Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Gregory Donkor has been eyeing this position ever since he joined the company. In fact, during his first interview for work, the question was asked. “How do you anticipate your future with this company in the next five years?” Of which he remembered telling the panel that with the help of God he wished to work very hard to make the company much better than he had come to meet it, so that in five years’ time, he will be the top manager of the company. This answer attracted a lot of laughter and furore at the interview. The Managing Director of the company at that time felt insecure and jokingly told Greg that he should try his luck elsewhere since he felt his position was threatened. All said and done, he was hired and for twenty five to thirty years he has been a major asset to the company. Greg was employed as a copywriter to handle major accounts like Unilever’s Lux, Key and Rexona soaps; Nestle’s Milo and Cerelac beverages; Patterson Zochonis (PZ)’s Zubes lozenges, robb ointment and Carmel antiseptic and Shell engine oils. As a young advertising man, Greg worked closely with the Artistic Directors and Studio designers to create memorable campaigns, which won numerous awards for the brands and companies alike. These earned him enviable records in the industry. Many competitors chased and tried to poach him into their fold, but he stayed loyal to Event Channel Limited’s course.

Three years after joining the company, Greg was as-signed the Manager in charge of the company’s flagship project, “Miss Ghana Pageant.” This was a yearly event held to select among a bevy of ladies, Ghana’s most beautiful woman to represent the country in the Global Miss World event. He successfully handled this project for so many years before he was promoted to the rank of Strategic Manager and thence to Client Service Executive Manager; a position he has held to date.

Greg was recommended to the Board of Directors by Samuel Atieku, the Accountant and Administrative Manager of the company to be considered for the vacant Managing Director’s position after the retirement of Mr. Dick Obuobi-Nelson, popularly known as DON, whom he had wanted to unseat thirty years ago when he joined the company. This was purely recruitment from within the company, so that the shared values, mission and mindset will be retained. This kind of policy was prevalent in the advertising industry due to rivalry among competitors. It was important to protect internal competencies in order to beat competitors to their game. After all, the players in the industry were opened to the same shared staff, technology and other external competencies that could easily be imitated. What were there to be protected in the company were their distinctive cultures, values, norms and other philosophical skill-sets, which were very difficult to copy by any other company.

There were tides in the affairs of men. These tides moved up and down. Men should always seize opportunities when the tides were high or they lose their ventures. This has been the career journey of Gregory Donkor from a young copywriter through the ranks to client service manager. The trajectory has been sinusoidal, and yet he survived. He has tried very hard to separate his private life from his public affairs. For close to thirty years, he has served this company diligently as copywriter, media executive, strategic planner and client service manager. Now it was time for the company to reward him, he surmised.

Greg showed up in a neatly pressed dark suit, with light blue-coloured shirt underneath and a scuff-less black shoes with a portfolio in tow at 7:45 AM. Indeed, he looked professional and confident for the position outlined for him. The scent on his body pervaded and mixed up with the gas produced by the air-conditioner at the front desk. The receptionists and the office boy who were at the vast space charting were attracted by the strong effervescence of his deodorant. They stood at ease looking at Greg as the glass door swung opened for the interviewee to walk through. The receptionist transfixed her eyes on Greg, admiring his neat, clean and conservative shave. Perhaps, what they were thinking was, whether this was the same Greg they have been working with over the years. He has transformed totally. Truly, Greg looked executive in appearance.

It seemed Greg had taken this position seriously like a world cup. This has translated into the way the receptionist and the office boy saw him. They greeted and welcomed him first into the company. Strange, wasn’t it? Under normal circumstance, visitors were obliged to ex-tend their hand of friendship first to the people they met, when they visited a place, not the other way round. Greg looked up with a smile and said. “Good Morning Adisa Lansa and Joe Ayisi. How are you this morning?” Together they responded. “Good morning, Sir.” Adisa Lansa continued, “Sir, today you do all.” Greg nodded, smiled and said nothing. “Sir, I have been instructed to find you a seat here.” She poked her right index finger towards a seat at the lobby. Greg felt comfortable in a seat opposite the receptionist desk, while Joe Ayisi, the office boy, left the lobby. Greg quickly removed his smartphone from his jacket suit and switched it off. While waiting, he took the time to open his briefcase and stuffed the smartphone into it. He removed his resume, which was stacked neatly in an accessibly organised bunched of leaflets from his briefcase and tried to refresh his mind.

Ten minutes after his arrival, Joe Ayisi came to serve him with coffee, which he gently declined. He continued to peek through his resume and reference until he was ushered into the board room at five minutes past eight o’clock. He confidently stepped into the big oval office to meet three smart looking people: two men and a lady. This time around, he made the first move by extending his hand first for the introductory handshake to all of the interviewers. They, in turn, reciprocated this small gesture. Lawyer Yaw Boafo, the chairman of the board and leader of the group, hand-pointed a chair for him to sit down. The placement of the chairs round a big desk was done in such a way that Greg sat sandwiched between Ms. Agatha Owu, member of the board and Dr. Job Offei, the other member. Greg knew all the three by name and face; not by interface, since his previous position did not permit him to attend board meetings. Again, he had never worked in finance or administration or managing position to merit his dealings with these larger than life personalities. Perhaps this unconventional seating arrangement was made to intimidate him.

