I’m one pissed business owner seeking to fight back what I have
lost for employing the wrong guy whom I took in out of a favour for a friend.
Several years ago, my friend’s company was retrenching and
he along with a few staff was made redundant. Being a good guy he is, he called
me to ask if I can take in some of his retrenched colleagues. He himself had
no problem getting a job, but not his other colleagues. At that time I was in
need of a sales manager, so we met and discussed what can be worked out. Finally,
I decided the only guy suitable for the sales manager job was a young chap who
was doing tech support in the company. Though lacking in sales experience, but
technically competent which is a good base for technical selling. He just got a
house and getting ready for marriage in a few months, so imagined how glad he
was when I decided to take him in.
Barely 2 years into the job, due to his lack of experience
in sales & marketing, his performance was anything but satisfactory. His
contribution barely covered his salary and expenses, which I have factored in
for up to a max. 2 years. Just as I was about to review his performance, he
tendered resignation claiming he had better offer from an MNC. I wished him
luck and off he went.
Since he left, he had been in touch with me and gradually we
became friends. It seemed like he is doing well in the company, and was
promoted to a regional sales manager. So one day he called me up saying he has
the intention to venture out on his own. Again I wished him luck, and a few
weeks later he gave me his new name card of his own company. But interestingly,
he is still holding on to his job. A year later, I’m into a negotiation with a
European company for a distribution right here in Singapore
and Malaysia.
Since he is now working on his own biz, I thought maybe he will be interested
to help me with this new product I’m going to represent. So we met and talked.
Strange enough, as I was wondering what happened to a few of
my customers who had stopped buying from me, my new principal was giving me
quite a bit of trouble and threaten to cut me off if I did not meet their
target. They kept revising up their prices and stopped believing my report I
sent them monthly. Finally, we cut ties in end 2005.
Last December, I received a call from a business friend who is in
the same industry. I found out someone actually took up the distribution right
of my previous representation. I’m curious to know who is it and I called him
to see if he knew about the new distributor. He said he knew nothing and told
me to move on. He is still holding on to his job and worked his business at the same
time. According to a friend who knew him well, he actually enjoys the situation he
is in, getting good pay and running his business at near zero cost. I had my
suspicion all along, that’s why I called him to see if I can detect anything to
confirm what I suspected. Finally, a close business friend called to inform me about
the new guy who was leading the business is actually a buddy of his. And I was told, the
buddy was recommended by him, it’s all going according to his plan. Now it started to make
lots of sense to me - the poor work performance, loss of customers and distribution right!
I really feel like walking up to his managing director and tell him the whole story and warn him. But that's not something I'll do.
What would you do if you were me?