S1E7 The Hunt for a Marketing Midas: “Day 6 - Raghu”
Divya K
Mr. Mogambo’s life since last week had become a chaos. Despite interviewing referral and “accomplished” candidates, he still couldn’t pick one name who he could confidently put up to Mr. Gabbar Singh as a prospect for the position of Marketing Head.
Pressure was mounting at Bitter Chocolates Inc.
The individual who was coming for the interview today was an employee referral. He was a relative of Prateek who was the Head of Category and was attending the interview after being referred by Prateek. Mr. Mogambo had his hopes pinned onto him.
As usual, Mr. Mogambo reached his office, went to his room, arranged all the work files and logged into his trusted recruitment management system Expertite. He opened the resume of the candidate. Raghu, aged 36 years. His resume showed that he had a very impressive educational and work background. He had handled many critical marketing responsibilities. Mr. Mogambo’s hopes soared high.
While he was lost in reading Raghu’s resume, he got a call from the reception asking whether the candidate should be sent to his room. Already excited, Mr. Mogambo said, “Yes, Yes. Please send him in.”
Ramlal was a bit confused at Mr. Mogambo’s reaction but without any further thought showed the candidate the way to Mr. Mogambo’s room.
“May I come in?”
“Yes. please come, Mr. Raghu. Have a seat. Tell me, how are you?” smiling Mr. Mogambo asked.
“I’m okay. Thanks.” Raghu said plainly.
The smile on Mr. Mogambo’s face dimmed down a little. Yet, keeping it on, he further asked Raghu if he faced any difficulty in reaching their office, to which Raghu again replied with a plain “No.”
Mr. Mogambo, still trying to uplift the mood, kept ignoring Raghu’s monotonous responses and smilingly asked, “So, Raghu, would you like to have something to drink? Tea, Coffee, Chocolate Shake perhaps?”
“Nothing. Thanks.”
“Okay then, Raghu, please tell me about yourself.”
“I am an MBA in Marketing and Finance from [blanked out], having a total of 12 years of experience in marketing.”
And, there was an awkward silence in the room.
Mr. Mogambo was staring at Raghu in the hope that Raghu might speak a little more, but his expectation faced a blunt silence from Raghu.
A little doubt had started creeping into Mr. Mogambo’s mind about the credibility of Raghu for the position of their Head of Marketing. But he didn’t want his doubts to win and tried to hold on to his hopes a little longer. He further asked Raghu, “Okay, what do you know about our organisation?”
“It sells chocolates.”
“And?”
“Well, it is known for selling chocolates.” Raghu remained silent thereafter.
Moving forward, Mr. Mogambo put up the next question, “How did you come to know about this position?”
“My cousin told me about it.”
“My cousin…not Prateek who heads our Category and is part of the leadership team here,” reflected Mr. Mogambo.
Watching Raghu move every couple of minutes in his chair, Mr. Mogambo asked, “Are you sure, you don’t need some water or anything?”
“No, thank you. I’m okay.”
Meanwhile the phone rang. Mr. Mogambo picked it up. Prateek needed to get some documents signed by Mr. Mogambo. He called him in thinking that when Raghu will have someone he knows, he might open up a little more.
When Prateek came in, “Ahh, your cousin is here.” Mr. Mogambo said with a smile.
Prateek was also smiling. “I hope everything is going good here.”
“Have a seat, Prateek. You two brothers can chat while I go through these documents.”
While Mr. Mogambo’s eyes were running across the documents, his ears were focused on the supposed chat of the two men sitting in front.
He heard Prateek saying, “Are you comfortable?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t be nervous. Just be yourself. Everything else will fall in place.”
Raghu didn’t even nod at this statement.
“How’s uncle, by the way?”
Raghu just swayed his head a little, affirming that he’s fine.
Mr. Mogambo was thinking how Raghu could stay so quiet with his own brother too. By this time, he was done reading and signing all the documents.
“Here, Prateek. I have signed all that’s needed.” Mr. Mogambo said. Prateek left the room, and Mr. Mogambo continued with his ordeal with Raghu.
“Raghu, I can see that you are still not comfortable enough. Let’s make this conversation a little light so that you can relax. Why don’t you tell me about your family?”
“We are three of us. My father and my brother.”
“What do they do?”
“My father is a professor and my brother is an engineer.”
“Hmmm…couldn’t be more brief” wondered Mr. Mogambo.
He then asked Raghu some general marketing related questions. Raghu replied to them, in as few words as possible.
“Raghu, are you seriously interested in this position?” Mr. Mogambo finally asked, wondering whether Prateek had forced him to come for the interview.
“Yes, I am interested.”
“Thank you Raghu. I guess that’s all for today. Our HR will connect with you about any further process.”
“Okay. Thank you.” Raghu was still this plain faced mannequin.
After Raghu left, Mr. Mogambo muttered to himself “Oh God! Why are you doing this to me? Why are you punishing me by either sending someone who cannot stop talking like Anamika or someone like Raghu who needs to be nudged every now and then to utter just a few words? What do I do to increase my talent pipeline?”
Don’t miss to check on the next episode with another candidate.
About the author: Divya K
In case you missed the last 6 episodes, here they are: