This archive report was first published on 3 October 2019.
On October 3, 2019, a marketing boss's presentation at a meeting with the CEO and other managers took an unexpected turn, setting the stage for a potential collision with Josphat, a new employee.
The meeting, which was supposed to last 15 minutes, ran for 45 minutes as the managers kept interrupting Josphat's presentation with questions, some of which seemed genuine while others may have been an attempt to impress the CEO.
According to Josphat, the CEO was not amused when he learned that the company had not been prepared for new government regulations that would impact their bottom line. The CEO expressed frustration, banging the table and daring the managers to respond to his query.
However, the Head of Marketing attempted to deflect blame, saying that she had been busy preparing close of quarter reports and assumed the legal team would pick up on the developments and brief everyone. The Manager of Legal Affairs responded by saying that the team had been short-staffed and that this might have slipped through the cracks, and promised to make it a priority and revert by the end of the day.
The CEO's mood changed instantly when he said, 'let us now hear from the new kid on the block — Josphat you now have the floor.' Josphat's presentation was met with some good ideas, but the Head of Marketing was not satisfied, saying that none of the ideas touched on marketing. She proceeded to give a 10-minute talk on why marketing is 'critical for the success of this business.'
At the end of the meeting, which had overrun by two hours, Josphat's only takeouts were that he needed to get used to long meetings and that the Head of Marketing would be trouble.
