Chapter 400: Playing Catch-Up
Malcolm’s POV…
The tour began five minutes after my address and the first place I led the reporters to was the communications department, which was on the twentieth floor. This meant we needed to take a short elevator ride five floors below. As we rode the lift downward, I counted seven people in the elevator; myself, the three reporters, Jack, his assistant Rosa, and Samuel of course. Everyone else that was in the conference room with us had been left back on the twenty-fifth floor, but before the tour would be over, we would surely join up with them once more.
Like I said in previous chapters, there was a strategy to this whole collaboration with the media, which was why the Communications Department was the first stop on the tour. Balogun Incorporated was a conglomerate, which meant we not only distributed and imported our products, we also manufactured them ourselves. We had a barrage of hundreds of production factories all over the world, especially in countries that dealt greatly in import and export.
Along with those factories, we also had partnerships with several transport companies that would move our products from where our trucks would drop them off over to exactly where they needed to go, even the most unknown brands in the most rural of places so our products could reach as many people as possible, all over the globe. One of these transport companies is The Mayor, Mayorwa’s company, which was now being run by his younger sister ever since he gave up the ghost.
The point is, a lot of calls have to be made in order for our operations to be seamless and effective. Emails have to be sent out. Memos have to be delivered. People needed to be online and in the loop with everything, which means our Communications Department had to always be active, busy and working. It was one of the most overlooked departments, which was why it needed to be highlighted in the reporters’ reports.
The elevator ride was quick and painless. It’s a good thing it wasn’t just me and Zara in there, otherwise I don’t think I would have been able to bear it. The bell dinged. The doors slid open. We all stepped out and walked down the corridor while I explained what we were doing and where we were headed.
“In every relationship, whether personal or professional, communication is key. It is an essential ingredient that’s needed to keep that relationship soaring and afloat. Which is why Balogun Incorporated prides itself in maintaining a top-notch team that represents our brand so we can deal efficiently with our customers and partners all over the world. It’s why we’re still at the top despite having so many other brands competing against us.”
Just as we were about to make it to the communications wing, a question erupted from one of the reporters… And, I’m sure you can guess whose voice carried the question. “Mr Malcolm. Has there ever been a situation in which your communications team failed to report effectively with any of your partners, leading to several losses and the dissolvement of a very profitable relationship?”
I turned and looked at her. Her eyes were steady and unblinking. Her question wasn’t really a question. It was a reminder of what happened between us all those years ago. The way I had left Abuja without saying anything to her. The way I had ended our relationship without communicating my desire to do so to her.
“Not since I took over,” I said to her with a firm tone, “Communicating with my company’s partners has never been a problem. Sometimes they have other ideas of their own, but in the end, they always get with the program.”
The others heard one thing, but Zara heard something else… and she got the message loud and clear. I clicked the door open and led everyone into the Communications Department.
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Zara’s POV…
Finally! My turn to have the page. I know you readers are not interested in hearing about all this business talk, with the imports and communications and transport and blah blah blah. That’s not what you’re here for, and it’s not what I’m here for either. I mean, I can certainly kill two birds with one stone. My news network will be happy with all the information I gather once these seven days are over, that’s for sure.
However, will I be happy after these seven days are over? Will I get what I want? Will I be any closer to getting Malcolm back and restoring what we had all those years ago? Will I succeed in reminding him how much he loved and cared for me, springing those feelings alive in him once again? Well, talking about business and taking verbal jabs at each other wasn’t going to get me any closer to achieving my objective. Malcolm needed to be isolated. I knew the moment would soon come, which meant I needed to simply wait for it, and then pounce on it the moment it arrived.
Let’s speed things up, shall we! We spent quite some time in the Communications Department. There were like a hundred people working there, constantly making and receiving calls, clicking on keypads, printing messages out of fax machines and running around delivering information from one desk to another. Malcolm took us from wing to wing, explaining what each section was doing. Fox and Edition asked several relevant questions while I just stayed silent, waiting for my moment.
It felt like we were in there for an eternity, but it was only just over thirty minutes. After the tour of this particular department was done, Malcolm announced that we could all take a break, head to the restrooms to relieve ourselves, and that we would resume the tour in ten minutes. Everyone cleared out to go handle their business and that included Malcolm as well.
Unlike the rest of us, he went to a different section of bathrooms, ones specially reserved for important members of the company—and I know this because I discreetly followed him. After I saw him head into the men’s bathroom from the corner I was hiding at, I looked around to make sure no one could see me. There were also no cameras in this part of the building.
The coast was clear. And so, I made my move and went into the bathroom as well.