Love's a B... - Page 4

"No kidding... this is a bloody call center, we tell people how stupid they are, they curse us, we bill them... they call us, we tell them not to do stupid things with their money or factory, they curse us, we bill them... Then we call them to say they are bankrupt or screwed "U just captured the mission statement of the Stern Consulting Samir laughed uncontrollably "I mean seriously... biz school made it sound like we run analytics, goal seek and scenarios and debate and collaborate Samidha mumbled clearing out the wrong password she had keyed in


Hah!! The commandments of consulting 👏 ... ETCH THESE IN STONE

Perhaps samir is missing the trick here... the mission statement has an unwritten here ::: Always Always make the BOSS LOOK GOOD 😉

Pest control and the time in the dungeon/ rat hole is its stench from the rat droppings. At times it's mold by the time your turn to clean up comes . True either way you are screwed

"I gave you EUR-AMR Trading because of your much touted paper on NAFTA u wrote while in college

Samidha turned red self consciously

Samir does not have the patience,the guy is looking to see where he is bleeding revenue. He is doing a bunch of things, he is small... but knows his stuff, u don't have a choice... go meet him in NOIDA, get to know his people talk to his clients... figure it out. Lets do it the old fashioned way. If u have offers from Big 5 consulting then turn in your notice. If not... Lets talk about billing the clients and getting on with our lives



Samir does not have the patience, ...

Rohan Shreshta is truly shresht!! The BOSS BREED!!!And on your lucky day you do get compliments from the BOSS... Even if it is left handed ones at that!!! Holy Molly!!! If Rohan is indeed referring to samir's Patience here or the lack of it.

And if it's s typo Nisha and you actually meant Avyaan here in place of Samir here for his impatience ... then this is a even worse dungeon than aunty's rat hole... too many skeletons in here... Either way pick count the bones or become one!!! 😆 Damnation!!!!

Puts and Takes... Hits home... the convo totally is the air we breathe ... Hah!!
Good one!!! Can't help thinking it's expenditure down the rat hole .. do these guys actually get paid in full for the billing hrs!!!

Ppt's On PPt... And most times unless you are top five, most likely your hourly rate is also a negotiable !!! This is the truest stinker!!! 😆 😆

Confused and confounded

Just to get Rohan off her back she pored over every communication between Samir and this Euramr Agency

It took her a while to figure out that the guy was a impex liaison for companies and products to and from Americas and Europe. A lot of food additives, sodium benzoate, carrageenan, guar gum and xantham gum and high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and many many others

He seemed to have many large and medium sized packaged food manufacturers from Parle G to Brittania to Proctor & Gamble but he was not making any money

Her head was hurting like crazy, she missed aunty's chai, they all went down for an early lunch and she had 3 cups of chai, she knew it would cause her major acidity, but she could not help herself. She returned to the airconditioned confines of her office and popped two pain killers and worked like a donkey until 8

She had a fair idea about what Euramr Agency did by then

She drove home groggily and threw up a couple of times as the acidity kicked in, lay in bed and sent the owner of the agency some emails asking for some old financial reports. Based on reading up the last 6 hours she concluded that he was taking on too many smaller import deals and signing up to do too many things and offering real steep discounts to large conglomerates like Parle G

She got a response almost immediately

"Havent we been through this many times in the last year?

"I am sorry if that is the case but I am unable to tell why or how you went from turning a profit and having good cash flow to almost negative in everything

"You should do some good old fashioned reading. Commodity prices have been on the decline

She sat up irritated

"I read that in the article links you had sent, but the products you are dealing with had mixtures that actually saw a price increase in the last 14 months

"You know what I have spent a year trying to explain everything over and over again. It's a simple ask Sam "I am working harder than ever before but I am unable to bring anything to my bank he lied glibly

He was doing a shitty job and he didn't feel like taking any ownership. He was hoping there was something in his numbers that would work itself out and he could see an uptick

"I understand Mr Singh, but based on what you've shared with us we don't have much to base our analysis off of...

She was signing all her emails as Sam

"OK Sam... I am going to say this one last time... I gave you almost all my financials. I can check with my accountant AM and get u data for the years I was actually making a profit not sure how that will help your cause or mine

"Umm.. I understand Mr Singh. But I generally wanted to study your product and customer trend to notice swings

"I didn't start selling aspartame until a year ago... I know that he responded cynically

"I know you sell 500 hundred additives so yes its going to be a a lot of digging to see which products u sold and didn't

No I sell 738 products between food additives and other substances to other manufaturers

"How about I summarize all my findings until now and send it over

"umm.. sure... but not sure how I can help myself here

"Let us meet tomorrow?

"OK...

The last email from him was an OK

She looked him up online... He didn't look very tall but was broad shouldered and had a strong jaw and distinct sideburns

His linked in was open, he had gone to multiple countries to acquire unrelated degrees and was now working in a 3^rd field altogether

"Confused expat she concluded

Falling asleep still numb from pain and dreamed about Bik and her hiking a mountain near Tehri Garhwal

A local woman with a large brass nose ring offered her a hand as she tripped...

"Bik she called out loudly... many times

He wasn't even paying attention he was too far ahead...

"

"I didn't start selling aspartame until a year ago... I know that he responded cynically

"I know you sell 500 hundred additives so yes its going to be a a lot of digging to see which products u sold and didn't

No I sell 738 products between food additives and other substances to other manufaturers

Offense is the best form of defense. Pretty interesting strategy. Well we'll wait to see how this works with Sam' 😳

Where are they meeting Nisha???

Falling asleep still numb from pain and dreamed about Bik and her hiking a mountain near Tehri Garhwal
A local woman with a large brass nose ring offered her a hand as she tripped...

