Dorsai - Kelly's adventures

She got a happy smile on her face and kissed me again before leaving to make the call. Since she was in the room next to mine, and the door between was open, I could listen as she was quickly put in touch with Bishop Ferguson, and made arrangements for us to meet with him the following Tuesday. From there, she went into let Sarah know that we'd be out of the office for a while that day, and for approximately how long.

She came in to see if there was anything else she could do, and I told her it would help if she could get started on getting the report ready to print. She agreed, and asked if tomorrow afternoon would be okay for the meeting with my client. I told her that would be perfect, and she asked Sarah to get it set up.

Kelly knew what was needed, and by the time I was finished with what I was working on, she had things set up and ready to roll. All that was left was for us to clean up any errors from a spelling and grammar check, and we were ready to print. I told Kelly that we'd finish things up the next morning.

As I'd said, the next morning was mostly used for us to go over the work we'd done – we spell-checked it (unsurprisingly, it kept throwing up on Filipino words), then ran it through the grammar checker – which pretty much did the same. We carefully (!!) went through the mistakes it thought it found, and corrected the very few genuine errors. That done, we printed out a copy so that Kelly and I could each proofread it one last time. Satisfied with the results, we printed the final copies and got them bound. We loaded them into my car, and went to lunch; our appointment with my client was for 1:30.

Once at my client's office, we handed over the copies of the report, reminding them that it was a preliminary copy – but adding that we didn't think the final version would have any significant changes.

That dealt with, we all went into one of their conference rooms so that I could go over the report with them; Kelly was there to keep notes for us (her and I), and help me keep track of where I was in the report.

It took nearly two hours to get through it – my client had a lot of questions about what I'd found, and why I'd made the decisions and recommendations I had. I explained it all to them, and they were more than satisfied with how I'd come up with the things I had. When it was all over, they thanked me for my work, and said that they'd had a couple of other things occur to them while I was gone.

I asked what those things were, and they told me. First, they'd realized that they weren't quite sure how to go about deciding on whom to send, if they built the factory: the first people they'd considered were older, and married; they weren't sure that those people would appreciate being sent halfway around the world to a culture they'd never been exposed to before. They'd gone on to consider a few of the younger candidates, but they'd then realized that they didn't know if the younger staff would be able to handle the culture shock of it. Second, it had occurred to them that with such a remote site, they might have trouble keeping up with inventory, quality, and so on. Finally, they were having trouble deciding if they wanted a local person – a Filipino – or an American to be the primary person to handle the job of dealing with local officials and the public.

I told them that I'd be happy to provide any help I could, and they asked me – straight out – what they should do.

"On the first problem, I expect that you're right – your older managers, or anyone with a family, would probably have problems with moving there.

I can't emphasize enough how different the country, culture, and people are from here", I told them.

Kelly discretely indicated that she'd like to add something to what I'd said, and I let her. She told them "This trip my first time anyplace outside of the United States, and I can assure you, Dan is correct. Even with his help, I went through a considerable culture shock – and I was looking forward to this! If you send someone that doesn't particularly WANT to go, I think you'll be setting yourselves up for a lot of trouble and expense."

To what she said, I added "By that, I think Kelly means that someone that isn't particularly interested in being there is likely to ignore the culture they're in, causing resentment not just against the factory, but your company, and even the United States. Of more direct impact, they will probably get tired of being there before long, and want to come back here – not a cheap proposition. Of course, that would also apply to any younger managers that you might be inclined to send. While it might be more expensive initially, I have a suggestion that would save you a lot of time and money in the long term. That suggestion would be to first select only those employees that expressed an interest in taking the job; second, I would recommend that you send the best candidates there for a short stay to see who was able to adapt to the new environment. Better to spend a little money up front, than a lot of money later on."

They said they could understand that, and agreed that it was probably the best thing to do.

"As for the second problem, keeping up with what's going on in the plant, that's a relatively simple task. You've got computers. The plant will have computers. All you really need to do is establish a link between the two sets of computers, and you're set. At this point, it could even be added to the plant's design with no trouble."

I continued by telling them "As for a liaison, I had a similar thought after I got over there, and planned to bring it up when I got back. From my knowledge of the country and culture, I think that you would be better off with a Filipino doing the PR-type work. But I can easily understand that you would have concerns about the effectiveness of such a person. So I'll add that an ideal candidate for such a job would also have some knowledge of, and even experience in, the United States – enough to have an understanding of OUR culture, and thus be able to act as a mediator for the inevitable conflicts between our culture, and theirs."

Their manager told me "I should have expected that you would have thought of that, Dan!" with a smile. He went on to say "Do you have thoughts on how we could best go about finding such a person?"

"Actually, as it happens, I did meet a few people that would be good candidates. Most of them would require a little training here, to both get a refresher in our culture; and to learn your particular needs, such as how and why you manufacture things the way you do. Because of their culture, there would even be certain social benefits if such a person was female."

At that last part, I heard Kelly give a small gasp – one that nobody else seemed to have noticed.

As they thought that one over, I looked down to where Kelly was trying not to stare at me.

A few minutes later, the manager told me "It's pretty obvious that you've put a lot of time and thought and effort into this, Dan, and we appreciate it. As it stands right now, I expect there's a better than ninety-nine percent probability that we're going to go ahead with this project. If we do, we're going to want you on board, to handle the liaison details and help us find the people we'll need – not just there, but here, too. And of course, you'll be doing all of our I and C work, too. I'm extremely happy with the results you've given us; you'll receive full payment the day we get your invoice – and there won't be any fussing from our accountants about your expenses, either."

I thanked him, then Kelly and I excused ourselves – it was clear to me that they were ready to make a decision and go.

Outside, and out of sight of their receptionist, Kelly suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into a fierce hug before kissing me to within an inch of my life. When she turned loose of me, I could see that she was starting to cry before she told me "You! You had that planned the whole time, didn't you!?"