Nonetheless, Greg was not overawed. How will he? After all, he has found himself in such uncharted territories times without number during pitches for accounts and presentations to bullying clients. His posture and demeanour posited excitement, confidence, and self-assurance. He was ready to assume the role; just time and destiny will tell.

Greg took his time to travel round the conference room with his eyes. There were portraits of framed certificates and pictures of special events peculiar to the company neatly spaced and hanged on the wall. He momentarily focused his attention on a live feline seated on a file placed on a table. A whole gamut of ideas ran through his mind: what was a cat doing at an interview room? What if the interviewee did not like cats and or the reverse? The animal looked straight into his eyes of which he did same. The cat started to walk towards Greg. There was a feeling that cats always attack or go to the person who disliked them. Perhaps, the cat walked to Greg because the latter looked at its eyes. The board members did not utter a word, rather kept mute watching events unfolding. Greg dropped his shoulders and hands on his lap. The cat noticed that Greg was not a threat, but rather an ally. It slumped to sit close to Lawyer Yaw Boafo. It seemed the cat was now used to the presence of Greg, as he offered to dangle his right hand with his index finger hanging out like a cat nose. The pure white with dotted brown fur feline sniffed Greg’s hand in a friendly manner. Greg used the cat scene to break the ice to make conversational connection with the interviewers. “I love cats, but not as much as I love dogs.” He paused to observe the interviewers’ facial reactions. “I see.” Ms. Agartha Owu responded. “Do you own one?” She snapped. “No, I do not own a cat. Rather I have a pickle as pet. It is very lovely and a great friend. You know, dogs had been with humans for over 100,000 years, while, cats are still learning to live with humans since they were domesticated some 5000 years ago.” Lawyer Yaw Boafo cleared his throat and said. “Mr. Donkor, you are welcome to this morning’s interaction. I believe you know why you are here.” Greg nodded without saying anything. Lawyer Boafo traded glances with Dr. Job Offei.

“Doc., kindly set the ball rolling.” Dr. Offei pulled his chair to lean forward, which frightened the cat to jump out and ran out of sight. He started by saying.

“Mr. Gregory Donkor, Good Morning. The idea that pets are good for workplace productivity is not natural, because they are noisy, disorderly, needed to be fed, walked and cuddled throughout the day. Do you agree to this statement?” Greg put up a smiling face and started. “Yes indeed, pets are very distractive at the work place, but as a top manager my job requires me to have certain personality traits learnt from pets such as dogs and cats. These traits include patience, thoughtfulness and conscientiousness, ability to interact and communicate professionally with all levels of staff. In other words, ob-serving pets at the work place will enable me to balance the right skills to be employed to succeed. Thus, how does management maintains high expectations from the job; operate continuous training techniques for subordinates; all required both conceptual and diagnostic skills to solicit for ideas and using common sense and intelligence to make them effective at the work place?”

“To increase productivity at the work place, I can mention five ways that keeping pets, particularly, in a demanding job like advertising can bring. Pets could help lower stress levels. Secondly, it pulls people away from their computer screens long enough to have face-to-face conversations that can help team members bond and boost morale. Thirdly, in a competitive, fast paced environment such as ours, we sometimes worked full days without leaving our desks for more than occasional trip to the loo, for example. Having a dog in the office re-quires the owner to seldom get away from the desk and take the dog for a walk to force a break, which boost focus, mental clarity and creativity. Again, these pets helped remove unnecessary rodents from the office and finally, they bring fun to the office, as has happened here this morning.” The three interviewers burst out simultaneously that echoed throughout the room.

When the sound died out, Ms. Owu asked. “Well Mr. Gregory Donkor, impressive delivery, Huh!! Where do you intend to move Event Channel strategically in the next five years?” Greg responded that, he wants to make Event Channel Limited a global Advertising Agency. He explained further that, “my first task is to seek affiliation with a well-established global agency like J. Walter Thompson, Olgivy & Mather, TBWA and the likes. This is a strategic way of increasing our clientele base or brand portfolio; thereby expanding beyond the frontiers of Ghana.” Lawyer Boafo smiled and extended his right hand to Greg for a handshake. Greg reciprocated. “Mr. Donkor, congratulations! How much salary are you expecting for this role?” Lawyer Boafo asked. Greg Donkor cleared his throat and giggled. “Sir, as a client service manager, I am being remunerated with a pay commensurate to that position. Therefore, I trust the board to reward me with compensation package matching the position of the managing director of a reputable agency like Event Channel. In other words, I wish to be silent on this matter and leave the rest with the board to decide than commenting on it.” Lawyer Boafo ended the interview by wishing Greg well. He further promised to contact him soonest with the outcome of the interview. Greg left the three in the room.