African Sourjon - Mission Mode 1

Mission Mode -1 All of us in marketing are aware that most of the jargons now used have originated from the armed forces.Starting from Strategy , Tactics , Guerrilla Marketing, outflanking, and now helicopter presentations and many I have not mentioned. But the most important is the Mission Statement which most organisations have adopted.This is most definitive action of the armed forces. I have to narrate the story of how before every exercise ( practice missions), of going into an attack, the Commanding Officer addresses his whole battalion and asks “ Hamara Iraadha Kya Hai”. ( what is our Mission) Almost instantly one of the jawans stands up and says “ Hamara Iraadha Grid Reference 123456 ko saverey saadhe chaar baje thak Kabsa karna hai.”( Our Mission is to capture Grid Reference 123456 by 4.30 am ) There is absolutely no ambiguity there. It is crystal clear.Every Jawan going into the battle is clear of his objective and has been trained for it. In a similar fashion, having been from the armed forces my objective was very clear too.. I had to establish a company, acquire land from the Government of Mozambique, Recruit the necessary staff, arrange the equipment, get the necessary labour , get the land cleared ,and ready for sowing all within five months. I had landed in July and all this had to be done by November. The main reason for this is that it was rain fed agriculture and the rains started in November.All this in a country which had a “Take it easy” policy of which was very well brought out by AR Rahman in his song - Urvasi Link given ( do watch in Tamil for original effect) So there you go. A flat was arranged by my sponsor, which was my office cum residence and from there I started my operations. The first task was to form a company. I filled up the necessary forms which were in Portuguese with the help of a local liason man given to me by the sponsor. This form along with the necessary fees was submitted to the office concerned . I was assured by the office that all the paper work would be completed including the equivalent of Articles of Association require to start a company. A week passed , on enquiry I was told that work was progressing. i was waiting patiently as i ticked off my dates on my target sheet which I had made for myself. So after a fortnite i decided to visit the office on my own ( mind you without an Interpreter) I landed up at the office . The offices were pretty modest. I asked to see the Manager in English and broken Portugese ( helped by a phrase book in my hand). I was informed that the Manager was sitting on the mezzanine floor. I went up the mezzanine floor, only to see a stocky Mozambicano lady wearing a black skirt and a jacket.She got up from her seat with a smile on her face and extended her hand and said, welcome to Mozambique ,I did not realise that at that time ,it was an ominous warning of the things come. i shook her hand , and politely refused the cafe she offered me. I then gently broached the subject of the progress of work on the documentation. She smiled and said , Señor Raj, in Mozambique things do not progress fast. You see our resources are meagre. we do not have a computer, infact the Articles of Association will have to be written by hand in Portugese. It will take a further fewdays… For a moment I was flabbergasted. I had no words.Swallowing my deep anguish I then requested her to hasten the work, as I had deadlines to catch, other wise I will miss the sowing season and a whole year would go waste. ( more on that later). having said that, I thanked her and excused myself . in my head i was furious , wondering how the Articles of Association could be hand written! and i climbed down the stairs from the mezzanine floor and walked across the floor; directly into a glass wall shattering it. The whole office was stunned.So were the people outside ,since the glass wall looked out to the pavement outside. There soon was a crowd outside. people rushed to me to check whether I had been injured in someway. Luckily i was not.Nary a cut or a bruise. I stepped onto the pavement , composed myself and rang up my sponsor. His calm voice came on the phone . I told him in a rush as to what had happened. He first asked me whether I was hurt, or anyone else was hurt, when I told him in the negative, he said , just wait there Im sending you a vehicle , I will handle the situation. I stood there with people staring at me, till my sponsor’s representative came, He told me he will handle the matter and asked me to leave. I went to the sponsor’s office where i met him and informed him of what happened in person… He smiled and told me , take it easy Raja.. things move at their own pace here…Dont worry I will take care of it. That evening just to see the situation ,I walked passed that office to see that a security guard had been posted outside and the whole office frontage was exposed. It took a few days for the frontage glass to be replaced , since the glass sheet had to come from the capital Maputo. What a beginning ! with a crash bang I thought… But soon enough I got the word that a company was formed finally.