Rico waved his hand and silenced Ben mid-speech. Then he turned to glare at Sarah. “What are you doing about this? Isn’t it your job to drive the business? Obviously, I can’t rely on sales or else I’ll be locking up this shop. So what are you doing to stop the hemorrhaging?”
Sarah started then she picked up her pen and began to tap it against her notebook. “Well, Rico,” she began, her voice sounding high pitched and strained, “as you know, the budget was cut-”
“Don’t give me that crap about the budget being cut.” Rico almost slammed his palm on the table. He caught himself just in time. “Don’t talk to me about what you don’t have. Tell me what you’re doing with the money you do have."
“That’s what I’m trying to do, Rico.” Sarah spoke again, her voice stronger this time. “Each time I try to explain you cut me off. And you do the same thing with Ben. You do it to all of us.”
This time Rico did slam his palm on the table. “Listen, I don’t have time for whining. All I want is your plan of action to turn this ship around. We have to see a return to profit by the end of this quarter. This time failure is not an option.”
Silence. For a moment Sarah said nothing. She just stared back at Rico, the tightness of her mouth revealing her anger.
“May I say something?”
All eyes turned to Jim Henessey. “Sarah’s right. Every time someone tries to give you information or tries to make you understand a situation you cut them off. You never listen-”
"Carajo! I listen to you all the time.” Rico threw up his hands in frustration. "That’s why I have these meetings so often, to hear all the problems, issues and reasons why we’re losing business. But also to hear solutions, Jim. Suggestions on how to resolve the problem. And that’s what I’m not hearing from any of you.” He shoved his chair back and stood up. "And that’s what I’m paying all of you for, n’est-ce-pas? Solutions.”
No-one answered. They all stared back at him in their strange way as if they were afraid to express their feelings. For the life of him Rico could not understand why they refused to speak up. When the silence stretched on he decided to continue. “Sarah, Ben, what about that competition we instituted last year between the sales and marketing departments? Hasn’t that stimulated some creativity on your teams? And Jim, where is the creativity from the operations department? Come on, guys, I need to see results.”
It was Jim who spoke again and his voice was strangely calm. “Rico, since your previous CEO left and you set up headquarters in this office you’ve called these meetings and they’ve not been successful.”
Irritated, Rico opened his mouth to respond but Jim kept talking. This time it was Rico who found himself on the receiving end of an interruption.
“Nobody wants to talk, Rico, so here is my suggestion. Instead of these round table meeting you always call, let's do formal presentations with charts outlining what each person plans to say. That way, if we get sidetracked with questions or…disturbing comments we can still get back to the main topic.”
“Fine.” Rico spat out the word, too pissed to argue with the man. “I don’t see the need for all that but if that’s what it will take to get some information out of you all, we’ll do it.”
“It's what it will take for us to have our say,” Jim said, his eyes unwavering.
“In that case, this meeting is over. I suggest you all decide on a time for these presentations and let me know. Till then, I have work to do.” With that Rico turned and walked out of the conference room, not even stopping to acknowledge his very quiet observer.
He was mad at Jim. The man had made it look like he was the one who’d been disrupting his own meetings. And he’d done it in front of Asia Miller, the hired busybody. He'd looked bad in front of the ‘consultant’ and he didn’t like it. Not one bit.
He was halfway down the hallway to his office when he was stopped by the voice of the woman in question. “Rico. One moment, please.”
He stopped and heaved a sigh. He did not turn to face her. She’d catch up to him soon enough and, of course, she’d give him her professional opinion.
She stepped up beside him. “I’d like to accompany you to your office,” she said quietly. “We need to talk.”
Rico did not answer. He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked on. Just what he needed. Another lecture.
CHAPTER THREE
“I have an assignment for you.” Asia struggled to keep from smiling.
Rico was sulking and he looked so cute doing it. He was slumped in his chair, his face set like a thundercloud, and he was angry. He was embarrassed, she knew, because she’d seen him at his worst. She knew he’d started off trying to make a good impression. And he’d failed.
“What assignment?” he asked, his voice a grumpy growl.
“Based on my observations,” she said in her sweetest, most charming voice, “you have two main problems. Number one, you let your emotions get in the way which results in your bullying your employees. Second, you institute systems that have built-in incentives for your departments to work against each other rather than together.”
“What systems?”
“You mentioned a competition between the sales and marketing departments. Such systems foster a rivalry that may not be in your best interest. Research has shown that giving teams a common goal to work toward is far more effective than setting up competitions between them. Hence, my assignment.”
“Which is?” Rico growled.
“I want you to come up with a program that will force the sales, marketing and operations teams to work together. Design it, implement it and after two weeks, assess it. I want you to report the results to me at the end of the period. I guarantee you’ll see a huge difference in the results of your teams’ combined efforts.”
“Uh, huh,” Rico said sardonically.
“Don’t knock it, just try it.” Asia was not fazed by his sarcasm. “That’s your assignment number one. Remember, you agreed to work with me so I expect you to keep your word. Do I have your commitment?”