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Jason types on a keyboard at his desk. Gina enters and sits across from him.
Gina: "Jason, I have such awesome news for you, I'm so glad you're here. Betsy said that [furrowing her eyebrows] you are going out of town and I was wondering you know, is he going to be here or not because I have such awesome news."
Jason [smiling]: "Yeah great."
Gina [smiling]: "I have Bestel who is interested in investing 4 million dollars in [raising her eyebrows] this company, immediately. All we have to do is sign a few papers and we are done. Now the chairman of the board, do you remember Jack Schneider? Do you remember when he came in?"
Jason: "I do. Of course." [repositions himself in his chair]
Gina: "Ok. So I have known him since I was a kid, he's almost like an uncle to me, right. Now he said, that basically this is a done deal. Now his shareholders, they don't get together until 2 weeks after the fourth quarter. But that's not really a problem because he's basically talked to me, and I've worked everything out and done everything that he wanted me to do."
Jason: "Does he have to get the shareholders to [slaps his hand on a notebook on the table] approve the deal?"
Gina [nodding]: "Well yeah of course. But…"
Jason [interrupting Gina]: "Well how is he going to do that if the quarter ends? [holding his hands open in front of him] He can't legitimately sign the deal before he gets shareholder approval."
Gina: "Ok, technically I know what you're saying, but I'm telling you [nodding] I know this guy. He's like, like at Thanksgiving and when I was growing up we would have picnics together and stuff like that, and he's given me the OK. He says he's actually got these shareholders on his side, and then he'll have this meeting that's kind of a technical problem but other than that, he said he will do it so it's really not a problem."
Jason: "So if he does that though, are we authorized to go ahead and push through this deal. Because obviously we're both looking at, there is a lot of pressure in our department right now. [Gina tries to interrupt Jason several times.] I don't know if you're going to be here or if I'm going to be here or whatever, so obviously if we can get this through, that would be great. But you know I'm not going to sign the guy's name or something just to get it through. [Gina looks down then tilts her head up, keeping her eyes closed briefly before looking at Jason.] So I guess my question is how is he going to legitimately get this signed for us before our quarter ends?"
Gina: "OK. He's chairman of the board so he can make these kinds of decisions. And I know this isn't exactly [shaking her head slowly] perfect procedure, but I think at this point, I think this is something we both have to look at. I mean I need my job, right, you need your job, people are expecting their bonuses. I'm just trying to give you a solution. Right? And that doesn't mean that everything is going to be, you know, to the letter, perfectly done, according to every single policy that we have, [Jason nods.] but it does mean [raising her eyebrows] that it would save this company. And I have this thing sitting here right now and it's an awesome thing for Bestel, [Jason nods.] OK, but it's also an incredible thing for us, and it's an opportunity that really you know I think it would be a bit insane to miss it."
Jason: "Well I agree, obviously I would like to get this deal pushed through, make you look like a superstar [moving around in his chair], helps me out, you know our department is back on track again."
Gina: "So basically we are on the same page here right?"
Jason [nodding]: "Um hum."
Gina: "Ok, so what do I need to do to get you to agree to do this, [shaking her head] like within the next few days?"
Jason: "Well I think there are two things we need to do. First I want something in writing from you that spells out the details of the deal, number one. And number two, I just, I want to get on the phone. I think it would be a good idea for you and I both to get on the phone with Jack and you know discuss this so that I have a good comfort level going into this." [Jason shrugs.]
Gina: "OK well there is nothing about this that is going to be [raising her eyebrows and moving her right hand forward] comfortable, we just need to do it because it's the right thing to do and I don't understand, like if I put this in writing the whole idea is that you and I can get this done. Right? We've known each other for four years, we can get this done. If we tell everybody about this, then obviously it's not going to go through, I mean let's be honest right?"
Jason [looking away from then back at Gina]: "Well, I don't see, [furrowing his eyebrows] why do you think that?"
Gina [voice elevated, raising her eyebrows, and leaning forward]: "Why do I think that? What are you talking about? [nodding] Of course that's how it's going to work right?"
Jason: "Well I don't understand why you are so anxious to get this thing pushed through right away."
Gina [interrupting Jason, voice elevated]: "You don't understand why I'm anxious? Jason, I'm anxious because I want to keep my job, OK. I need that bonus; [Jason tries to interject.] I just bought a new house, alright? I care about the company; I want this to go through."
Jason: "Well we just need to relax and make sure this goes through the right way."
Gina [interrupting Jason, voice elevated, raising her eyebrows, shaking her head]: "I really hate when people tell me to relax. OK the right way is the loser way, it's not going to work that way. Alright?"
Jason: "When you first came in here, I really thought, you made it sound like this is a legitimate thing and now, you're changing your tune"
Gina [talking over Jason, voice elevated]: "I'm not saying that it's not legitimate; I'm just saying that nobody got ahead by not using a little bit of imagination and taking a risk, Jason. [shaking her head, eyebrows raised] Obviously you're more conservative than I am. I'm ambitious and I want this thing to go through and I care about the company. And the greater good is to get this thing through, like done deal."
Jason: "I think it's really unfair of you to accuse me of not caring about the company, we've worked together a long time and you know as well as I do that I have put my heart and soul into this place."
Gina [voice elevated, eyebrows raised]: "OK, then you have to take a risk. You can't just…"
Jason: "I agree. I have 2 things that I really need to worry about. One is making sure that this division is profitable."
Gina [interrupting Jason, eyebrows raised]: "Oh and how are you doing on that right now, by the way?"
