Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories: November 2015

Friday, November 27, 2015

Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories: Is He Cheating on Me?

Read the most intriguing novel "The Peace Crusaders" at http://peacecrusaders.blogspot.com (or buy the full novel from Amazon)

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Is He Cheating on Me?

On this occasion, the vice president (marketing) demanded money equivalent of twenty million dollars from his company’s president.

This was the highest he had asked for in past five years or so- far higher than in the past.

The company was in the turnkey business. It used to undertake commissioning of the complete projects in several sectors of engineering and construction. The company was a huge conglomerate, highly reputed in the industrial and business circles globally. It used to deal with mammoth projects- each project worth billions of dollars. The decision makers in the client companies (normally they are few in numbers in most of the companies; around couple of them) knew extremely well as to which way they should take the decisions. If everything was more or less equal from the competing supplier companies, the sales order was decided in favor of the supplier who could personally satisfy the decision maker(s) of the client company the best.

By now, you must have known what it hinted at. Yes, it was the under-the-table money or the kick-back that these decision makers in the client company would receive from the prospective supplier company. In a simpler language it is called bribe. In this particular supplier company that is referred in earlier paragraph, the vice president (marketing) was solely responsible and accountable to market its turnkey projects, bag the order from the client and negotiate all the commercial terms (including those pertaining to the kick-back money also).

Bribe has become a standard practice with a considerably large number of people in power when the stakes are very high. Many people who are at the helm of the affairs in the corporate world believe that it is their right to get a fat fee for the power they have and they exercise in affixing their signatures on the dotted lines. As per them, it is obviously reasonable that in lieu of bestowing their favors on to the supplier, supplier should feel only too happy to part with a good percentage of the capital outlay of the project into their personal kitty.

While this model of dealings between companies is acceptable in the industrial and business world, no one acknowledges its existence- they deny it outright. Interestingly, quite a few of these companies (both the clients as well as the suppliers) have their written down flashily displayed corporate values which scream the phrases conveying to the rest of the world that these companies have very high ethical standards and they are driven by their lofty values.

So, the president of this company that used to undertake the turnkey projects of enormity was not any hypocrite. He was a past master in this game himself when about five years ago; he himself was the vice president (marketing). As vice president (marketing) he used to get from his then president, brief-case filled with green currency notes he used to demand from his president for securing a prestigious order from the client. In this game trust between players is very important. So the demanded money was passed on by his president to him without asking any questions or clarifications. The most important thing was to bag the order from the client company- whether by hook or by crook. After receiving the demanded cash in the brief-case, he used to pass on that brief-case to the decision maker(s) in the client company in exchange of the sales order.

But he would not pass on the entire money in the brief-case to the client. He had made a rule for himself to scoop out 10% of what the brief-case contained. He was not greedy- he never needed more than 10%. And the scales of business in his days as vice president (marketing) were pretty moderate.

So when he became president of the company five years ago, he continued with the established system of passing of the brief-cases. He would always hand over the brief case to his new vice-president (marketing) only happily. And he felt that the new vice president (marketing) might not have setup any system of scooping out 10% of the contents of the brief-case as he was in habit of doing in his own days. He assessed that his new vice president (marketing) did not look that smart and capable.

He was sure of one thing- that the latest turnkey project was colossal and as per his experience, he estimated that the decision maker(s) were pretty decent in demanding the bribe of that scale. Bribing in order to bag this huge order was absolutely OK with him; after all that would bring glory to him ultimately. His employees at all the levels and more importantly, his board of directors would be highly proud of him. That will give tremendous fillip to the company’s share price in the stock markets.

Yet, this time when his vice president (marketing) demanded a brief-case worth equivalent of twenty million dollars, a bug of suspicion suddenly entered his mind. He did not commit to the vice president (marketing) immediately which was otherwise the normal practice. He asked his vice president (marketing) to meet up with him the next day morning.

The president went home. All the while, in the car, he was trying to calculate as to by what amount his vice president (marketing) would become rich if he scooped out say 10% of the contents of the brief-case. He was also trying to work out the scenarios at 1%, 3%, 5% and 7%. In his nervousness, he was finding it difficult to calculate manually.

So, as soon as he reached home, he took out his calculator and without being bothered about the tea that his wife offered him, he got busy calculating. He worked out all the figures of profits at these various percentages. Then he took out his secret diary where he had scribbled on one page his entire loot which he had made at his own 10%. He was very shocked and very jealous to see that his vice president (marketing) would surpass him on just this single transaction even at a moderate 1%. But he also hoped against hopes by asking to himself, “But will he do it? Is he in the habit of doing it? Is he really capable of doing it?”

He could not enjoy his dinner that night. Then he could not sleep the entire night. And even by early morning, he was not very sure of what he should do with his vice president (marketing) in his meeting with him at the day-break.

