C.A. for Episode 4: Behind the scenes drama

In Episode 4 of The Firm Season II, both team Asset and Equity were charged to sell as many Tune Money prepaid Visa card to Lim Kok Wing University students. In my opinion, this task were the most objective compared to the previous 3 and I thought it was the most straightforward. I was very concerned when I discovered that Team Asset would commence their tasks first thus enjoying strategic first mover advantage.

Masami was appointed as the team leader and during brainstorming, ideas were popping up (it is a brainstorming session thus no ideas were shot down prematurely) until Anoop voiced out his suggestion about inviting celebrity to endorse to grace our function. I believe that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Masami because there was a verbal exchange of words between Masami and Anoop. That was shown on TV; what was not shown on TV was that Anoop proceeded to send SMS to all in Team Equity and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I shared the following with Anoop:

Anoop, maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which should be changed and the wisdom to know the difference. None of us would have judged you if you didn't give us the reason to. Remember, there is no smoke without fire.C.A.

Due to prior work engagements, Dian has to travel to Jakarta and she was unable to attend any of team discussions after the brainstorming session. However, we kept her in the loop via emails of the progress. That was the reason why Dian volunteered to resign in the boardroom because she felt that she didn’t contribute enough.

Back to the brainstorming session, yours truly suggested the theme “Tune me on” as I felt that it tied back to the company’s name Tune Money and it was suitable for the target audience (university students). The strategy was customer delight by giving applicants more than just a Tune Money prepaid visa card. To support this strategy, the following tactics were carried out:
a) Sponsors
1) Masami’s employer, The Malay Mail, generously sponsored an advertisement for 2 consecutive days.
2) Masami managed to get 200 copies of On The Road Magazine.
3) Masami sponsored YSL In Love Again and Thierry Mugler Angel miniature perfume sets
4) Boon Yew sponsored Jusco, Parkson vouchers and notepads.
5) Jack Jeganesan, Business Development Manager for Cochine Alfresco, sponsored VIP passes to their event.
6) Alex Choong, Marketing Director for Superstar Karaoke Box sponsored karaoke vouchers.
7) Langeswaran, Director for Planetunes Mobile sponsored 500 ringtones / logoes downloads.
8) Christine Chai, Marketing Manager for Bella Skin care sponsored Bella Skin care vouchers.
9) Irene Leong, Asst. Marketing Manager for Marie France sponsored Marie France vouchers.
10) Queenie Wong, Marketing Exec for Svenson Hair Care sponsored Svenson vouchers.
11) Ramesh Ganeson, Area Manager of Field Marketing for Starwoods Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts sponsored tickets to the award winning Beauty & The Beast on Ice play.
12) Chrissie Lim, Manager for Resorts World Berhad sponsored rooms at First World Hotel.
13) Ben Wong, Group Executive Director for Easy Pha-Max Marketing sponsored goodie bags and products.
14) Carol Yip, author of bestseller “Smart Money-Users” sponsored her books.
b) Lucky dip – Team Equity felt that the wheel of fortune was too common thus lucky dip was adopted.
c) Booth & PA System – Jennifer liaised with her contacts for the booth setup and PA system.
d) Referral Scheme – something I came up with to increase application signups by offering the tickets to the award winning Beauty and The Beast on Ice play away.

Ridzuan went AWOL during preparation day and was extremely difficult to reach; it took him a couple of hours to return our calls. The major disappointment was when he returned our calls to notify us that he was occupied with coming up with badges.

I thought with the above ‘bullets’, Team Equity would score another win. Of course I failed to factor in the following:
1) Team Equity was unceremoniously expelled from their initial location because someone from the university failed to communicate clearly on the university’s founder’s likes and dislikes; apparently he dislikes red colour. Perhaps that person neglected to mention to the founder that we were representing Tune Money, whose corporate colour happens to be red.
2) The relocation really drained us of our energy because we had to carry tables and chairs from elsewhere.
3) The relocation also meant that we started late.
4) The college students having a charity event but were unwilling to lower down the volume despite repeated requests to do so.
5) The first mover advantage that Team Asset had (many students mentioned that they had signed up a day earlier and we had quite a few students asking whether it is possible to cancel their initial application and sign up a fresh one with us).
6) Anoop would throw a tantrum and refuse to show up for task day behaving like a spoilt child.

On result announcement day, it was clear that Team Asset won with their 112 signups versus Team Equity’s 97 signups. I leave it up to you to decide which team had the advantage over the other.

Back in the boardroom, I thought that this was my opportunity to get off The Firm but I was caught with my pants down when Dian announced that she is volunteering herself to be terminated. She succeeded in disrupting my train of thoughts thus I had to say something; I wasn’t very proud of what I said but like the Chinese saying goes “Even the thousand mile horse is unable to stop words once it is uttered”. As I thought she would, Masami volunteered herself to be terminated. Ridzuan’s act of volunteering to be terminated fooled me because I had the impression that he reminds me of myself during my younger days. His final interview really disappointed me because I misjudged him; he no longer reminds me of myself during my younger days.

Peter Pek, corporate leader for Team Equity, was visibly upset and disappointed with Dian, Masami, Ridzuan and myself for volunteering to be terminated and verbally lashed out at us that we are no different from Anoop for voicing out our intentions to pull out. Besides Dian, I took offense at his remark as well because I felt that it was a careless and callous judgement of our characters simply because I believe that Anoop is from a completely different planet from the rest of Team Equity: probably from Jupiter judging from the large amount of hot air emanating from his mouth.

Conclusion: C.A. failed in his attempt to be terminated. Will he succeed in the next task?