Heart's Dilemma

Corporate Spark

Chapter 2

The weather was rainy on Tuesday morning when Anna arrived at the boardroom of Tosineur Enterprise. The Chief Executive Officer and the Secretary were already seated. Miss Anna was also seated after having a handshake in turn with the CEO and the Secretary.

Mr Peters, the CEO, was a tall man with a low cut hairstyle. He was a billionaire who owned Tosineur Enterprise. He was clad in an exotic blue suit with a red tie. He wore a military face. He has a commanding voice which can make an employee stammer.

“Welcome Miss Anna Francis. I have gone through your resume and found out that you are presumed to be competent for the job. Well, I have a business puzzle which of course you have ten minutes to solve. It has been my culture to pose such a business puzzle to job-seekers in this company,” the CEO said.

A paper was slid to her to go through and analyse the business/marketing strategy to adopt to raise the bar of the financial strength of the company. Ana picked a pen and began to analyse and in the process, she was also explaining the analysis to the two persons.

The CEO and the Secretary were surprised to see Anna being able to analyse the business strategy before the ten minutes ran out. She was stopped. The CEO looked her in the eyes for several seconds. “Miss Anna Francis, you are welcome to Tosineur Enterprise! You are impressive! Congratulations! You can resume work on Monday next week,” Mr Peters announced. In addition, the CEO informed her not to disappoint the company.

Anna knew that she was already in her dream job but little did she know that she was also navigating through power and a passion for something inborn of her.

Anna Francis got home joyfully with her face radiating a wide smile. It was a fulfilled day for her as she finally got her dream job.

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Anna Francis always got to work very punctually. She would always be the first employee to arrive at the company. This practice had been in consistency for more than six months. Mr Peters, the CEO, had been noticing her.

One day, the CEO called her name. “Miss Anna! You are always punctual to work. That is very good of you laying good example for other employees,” he commended her.

“Miss Anna Francis! Henceforth, you are to directly report to me,” Mr Peters said.

She did not believe her eyes when she heard that she was to be reporting directly to the CEO. The implication of this was that she had been promoted just within a short period of getting employed to the company. Little did she know that she was already on a path to navigate through power.

Every employee knew that the CEO was always professional in his dealings with his employees. He was always military in his dealings. No room for nonsense of any kind and when he meant something, he meant to the core.

However, her promotion had raised a serious debate among the employees with Miss Grace, the Chief Operating Officer taking the central stage.

Miss G. Grace was Peters’ cunning ex. She was a beautiful lady who allowed her position as the Chief Operating Officer to sometimes overlook the ethics that her office demanded.

In fact, on several occasions she had colluded with Lara to frustrate her. Lara was the Personal Assistant to Anna Francis. She was a married woman who had been in the company for more than a decade. She was just too bitter against Anna because of the sudden rise of her promotion

“When did she arrive in the company to have warranted her to get the sudden promotion? This girl must be using some love potion for the CEO. She is a witch. I will show her hell,” Lara ranted. In fact, as a way of frustrating Anna, she had one time secretly tampered with her slides some minutes into her presentation on Marketing Strategy.

Anna was rudely shocked to know that such an act could be perpetrated against her by her colleagues. She only suspected Lara and Grace playing the game around her. Since there was no concrete evidence to accuse them of the wrongdoing, she played maturity by remaining calm.

Grace on the other hand, had one time confronted Anna and said it to her face that she wanted to snatch her man away from her. It was a surprise to Anna because she had never at any time thought in the direction she was driving. She was just laughing at the way she was accusing her about baseless and fabricated facts of hers.

Mr Peters, the CEO of the company was however aware of the altercation between Anna and Grace. He had decided not to intervene. He wanted to know how Anna would navigate through to deal with the situation.

Despite all this, Anna remained undaunted. She had always dealt with her work professionally. She had never been rude to any employee.

Most times, when Grace would stand up at the boardroom meeting to ask questions aimed at ridiculing Anna, she would diplomatically respond to her question.

“The suggestion raised by Miss Anna in her presentation about the merger cannot work. This is because it is theoretical. We deal with practical matters here,” Grace argued.

“Thank you Miss Grace. In fact, your argument has merit. Personally as a financial analyst, I have gone through the financial flow of the other company. I believe they cannot disappoint our company,” Anna Francis submitted.

This submission by Anna infuriated Miss Grace even more and more. It did not go down well with her. This was because in the first place, she was only expecting a heated counterattack from her which would be enough for her to spark at her and in the process turn apart the boardroom meeting. Disappointingly, such did not take place. Anna Francis just diplomatically restrained herself from any argument that could tear the boardroom apart.