Mike

I think we have a way to go on the Weather Front (notice my use of the 
appropriate anologies) in Europe but I have major concerns about
the communication level from Houston to Oslo - even now.  I just don't see 
enough hugs and kisses (from Houston) to cross the cultural divide.  So let's 
please have a conversation on this before proceeding.

John




Mike McConnell
25/02/2001 23:45
To: John Sherriff/LON/ECT@ECT
cc: Jeffrey A Shankman/HOU/ECT@ECT 

Subject: 

John,

We had a successful off-site in Miami this weekend.  We reviewed all of the 
EGM businesses and our goals and objectives for 2001.  I will send you a copy 
of the presentations for your information and review - good airplane reading. 

 I have had several additional discussions on our Global weather business and 
have come to a decision on how we need to run the weather business.   I 
believe that we do need 100% full time dedication from each and any employee 
that is dedicated to the weather business including in the overall 
development and execution of our global strategy and positions.   I have a 
great deal of confidence and am holding Mark Tawney responsible and 
accountable for extensive growth and profitability in the business on a 
global basis.

We need to hire additional people to add to grow the business in Japan and 
Australia.  Joe and Paul are on board with this strategy and Mark will work 
with them to accomplish the hiring of people and needed resources.  This will 
not just be talk but we will get these people in place by specific 
deadlines.  We will pay all of those people's expenses and of course the 
business leaders will be on board with the hiring and the weather guys will 
be expected to be a valuable team player and resource to their group.

On the Norway front, we need to implement the same organization structure.  
We have talked a lot about Thor and better communication, but we need to make 
a change.  On the communication front, we will have weekly calls with him and 
the weather group to make sure that we are all on the same page and he is up 
to speed with where we are going.  If I am in town, I,ll make those calls as 
well.   Jeff did have a video call with Thor last week to talk about his 
email and it went well.  Upon my return from London, I learned that Thor and 
the London group put out a press release about putting out pricing on about 
1,000 new products on 15 cities and even changing the index.  Neither Mark 
nor Jeff were even aware of this event nor was it even brought up in the call 
as something that was going to happen.  Also the hiring of Lars Elmlund as a 
weather  originator, without any discussion, also illustrates the lack of 
communication or desire to work together.  I am not saying that Mark or Thor 
are totally to blame, they both deserve credit for not working together, but  
we are going to change the future and make sure that it will work better.  I 
know that all of Thor's group is very loyal to Thor and the weather guys may 
not want to transition into EGM.  If that is the case, we can make it work 
via London.  I think the key is our approach to Thor and that this isn't 
meant as a reflection on him but is a change that is consistent with how we 
are running all of our EGM businesses around the world.  The specific weather 
piece of his business is very small and isn't going to effect his P&L 
significantly (he'll actually be net positive!).

I certainly want to do this with the least impact on the rest of your 
organization.  Please give me a call and we will discuss the issues 
surrounding this new structure and the best way to communicate it to those 
involved in order to implement this in the most effective manner.

I am unavailable (London time) on Monday and Tuesday but will make myself 
available to your schedule upon my return after that.

Thanks,
mike

PS - This email is going just to you and Jeff and won't be shared with anyone 
else.