to express special thanks to all those that were behind the organization of these events. I already said that in the past but here I would like to say it again to everybody – I had never experienced such good company celebrations and team building before.