(Read case studies/anecdotes in our eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon)

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Thursday, November 26, 2015

Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories: Corporate Espionage by Corporate Conspirators

Read the most intriguing novel "The Peace Crusaders" at http://peacecrusaders.blogspot.com (or buy the full novel from Amazon)

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Corporate Espionage by Corporate Conspirators

It’s about a country where there were only few automotive companies. Most of these companies had started with technical collaborations with more known and more technically advanced companies of the developed nations. At the conclusion of the period of technical collaborations, these companies had already indigenized the manufacture of those products and had in a way become autonomous.

Since only few companies were in the fray, there was almost no competition among them. It was a seller’s market in monopolistic business conditions. Each had gained a comfortable share of business and each company seemed complacent with its lot.

Among these automobile companies, companies ‘A’ and ‘B’ were manufacturing couple of variants of commercial vehicles (trucks). Whatever they produced was immediately grabbed by the ever so hungry customers and the products were sold at an illegal premium price. Companies ‘A’ and ‘B’ and their top bosses were earning unimaginably large sums of money practically without any need to really manage anything. All of them were enjoying a deep slumber and getting rich while dreaming.

And their deep sleep was shattered by announcement of entry of a new player (the new player was in some other business and was pretty successful at that). The new player, the company ‘C’ had entered into collaboration with one world class company ‘D’ whose commercial vehicles were a rage and could be seen on the roads of most of the countries all over the globe.

The top executives of ‘A’ and ‘B’ had reasons to worry since in whichever nation company ‘D’ set up its manufacturing plants on their own or in joint venture or technical collaboration with any local company, its products had literally killed the other existing products and their producers had to close down their shops. With that kind of reputation of the commercial vehicles designed and developed by company ‘D’, it was reasonable to feel worried.

In the mean time company ‘C’ was recruiting engineers and managers at various levels from other automotive companies of the country, mainly from companies ‘A’ and ‘B’. The construction of new manufacturing plant of company ‘C’ was already in progress and the machines and assembly line were being installed with the help of their collaborator i.e. company ‘D’.

Company ‘C’ commissioned a highly sophisticated security system managed by the country’s top notch security agency. It was necessary for them to do so since the products they were going to manufacture were very different and superior from the existing commercial vehicles being sold by companies ‘A’ and ‘B’. Also, the production processes were unique. Company ‘C’ could not afford their strategic advantage of their differentiating products and processes to be easily passed on to its competitors on the platter. They could not allow a stranger to walk into their factory premises and pick up this intelligence and knowledge. They were 100% on the guard.

Under guidance of its collaborator ‘D’, company ‘C’ had just launched the first pilot production of their uniquely superior commercial vehicles.

While these important project activities were under way in company ‘C’, a secret telephonic conversation took place in one of the offices of the factory. It was the cabin of the senior service engineer. At the other end of the telephone line was the vice president (R&D) of company ‘B’. He was instructing the senior service engineer of company ‘C’ in a hush hush tone, “You are taking too much time in sending the information on the hydraulic system and the engine- you are damn slow. We just cannot afford these delays. We were one up on company ‘A’ till date on understanding the configuration of your trucks but this morning I got a call from our senior designer posted in the R&D department of company ‘A’ that they (i.e. company ‘A’) have already received some very important information about the strategic systems of your truck that you have not been able to send me till date.”

The senior service engineer looked around to see if there wasn’t anyone in his vicinity and continued, “Sir, that’s impossible. The security here is so tight that no bird can fly into the premises, forget about any human being. And I have surveyed each and every person in the employment of our company here (meaning company ‘C’) and I can say with 100% guarantee that no agent of company ‘A’ is active inside our premises here. Company ‘A’ just cannot get any information from here.”

Then, vice president (R&D) of company ‘B’ who was on the other end of the telephone line lost his patience and scolded him, “You are a fool. Don’t underestimate company ‘A’ in these matters. No less than their deputy managing director had already entered your premises yesterday and he was there the whole day studying you commercial vehicle which was lying in the knocked down condition. He went from shop to shop and visited your assembly line and various stores. The huge damage is already done. They know more than us about your vehicle and processes. My boss here is highly critical of our inefficiencies in this matter. Tighten up your belt and send the information in the fastest possible ways. We are paying you the enormous salary and perquisites- what for?”

The senior service engineer enquired hurriedly, “How could the deputy managing director of company ‘A’ enter our factory premises here?”

Vice president (R&D) of company ‘B’ replied, “He came in the disguise of a truck driver. He drove the truck inside your premises after the detailed security checks at the factory gate. He was driving the truck that brought the imported components of your products in semi knocked down conditions. The truck belongs to a truck operator who is providing the logistics to company ‘A’ for past more than 22 years. The truck operator is loyal to company ‘A’ and now also started doing business with company ‘C’ under a different identity of his firm run by his younger brother.”

The conversation ended. No one else in company ‘C’ was aware of this conversation.

(Read case studies/anecdotes in our eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon)