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.
Related Book
"Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online)
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Other Related Reading
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