"Bik she called out loudly... many times

He wasn't even paying attention he was too far ahead...


Symbolism of it... the imagery is her strong sense to her real world reality isn't it???? A draining day and a draining night's dream...

Sam I am

She reviewed all the email exchanges from the previous night just to make sure he hadn't said anything ridiculous while in pain. Phew! Nothing embarrassing was said, she called her parents and her lil brother Shiv and then headed out to work

Spend the day emailing Euramr explaining how the agency changed freight forwarders and how hidden tariffs and lower exchange rate particularly hit him hard for some products from some countries

She noticed the agency had forgotten to bill the fast food manufacturers in Ahmedabad for invoices totaling Rs.1.71 lakhs

She explained it all based on the data shared with her

"your company seems to have left money on the table. You imported 540 lbs of annatto extract, beta-carotene, grape skin extract, cochineal extract or carmine, paprika oleoresin, caramel color for Patel Foods in Gandhi Nagar and I see the Sales Order but no invoicing or billing.

"Where did u discover that?

He exceled at sending one sentence emails she discovered

Like he was using email as text

She wanted to pick up the phone and talk but refrained

"I am looking at ur Accounts Receivables and Payables reports she responded

"My accounting department is on top of their game. I am hoping you can validate your claim

"I have no personal motive to malign your employees Mr Singh I am quoting what I see

"Please send me PO numbers dates and amounts so I can look up SAP

"I don't see dates... only half cut off numbers and amounts

"We loaded everything on to cloud as Rohan wanted me to

"Which is great, but I bet your office has the originals

"I went from making Rs. 83.3 lakhs in 2016 to Rs. 4 lakhs in 2017 and am going to land at -22 lakhs for 2018 he was bitter

"Like I said last nite, if I can have all your financials please

They spent the whole week exchanging emails no one picked up the phone

Rohan wanted a 1:1 on Friday

"So? Did u make any progress?

"Umm.. no, just asking for more data and more documents

"Did u ever go to NOIDA?

"Umm.. no

"Why?

"Actually... the beginning of the week I was really sick with another bout of acidity... then Ive just been drowning in the other 5 cases I took over

"Sam I really don't want to have someone else take over... Can u please make visits?

"Umm.. yeah sure

"This is the basics of consulting correct? Rohan was mocking her

"True she nodded

By now communication had somewhat broken down between Avyaan and Samidha. She had indicated as usual over email that many of the orders were only paid partially. Orders or import for which was enabled by Euramr did not contain proper signatures or proof of customs clearance attachments and so the Indian buyers hadn't even paid them fully.

She totaled another 5ish lakhs

He refused to accept that math and they had hassled over email all of Thursday and left at an impasse.

"I just need to make sure we did our money's worth on our mid size accounts Rohan brought her back to earth

"Umm... more than money's worth on Euramr Rohan she mumbled

"What do u mean?

"I have spent over 100 hours already

"How could you have? It will be a week soon...

She colored self consciously

"I meant I am spending time on this instead of the 15 other accounts

"That's the nature of the beast he said coldly

"Umm.. OK did u need any other update?

"Yes please... I want u to go meet the guy? Girl? Whoever... he or she has lost over 100 lakhs... 1 crore? Rohan was being sarcastic "U know 80 lakhs and 22 lakhs?

"Well he didn't LOSE 80, he made 80 and bled the last 2 years

"Fiine... he lost 25 right?

She nodded distastefully

"Any case where the operating margin or gross margin erosion is over Rs. 25 lakhs we need to summarize on our HQ call monthly... AS YOU KNOW he smiled dour

She nodded

Went out and planned to go later in the afternoon

"Will you be around? "I was hoping to meet your crew "Look forward to it she wrote

"Depends on when u get here since your ambitious plan involves driving to NOIDA on a Friday afternoon

"Oh? I can try and move it to Monday

"No lets meet he said

She arrived at 5:40 20 minutes before close of business

It was a nice set up, with a reception and nice furniture and dcor

The guy at the front desk asked her to wait unhappily. Who wants to be at the office on a Friday afternoon look

"U and me both pal she muttered and sat down

Facing a set of original oil paintings on a wall

"Sam? she heard a deep voice

She turned to look

He stood there much taller than his pictures hinted... and gaunt-er for sure

With greying temples, he withdrew the hand he had extended tucking it into his jean pocket

"Sam? he looked at his receptionist

"Sir its her

"SAM?

"I am Sam she said

His gaze went from shock to confusion to a brief second of ogle and back to a cold inquisition

"Sam?

"Yeah... Samidha Saran she nodded 5' 5 inches tall short shoulder bone level silky layered tresses, wearing her "Friday best olive green satin like palazzos and a mustard knit blouse that was sleeveless

"I spoke to u on the phone... SAMIR? he was still not convinced

"Oh Samir Acharya? He works with me on the Deal desk she was amused

"WOWW he said with self righteous anger suppressing a strange thrill he felt when she smiled

Hey Kalpana

NO nisha.I am also in.just that i cant comment much and i m not online most of the time as I was used to😔 😆

Originally posted by: Nisha0604

Hey Kalpana

Looks like I am writing this tale just for you

So ENJOY

😆

I dont mind at all

I feel really good about this one

I'm totally loving this Nisha. You know the last chapter when I was reading it... it feels like there is a cracking energy to this story... like as if it's not aware of its potential yet ..

I'm really really glad that you are feeling good about this one. It's strong punch. Hero is at his caustic best believing that grief must spare none. Ha Ha I absolutely love that about him and the lady trying to be at her professional best with him. All the shop talk is mighty engaging.

It's sooo good Nisha.

Have a good day. Keep writing .