Jason: "We're doing horrible as you know. We just had that meeting. [slightly elevating his voice] But I have another very big, important part of my job, is to make sure that we get things processed properly."
Gina [interrupting Jason, voice more elevated]: "Well properly is not the way that this is going to work, obviously OK. I have given you the best deal."
Jason [voice elevated]: "I'm a little leery now. [Gina frowns.] You just came in here and you said to me, 'Oh, I have this great deal that is going to work out fine' and now you're kind of changing your tune and saying…"
Gina [voice elevated, eyebrows raised]: "Well here you are putting stops on this. [shaking her head] That's not the way to do good business. I want to get this done, alright? I want to save this company, and I want everyone to get their bonuses. [shaking her head] I don't have to do this with you. I can go ahead and step over you and go straight to Ralph. Would you like me to do that, or would you like to do this in the next few days and be a hero to all of your people. They will get their bonuses, there won't be any layoffs, and our company will be doing great. But right now, [shaking her head] you don't look so good."
Jason [opening his hands wide]: "Can I just talk for a moment? That's all well and good and you know what, honestly, if you feel that strongly about it that you want to go over me, that's fine. [shaking his head] I think that if you take some time and think about it, that's not such a wise move for you."
Gina [looking away from then back at Jason, interrupting Jason]: "Who do you know who hasn't taken a risk? Do you have any mentors that haven't taken a risk to get something going?"
Jason: "You know that I take risks too. We've worked together for a long time, you know that I have."
Gina [shaking her head, speaking calmly]: "I just, I think you're making a big mistake that's all. I care about you and I want this to go well, and [pausing] I don't want you to lose your job."
Jason: "Well you're giving me mixed signals here. You just said two minutes ago you just said 'I'm going to go over your head' and now you're telling me that you care about me. You know, my eyebrow is going to raise over this deal because you know I can't figure out, like you know, I have a feeling that there is a lot of pressure on you that you're feeling now to get this done."
Gina [voice elevated]: "Of course I have pressure on me, you have pressure on you as well. We've got to get it done. And the way I see it, look Jason, [pausing and shaking her head] it's really too bad."
Jason [voice elevated]: "We have to do this the right way though."
Gina [voice elevated, eyebrows raised]: "We can't do it the right way; I have been over it with you. And at this point…"
Jason [interrupting Gina, voice elevated]: "Well if it's not going to go through the right way, I don't really feel comfortable doing it."
Gina [voice elevated, nodding]: "Well then you just sit [gesturing forward with her hand] right here and you just wait to lose your job but I'm not going to do that. So you have until 10 o'clock tonight OK to give me a call and let me know if you are on board with this, otherwise I'm going to Ralph. [voice lowered] Do you understand what I'm saying? [Jason tries to speak; Gina elevates her voice.] I'm not kidding."
Jason: "You know what? You already have my answer, and I don't appreciate you giving me an ultimatum. My answer is I need something in writing and I want to get on the phone with you and the guy."
Gina [interrupting Jason]: "Well that's really too bad."
Jason [voice elevated, moving his head from side to side]: "And if you don't get that to happen, then I'm not signing off on it."
Gina: "I'm not losing the deal." [Gina shakes her head, stands, and walks away.]
Jason is sitting alone at his desk.
Jason: "I don't think the meeting went very well at all. She seemed to be too anxious and too focused on getting her year end bonus and you know securing her job and quote on quote saving the department. Obviously she didn't like what I had to say and [gesturing his hands back and forth in front of him across his desk] vice versa. The biggest thing that worried me was that Gina was so focused and so excited and so worried without really considering the ramifications of the deal. If something got botched up and there was some kind of legal action taken. She just wanted to kind of push it through without really considering all of the consequences. The risk of Gina's plan was that she wanted to push through the contract before it was legitimately approved by the shareholders or just you know [gestures with one hand] legitimately approved period. I wasn't willing to sign off on a deal just for the sake of getting a deal signed so that the money comes in and we can book that before year end.
[right hand gestures forward]I guess I needed to find out more details which Gina didn't seem like she was willing to give up. She just was basically was trying to sell me to sign off on the deal. There is still a 2 week window there where we certainly have time. It didn't need to get done and signed today, this afternoon, or tonight. We certainly could have looked into it and see if there was any [moves hands back and forth] alternative to getting the thing signed or getting it booked before our year end.
My own opinion about risk is that you just wanna there is always going to be risk involved. But you want to minimize it. You want to do whatever you can to minimize the risk in any deal that you go into. That being said. You don't want risk to be something that holds up something from getting signed or pushed through. You have the accountants and the lawyers on one hand [gestures right hand away from body] and the salesmen on the other. And the salesmen just want to get things signed, kind of like Gina, that just wanted to push things through. And then you know [gesture left hand away from body] the accountants want to mull over every little detail and every word in the contract, which slows things down. So you know you just need to get some kind of balance there. I guess that's the managers' role really, is to try to be kind of in between that, in between the making sure it's going to be a responsible deal, and that you're accounting for it properly. It's not gonna come back and haunt you down the road, and but also still pushing through the deal, still getting your sales people to sign deals.
In this particular case, I leaned more toward the accountant because who I had in front of me. She was you know absolutely just trying to sell me on the idea of, you know, I assumed she wanted me to sign off on this thing without even looking it over. As I questioned her more and more we kind of got into more specifics about, you know, that the shareholders were not going to approve or meet until after our quarter ends. And there are just more details that came out that raised red flags, I think, as our conversation went on. And so yeah in that case I am definitely playing the accountant or the auditor and trying to get more information out of her so that I don't sign something that gets me into trouble."
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