Today's Forecast: Busy, Busy, Busy

My position is regional director for Weathernews Americas, a subsidiary of Weathernews Inc., the world's largest, publicly traded, full-service weather company. It's based in Tokyo, with offices in 16 different countries and over 700 employees (around 250 of them are meteorologists) worldwide. Our U.S. base is San Francisco, with an operations center located on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

I'm based in Manhattan, and as regional director, I'm responsible for facilitating and overseeing business development for all of the industry segments that Weathernews provides with products and services. The company offers weather-risk communication and management for the aviation, energy, marine, agriculture, and mobile-phone industries. In other words, we offer forecasting to help avert any weather-related problems for those clients.

My duties also include product- and services-development consultation, profit and loss accountability, staffing, and general office management.

When I accepted the offer from Weathernews in April, 2005, the company didn't have an official New York office. As part of its growth strategy, regional offices were to be opened in New York, and managing the entrepreneurial endeavor of developing our New York office is now my job.

ON THE ROAD.  I travel frequently, so there's no typical day on the job for me. The following is an one of my recent travel days:

4:30 a.m. -- Slide out of bed, shower, pack, and wait for my car to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. I depart at 6:30 a.m. for San Francisco for afternoon meetings at Weathernews' corporate office. Today, we'll discuss our mobile-telephone content and video-on-demand businesses, along with the products and services offered for the energy-trading industry.

6:50 a.m. -- During the flight, I work on a spreadsheet to track proposals that we have sent to marine customers. Weathernews provides expert ship routing and performance analyses to the marine industry. Risk communicators in the Norman, Okla., office are in constant contact with ships' masters concerning adverse weather-related phenomena and monitoring performance issues.

10:45 a.m. -- I arrive in San Francisco and take a car to the office.

11:20 a.m. -- After arriving at the office, I meet the director of content production and the user interface design engineer for a Mexican lunch. Over burritos, my colleague explains the structure of our Transmedia business. He outlines our relationships with various mobile providers, and some new initiatives designed to market several of our products: weather forecasts, "wake up to weather," and airport conditions and delays services. I listen attentively because this is some of the first information I have received on these initiatives.

1:30 p.m. -- I meet with the senior vice-president of media services to further discuss our key partnerships and goals for our mobile-telephone and video businesses. She outlines in great detail the products and services we offer, our competition in the space, and how we're differentiating our services and refining our approach to reach the customer.

The New York office has been tasked with managing one of our key mobile partners, and I must know the company, industry dynamic, industry players, and the technology available in the pipeline. It will be crucial in the effective management of the relationship with this partner.

3:30 p.m. -- I talk with the director of product management and the vice-president of sales & business development about the new version of our energy product. We have gathered data and feedback from some large commodity-trading operations that have bought our services, enabling us to enhance our product offering.

4:45 p.m. -- Another get-together, this time with the marketing and energy operations & development directors to discuss marketing efforts for the current version of our energy product, as well as the new, soon-to-be-released version. Since our current version is only being used by a select few to gain market knowledge, we decide that most marketing dollars should go to the new version (set to be released mid-September).

We finish up our discussion 45 minutes later with the realization that we still don't have a name for the product/service. We decide to reconvene later for a more formal session to come up with a name.

5:45 p.m. -- Quick chat with the CEO of Weathernews in the lobby.

9:30 p.m. -- After a working dinner, I hop in a cab back to the hotel. I get up to the room, log on, and answer a few e-mails.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES.  My day has been anything but typical. But then again, I don't believe I've really ever experienced a "typical" day. I began my career in the energy-trading industry, and the dynamics of that sector taught me to constantly be aware of markets and execution. Before enrolling in the MBA program at the Mays School of Business in August, 2003, I took a year off to form a movie production company with a good friend and college roommate.

Energy trading taught me to manage pressure. Overseeing a feature film production taught me the rigors and expected sacrifices of an 18-hour day on and off location. Business school gave me the quantitative and qualitative tools to enhance all of my skills and -- combined with the rest of my experiences -- has allowed me to truly love the challenge of never knowing what's next.

My new role of establishing the New York regional office for Weathernews has required an immense amount of time, planning, strategy, travel, learning, and meetings. Does any business school teach you how important it is to adapt to change? I don't remember any formal instruction on that particular topic. Then again, nothing can prepare you for change -- except the experiences you choose to make for yourself.