How Ken ruined day by grabbing CEO’s attention

 

My presentation falls flat as he basks in boss’s praise. PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC 

By Man About Town

This week, the management team (of which I am now a proud member) gathered to review the progress of the actions of our Rift Valley Retreat. The CEO had demanded that I collate and present the actions dashboard with red for “yet to be completed” and green for completed.

As usual we had the co-operative managers who gave me their results within minutes. For others, it was like extracting teeth as they kept pushing the deadline forward. But two of the managers finally submitted their presentations.

Unfortunately, what they delivered was in no way close to what I had asked them for and I had no choice but to give them my honest opinion.

“Sorry but your presentation is too late and does not meet the criteria we set out.”

One of the managers called Ken marched up to me and said: “Josphat my guy, surely you can work some magic. That is your job after all.”

I was insulted by his line of thinking and for his lack of remorse, so I retorted: “Not today my friend! I gave you enough time.”

The meeting started with my presentation which I had titled “Setting the Scene”. I also gave a disclaimer and said that we did not have reports from the two departments.

This ticked off the CEO who bellowed: “That is unacceptable! Can someone explain to me what happened?”

This is when Ken the Schmoozer showed his hand.

“Sir, as you know we are approaching the close of the first half. I was so busy closing the deal we discussed at the golf course that I was unable to hand this on time. Sir, but you will be pleased to know that we closed the deal and we received the customer’s remittance yesterday,” he said.

“It is the biggest supply and logistics deal we have made in the last five years.”

As expected, this announcement elicited a round of applause and a five-minute speech from the CEO about the importance of going for the kill and networking.

To be honest, the rest of the presentation was a disappointment to me since Ken had clearly hogged all the limelight. I tried to give it my all but I could see my audience was star-struck by Ken and anything I said was secondary.

Ken was basking in the glow of the CEO’s praise and they later walked out together to his office. The only guys who remained in the room were Benja, the finance manager and myself. Benja started chuckling and said: “Did you see corporate politics 101 at play?”

I asked him what he meant and he explained: “Ken was quick to talk about that deal though I am yet to see the credit in our account.”