An engagement

It was a cold winter night. Robin got down from his car, and held the door open for three more people who followed his act. They were all in suits, making passersby wonder what four people were doing in suits at that time of the day. Robin looked a little angry on the outside. But only he knew how happy he was today. God doesn't give a day like this to many people, he thought. He was right. He signalled to his colleagues to carry on, while he waited there. He lit a cigarette and took a drag. It was divine, on this cold night. He saw a long limo coming in. It halted, and a beautiful young girl got down. She looked intelligent. She was also in a suit.
'Ivy, what took you so long. Don't you ever be on time?', groaned Robin.
'When have you ever stopped shouting at me', came the reply.

They were at the headquarters of General Motors, Worldwide. He was leading a team of strategy consultants, which was hired by GM; its Board of Directors to be precise. He belonged to, what people called 'The firm'. He was the senior most in the team, with the junior most being Ivy, who was just recruited from Harvard Junior College last year, as a Business analyst.

He had a reputation to live up to. He had a reputation to live up to today even otherwise. Robin and Ivy walked steadily, till they entered the main office building. They walked through the posh main reception into the main hallway. He forgot where he had to go. He signalled to Ivy
'Give me your phone'.
'What happened to yours?', asked Ivy.
'Never mind, give me yours', he said.
She reluctantly handed over her phone to him, and he made a call.
An old, baritone voice was on the other end. It was that of the CEO of GM, Mr Quazito.
'Yes. Tell me. Where are you?', came the voice.
'This is Robin here. I'm near the reception. Which floor and room was it? It just slipped my mind'
'22nd floor, M121', came the reply, sharply.
'Alright'. Man, he doesn't have to be so blunt, Robin thought.

Both of them went into the elevator, and were headed for the 22nd floor. They got out, and went into Room number M121. It was like a conference hall, a small but well equipped hall. There was light music playing in the background. Eight people were sitting around a table. Three of them from Robin's team, and five from GM, their client. At the centre sat the CEO, Mr Quazito, with a sheepish grin on his face. Next to him was a beautiful lady, charming to say less. She seemed to radiate exuberance. Her name was Jenny.

People had heard stories about Quazito. He was a strict strict man. A guy who had tolerated no nonsense. A guy who needed facts, not fiction. He was difficult to handle, Robin had been told. One had to be extremely polite to him, at the same time convey the hard facts. That was always the difficult part of a consultant's role. But Robin never seemed to give a damn. Four weeks back, he was almost the only one who accepted this engagement, while many others in his position were weary. The three others in his team were nervous.

'Alright, let me do the introduction part', Robin raised his voice.
'We're five of us tonight, who'll be working with GM for a few months to come; myself Robin; Richie, Joseph, Zarr, and Ivy', he said, pointing to the others.
The charming lady, Jenny, spoke out next.
'Hello everybody. Firstly, I would like to mention that we're all eager and happy to be working with you guys on this. We hope to have a good time, and let this period be an example to GM for many years to come. In a lighter vein, we also want to see how you guys think. Four of us tonight, our CEO, Mr Quazito, Mr Haze, Mr Stoeker, and myself, Jenny. So, we can start.'

The meeting had formally begun. It was initially the CEO, Mr Quazito who spoke.
'Right. It's 8 now. Lets get this all wound up by 10. Firstly lets address the problem we have at hand. Actually, multiple problems. Well, since you seem a bunch of smart guys, let me tell me you the problem immediately. We're losing millions of dollars on budgets in Research and Development we've been conducting, rejection rate per million on many parts which we're developing newly is going up, almost doubling every month, and sales figures are dropping in many countries as a whole, and the manufacturers from where we source many parts are increasing their rates, there has been a 10 percent reduction in our workforce last quarter, and union strikes twice every month, which is crippling the entire process. All these data are illustrated in these sheets.' He passed on the sheets to Robin.

There was silence. Jenny seemed to give a smile, as if to say 'Yeah, you smarties. Think you're smart? Handle this then'. Ivy seemed to look up to Robin, as if she were clueless. The main four in the team took some time to appreciate the problem. Robin repeated the problem, as if he wanted to memorize it. He was thinking. He went through the sheets Mr Quazito handed over to him.

'Alright', was the only word which came out of Robin.

'So it seems we have quite a few problems at hand. Why don't we split them first, and see which of them are interdependent'. He went to the board nearby, drawing six big bubbles with the six problems to be tackled. Then he drew arrows between the bubbles which were related. The only bubble which had arrows to all the bubbles was the problem 'Sales reduction'. 'So, we handle all the independent problems separately, and the main problem gets solved.'

This seemed such an obvious statement, but somehow, the drawing on the board had simplified the process. Everyone was thinking clear now. Robin had done the initial tiny bit to get people started off.

'Now, firstly, we need to address the main problem - R&D'. 'How many people does the main R&D centre have?', asked Robin.
Jenny went though a couple of sheets she had, and came out with the number. 'What's the amount of money that was spent on R&D last year?', was the next question, which was answered immediately. A couple of questions followed, all answered by Jenny, who seemed to have all the facts ready. She handed over a summary of the R&D work that was going on for the past few months.

Robin was shocked to see the summary. Clearly, the CEO, with his board of directors, wasn't thinking twice about allotting money for research. Most of it was unnecesary. The output obtained was much lesser than per capita money spent.

'Who decides the money spent on R&D, Mr Quazito?', asked Robin.
'Well, it's only us. But we encourage research and cutting edge work going on. So whenever anyone in our R&D department asks us for funds, we never say no. It's a culture we encourage, and we don't mind doing so', came the reply, sharply again.
'Well, it's foolish to continue this way', said Robin.

The others were stunned. This was never the way anyone spoke to a CEO. Was Robin nuts? Well, whatever, the statement was delivered, and that was all that mattered. It was out, well into Mr Quazito's ears for years to come. Robin explained what was going wrong in the R&D department, and said 'We need to start with the analysis of R&D department tomorrow, to see what's doing the job and what's not'.

'Jenny, I need a detailed report, of all the research that goes on, with the people in R&D who're heading it'. He seemed to order her already! A discomfort crept into the members of Robin's team, which Robin seemed to notice. 'Relax guys', was all he said.

'Next, let's analyse the problem of workforce reduction.'
'Mr Quazito, what do you think is the reason for this?'
'Well, frankly, no idea', came the reply. It's after all for you guys to find out.
'You haven't had the time to speak to people, or conduct a survey amongst people for the past few months?', asked Robin.
'No'.
Again, this was just too blunt a question one could pose to a CEO of General Motors.
Robin instructed something to Ivy, and she took down notes. They had to get some sort of a feedback form ready, but this was tricky. Robin wanted to get the workers' exact state of mind. He had to sit and prepare the questions himself.

Next, they had a brainstorming session, with each person throwing in ideas to attack the problem in different ways. Robin was continuously scribbling in a notepad. This went on for a while.

'Right, I think its time we wind up now', said Mr Quazito.
'Yup. We'll meet again on Monday morning. Happy weekend all of you', said Robin.
They walked out one after the other. Four of them stayed back in the room: Robin, Ivy, Quazito and Jenny.

Robin walked towards Jenny, and leaned his head forward, close to her face. He whispered to her 'This dress turns me on. Why don't you have it on while we're in bed tonight?', and he gave her a kiss.

'Ivy, take dad home. I'll come home a little later. We're going for dinner', said Robin.

'Yes, my son. But be careful. It's pretty late', came the baritone voice.

'Oh, don't worry dad. I'll take care'.