Boss tells you to plant potatoes on Mars? Agree!

Panic, misunderstanding, fear, doubts whether you will cope – if these are the emotions you feel about your boss`s challenging tasks, you are already losing the chance to complete them successfully. “Have a positive attitude and excitement from the very beginning”, is the opinion of Daria Fukova, personal assistant of the general director of Silver Rain radio station. “Non-standard tasks are not only incredible experience, they also bring a real adventure into your life. Even if you are told to plant potatoes on Mars, you should agree!” Other aspects that could make work of a personal assistant easier were discussed by the expert at ABT-ACTE Russia educational session for personal assistants that was held on February 5 in the Savoy.

Daria stressed that such an area as personal boss`s backing largely depends on the reliability of partners. “Many are convinced that money talks, but it is not so”, Daria said. “You can pay, but in the end you will not get what you expected. Or your deadlines will be broken! This is why for the years of my work as a personal assistant I have made a list of providers you can rely on absolutely”. Besides, the expert recommended event participants to broaden their focus of professional interest, because “you can never know what may come in useful”. “The broader your area of thought is, the broader comprehension of the situation you have, the more solutions you may find to achieve your goal!” the expert stressed.

The problems of the choice of gifts at your boss`s instruction were discussed by Anna Bragina, assistant of board member – vice president on corporate and legal issues of MTS. Anna said that in 2010 the company decided to stop giving branded presents - toys, flash drives, etc. to its partners. “For 5 years already we have been giving our customers and friends cards with the text saying that the money we could have spent on presents, was spent on charity. And we thank the person for such an opportunity”, Anna said.

Photos of children and information on the help they received are enclosed to the card. Due to the program that is called “Do good” we managed to donate 4,5 million rubles for medical treatment of about 100 children in 2010. In 2015 – already 150.”

“This step was the impulse for the development of corporate social responsibility of the company”, the speaker added.

Of course, there are situations when a gift is necessary, Anna admitted, and in those cases MTS observes a 4 thousand ruble budget. “It is connected with legislative restrictions on the gift cost”, the expert explained. “According to article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation all the donees are to pay the income tax if the cost of their gift exceeds 4 thousand rubles”.

Svetlana Filatova from Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority told the participants about a trip to Abu Dhabi as a present for business partners. “Abu Dhabi is a place where people from other emirates come, a must see”, Svetlana said.

Abu Dhabi is the greenest place in the UAE – there is a huge amount of palms there. And the Corniche Road is the best proof of it – it is a park walking zone 10 kilometres long.

One of the rare city landmarks is the Falcon Hospital, or a beauty parlour for owls. “You should keep in mind that it is a sacred animal for the emirates”, the speaker addressed he audience. “By the way, it is the only creature you can take with you on board of Etihad planes”.

You can see a lot of unique architectural landmarks in the city. “They include Emirates Palace, a palace hotel. It has a territory of 85 hectares of landscape gardens! Besides, there the house special Emirates Palace Сappuccino is served that is dredged with gold. By the way, this coffee is so popular, that guests consume about 5 kilograms of gold per year!”

If you need a calm rest, you should visit Al Ain oasis that is part of Abu Dhabi emirate. Here the ethnographic village Arabian Nights is located. “It is a large hotel, built in the desert, where there is even no Internet”, Svetlana noted. “Here you can have a traditional Arabic dinner. During the dinner the light is turned off for a few minutes and travellers can enjoy the starry heavens, which is very beautiful”.

After a short coffee break the participants of the seminar returned to the topic of personal boss support again. How often does the assistant have to solve his boss`s problems remotely – when the latter is away on a business trip? And what if they arise at a bad time – on the weekend or at night? A situation like that may be very stressful, bit it can be solved quickly and successfully – with the help of mobile applications. Information on which of them to choose was given by Oksana Kostyuk from Parallels.

“My boss goes by plane very often, he may have up to 5 business trips a week”, Oksana noted. “And I absolutely cannot do without mobile devices and applications”.

The expert said she had tried a lot of different services, but as the result she chose only those meeting certain criteria. First of all, it is their accessibility from any device (notepad, mobile phone, tablet) and a simple user-friendly interface. “I came to the conclusion that many services are loaded with additional features and facilities that only embarrass the user”, the speaker explained. “And you often have no time at all to solve the problem”. And of course, you should not forget about technical support. “It is very important to have the application installed regularly updated, and it means there is a good team behind”. SplashID Password Manager may be used to store the information about the traveller you need to book the business trip – it lets you store data encrypted. “The main thing is not to forget your password”, Oksana laughed. “Addresses, bank accounts – there are many tabs like that in it”.

Apart from “meetings and passwords”, you should definitely have information on your boss`s current Schengen visa. It is impossible to book a ticket, for example, for a Lufthansa flight without it.

Websites like Booking.com, Trivago, TripAdvisor, HotelTonight can help you find a suitable hotel. “My main aids are Egencia and spg”, the speaker said. “You can use the latter to find a hotel for any length of stay in the country you need by using cumulative bonuses and choosing the right settings”.

And what if your boss is sensitive to the choice of seat on board? “My boss always has the same request: if the flight is less than two hours, he sits near the aisle, if it is more than two hours – near the window. And necessarily in the front part of the plane and not above the wing. Yes, my boss travels with economy class mostly, because he goes on business trips very often, and you should not forget about economy. So non-fulfillment of this task may cost me my boss`s loyalty”, Oksana admitted. “This is why I choose the airline I need at SeatGuru by TripAdvisor and find the flight we travel with. This application contains more than 700 plane schemes for more than 100 airlines of the world”.

Do you need to find your way through the airport? GateGuru will help you. Need to track the flight? Flightradar24 Pro is indispensable. “It is a very useful tool”, the expert stressed, “especially if you book a taxi that has to wait. Which is very expensive in Europe, by the way. And in general the application keeps you informed about your boss`s location. Once my boss was coming back to Moscow from Turkey in bad weather. As the result the plane landed in some country of the CIS, and according to the schedule it landed in Sheremetyevo. If it was not for Flightradar, I would not have known about it. Or I would have learned about it in the end, but definitely not so quickly”, the expert said.

Applications can help you and your boss out of the most irretrievable situation, so it is better to spend some time to become familiar with this mobile “field”, Oksana advised. “Can you remember that awful snowfall in New York that held thousands of flights? And it was on that very day that my boss was to go from Seattle to Moscow with a change in New York! All the services sent cancellations to me. There was a collapse in call centers as well – you had to wait for 40 minutes. What could be done? My actions were simple and clear: I managed to prolong my boss`s car and hotel and to change his flight online with the help of applications. This is the main power of a personal assistant – to know how to solve the problem and what tools to use to do it”, the speaker summed up.

The educational part ended with a presentation of Maria Makeeva from Ars Vitae Hotels Representing Company. The company that is a representative of deluxe hotels works with travel agencies, DMCs and corporate buyers. I was founded in 1999 and has become the first Russian company representing the interests of foreign hotels of such a high level.

“At present our collection includes 42 hotels located in Europe, Asia and Africa”, Maria said. “We would like to pay special attention to the fact that our portfolio was created as the result of a thorough choice, this is why each of Ars Vitae hotels is the best in its city, region or country. More than 30 of them have fantastic SPA centres, and most hotels offer excellent MICE facilities”.

The event ended with a traditional lottery. The prizes raffled off included a voucher by Ars Vitae for a double room in Baden Baden and a SPA treatment, a discount card for a room in the Savoy in the Seychelles and a calendar and an appointment book from Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority.

Marina Osipova