Let's Talk When the Going Gets Tough
The hose industry was struggling. Drought had crippled the country, Chinese sanctions had decimated coal. An emergency meeting was taking place in Taipan’s Head Office boardroom.
“I’m not doing it”, said Craig from his usual spot at the foot of the table……
“Oh, come on”, replied Troy, eager to get on with it, “this will pull us out of the red”.
“What other suggestions are there?”, Neil interrupted, also at his usual spot on the door side of the office, next to Amy.
“Well, what about my suggestion of taking on a Kirby vacuum cleaner franchise. It’s easy”, repeated Eddie, “there’s no money down, we just get out into the community and knock on a few doors, give it our best”.
“We can’t even sell a $3.50 adaptor to a multi-national company, let alone a $3,500.00 vacuum cleaner that’s $3,400.00 overpriced”, Justin chimed in.
Allan stepped in, “Ok let’s break it down, break it on down. All those in favour of Linda’s suggestion raise their right hand”.
“That’s twelve for the motion and two against, motion carried. Start organising please Linda”.
There was a general hum about the room. Craig stormed out followed closely by Brooke, not because she objected to the idea, in fact, Brooke was the first to agree with Linda her idea was the best.
No, I think she followed to console Craig. As she left, she turned and whispered, “give him a couple of days, he’ll come ’round”.
All eyes returned to Linda. “Ok”, she said, “Tianah can you put together a process and have it back to me by close of business tomorrow”.
“Amy, we are relying upon you to get this marketed and out there. If we get an EDM directly to our customers tomorrow night who knows, next month may not be the disaster we have been dreading”.
“Ok”, finished Linda, “I want to see everyone back in this room at 10.00am when we go through exactly how this plays out. Has anyone got anything else before we get to work?”.
“Yes, I have”.
The room fell silent. At the far left end of the table, Pauline sat with her hand raised.
Pauline was just off the plane from NZ or at least her distinctly Kiwi accent led you to believe as much. “Ummm, I hope I am not out of line, but is it ok if I take the lead front and centre of this one? Not that Allan’s not capable but I just feel, you know, since we saw the…. Xmas video, well maybe Allan’s not the best one to represent the head of the company on this occasion”.
“I second that”, said Jade. “I have had a few comments from customers Al. No offence but Pauline’s my pick for this one”.
Allan seemed a little taken back and there was a momentary silence. He looked everyone up and down and after what seemed like a full minute replied, “sure, it’s fine with me”.
A sigh travelled the circumference of the Taipan boardroom as Linda stood up and repeated “10.00 am tomorrow then…….”
To be continued….