25th February, 2013
This is yet another bonus article. You’d better believed this, the road to creating meaning out of life is filled with contours, bends and few mysteries. But your job is to crack every code you come across on the way. When you choose not to give up, there is victory at the other side of the obstacle you encounter.
Here are to two live situations. Assuming you were in the positions of the parties, how would you handle the situations? Read carefully and send your feedback to [email protected]. I will share some of the most outstanding responses some time in this column. Happy reading.
CASE STUDY 1: CAREER EXECUTIVE AT CROSSROADS
Dele Adeyemi started work in a well known media house shortly after he left the university. He started in the newsroom as a cub reporter and with diligence he was able to advance the ladder quite speedily. From being just a reporter, he moved on to become an editor in one of the titles in the stable of the company he was working for. On the job, he applied for Reuters’ fellowship and he won; so he had to travel for seven weeks to the United Kingdom for a training on financial reporting in Reuters office. More good things continued to happen to him. Shortly after his return from the UK, he got other opportunities to travel, mostly sponsored, to many countries. Within the country he also gained recognition. Eventually he was promoted the CEO of that unit of the company business.
There are few things to note about Dele. While he continued to make money , he paid less attention to financial management. His own conclusion was that: “you only save or manage money when it is not enough”. The interpretation was that as long as he continued to do well in his career, money would never be a problem. And it was not. At least until after a while.
But as Dele would soon discover, there are certain things in life we cannot determine how they would turn. While in the office one day, a visitor who had followed his work got close to Dele and they started to exchange views on many things. In one of their meetings, Dele’s friend, who had resided in a European country for some time, suggested that they start a business by the side so that he (his new friend) would manage it on behalf of the two of them. Dele obliged but without discussing with his wife. And things were working out well. They were making more money from their joint business which in a way was in the same line of business with Dele’s official job. After two years of running this business , Dele discovered that he had to really spend some more time on his side business. His attention to his official business started to wane.
One day a letter was brought to the office addressed to Dele on a project relating to Dele’s side business. Unfortunately for Dele, his Chairman, who just strolled into the office that weekend was the one that received the unsealed letter. He just casually read it only to discover that Dele had another company beside the one that provided his monthly salary. The chairman was enraged and put a call to Dele to ask him a few questions. Dele sensed trouble. He called the writer of the letter who later explained that he did not know there was a difference between Dele’s side business and the one in the correspondence.
Not willing to face the embarrassment the scenario would bring especially as the chairman had taken him to be a trustworthy fellow, Dele simply wrote his resignation letter and sent it by courier the following Monday. He never resumed in that office again. He had spent seven years working with the company before he left without any entitlement.
When he explained what happened to his partner, he (the partner) encouraged him to resume and run their business fully. He discussed this with his wife who insisted on knowing his friend. Dele’s wife eventually met his friend and her remarks when Dele was back was that: “I sense in my spirit that this guy is not right for you, why don’t you pray about it?” Dele ignored his wife and ultimately, he resumed to run the joint business with his friend. But a month after he resumed in the office, Dele, a born-again, tongue-talking, spirit filled Christian, discovered a more devastating shocker: his partner is a member of seven occultic societies and he had always conducted some sacrifices in the office in the night, alone in the office. Dele at the moment is devastated. He has lost the job he loves and the carpet has been pulled off his feet even on the fallback business.
Exercise:
1.What would you do if you find yourself in this position?
2.Where did Dele miss his step?
3.What are the life lessons we can extract from this scenario?
CASE STUDY 2: COMPLICATED PARTNERSHIP
John and Charles were two bosom friends from the university. They did so many things together. They studied together, went to parties together and had fun together. Any time they were on vacation, they would spend the holiday with either of their parents. Over time they became family friends.
Charles studied International Relations and later acquired marketing skills along the line. John on the other hand studied accounting and he later qualified as a chartered accountant. While still in the university , they both tinkered with the idea of setting up their own business. But this could not be achieved immediately. They both worked for different companies for four years and ultimately they decided to give an expression to their earlier desire. They both set up an IT firm. Good enough for them, it was the time the banks were compelled to be IT compliant and this got them many juicy jobs.
In terms of responsibility sharing, Charles was asked to be in charge of marketing. He was the one in charge of developing the marketing concepts for the company and handling all its marketing activities. As would be expected John had to take charge of the operations including the accounts. In terms of shareholding, they both had equal shareholding.
Given his position, John was the one handling all payments to internal and external individuals and Charles had no reason to distrust him. He just faced his own business bringing more customers and more money.
One morning when Charles came to the office, John said that he thought they should create the office of the managing director which he would occupy while Charles would be given the position of executive director in charge of Sales. Charles had no problem with that.
A week after that, Charles just came to the office only to discover that John had created two offices (they were staying in the same room before) and got his own office furnished with AC, refrigerator and other things while Charles’ office was just barely furnished. What baffled Charles was that he did not sign any cheque so how did John get the money. Charles decided to make a bit of trouble by challenging John but he was shocked by John’s next statement that read like this: “If you don’t keep quiet, I will simply fire you and return all your investments in this company to you”. More shocker: the following day, John announced to Charles that he would be going on vacation to London the following week and that Charles should let him know if he needed him to release some money before travelling.
Here were the discoveries when Charles decided to find out more:
•John had removed Charles as a signatory to the account working in active connivance with their bank.
•He had opened a foreign account in the U.S without the knowledge of Charles and he had transferred a huge amount of money to that account over a period of one year and had withdrawn from that account a number of time.
Charles was speechless and seemed to have no clue on how to handle the situation.
Required Exercise:
1. Assuming you were Charles , how would you handle the issue?
2. Did Charles miss out on anything?
3. What are the life and business lessons to draw from here?
Send your feedback to [email protected]
Prosperously yours