Then the spirit of God showed me some words in different boxes and the boxes arranged in a circle. At the middle of the circle was the word Responsibility. The center word-Responsibility- was the dominant word amongst the different words. This word was highlighted.
So, I said God what does this mean? And God said, amongst the values or attributes you must focus on in your journey is the value of RESPONSIBILITY. So to be clear on the meaning of the word responsibility, I went to google to search for the meaning and I found it has a broad meaning. Therefore, I will restrict the meaning of the word to the story I have to tell here which is to do with my RESPONSE-ABILITY regarding a professional decision in my career experience.
RESPONSIBILITY
From my google search amongst many meanings, I found that responsibility is taking responsibility for your life. One has to be willing to take risks and accept the responsibility of failure. Further, one must garner the strength that is required to get back up if you get knocked down.
People avoid taking responsibility for their actions because of fear of failure, feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the issue, and a whole host of other reasons. But by failing to take responsibility for one’s life, people will also fail in their career, their relationships and fail at a chance to grow. Failure when viewed positively builds character and strength.
In addition to the above understanding of the word Responsibility, I looked up a few synonyms for the word and I list here some of them: Authority, control, power, leadership, management, influence, duty, blame, fault, guilt, culpability, and liability to mention a few.
Now my simple definition of responsibility is this: Response-Ability. In other words, one’s ability to respond to one’s situation.
My Situation -My Story
So how did I respond to this situation that confronted me?
I was running the business as the Managing Director of the business in an African Country. It was about the middle of December of that year. The year was coming to an end. Businesses and clients are making their last shots at their best sales at a peak period of the year. A segment of the company’s clients -the most important segment of the company at the time- usually needs special attention at this time of the year. This client segment is what I call the ‘goose that lays the golden eggs’.
This segment controlled 80% of the company’s revenues. If this segment of clients shifted their business to a competitor, the company was certainly going to become a failed business and by default quickly go into extinction. The company controlled 90% market share of the client segment. It is important to note that this segment was a homologous group and highly coordinated.
The Homologous and Coordinated Client Segment
The homogeneity and coordination of this group of clients gave them an unequal position of power to deal with all business partners in that market. This client segment practically drove the economy of the country. There was no room for diversification in our business given the special conditions that prevailed in this market. The company was saddled with a concentration risk, and I did not see any mitigants against this risk. The only feasible mitigants I saw was either to offer the best customer experience the company could offer to the client segment or succumb to the whims and caprices of the leaders of this group of clients.
When I took over the leadership of the company, I realized that this situation was indeed a tough one.It did not matter whether the company acquiesced to an unreasonable demand from this client group or that the company was willing to bend its back over to meet unrealistic demands like unrealistic pricing,it was clear that this situation was a precarious situation for the company in the long term.
TOUGH MARKET
It was obvious to me that the company was running a huge concentration risk and had no diversification options for survival in the short to medium term. The truth was that the market was special because this was the nature of the business environment. It was common to see many companies in the industry fail. I was always amazed at the many ‘iron doors’ that remained shut and when I would ask my colleagues why so many shut doors, they would tell me, such and such a company was here and such and such a company was there, but they all crashed. The market was tough.
The company was No 1 in the industry only because it controlled this special client segment of the market. Therefore, I had a huge responsibility to ensure the company kept the lid tight on this client segment. We had to keep them or risk going out of business.
THE MONTH OF DECEMBER
So, the month of December required the company to provide foreign currency cash needs to the client segment. The cash need was in the region of ten million US dollars for the month. Unfortunately, the market was short on USD cash this time. And the challenge was if the company did not provide the cash required, the client segment was going to make the fast decision to shift its business to the competition. Also, it was an opportunity for some insiders in the client segment to initiate a change in their service provider which they had long sought to implement.
SHORT ON CASH-‘SOS CALL’
At this moment when the cash was needed and the market was short on cash, I was attending a strategy meeting in a different country. And two other colleagues were attending a training session in that same country. Then I got an ‘SOS’ call from my office. The premises are full of clients who want USD cash and we have run out of cash. I thought about what my options are. Organize a cash importation into the country with the approval of the regulatory agency or do nothing until the cash availability in the market improves. So, I chose to get an approval from the regulatory agency. The regulatory agency agreed to provide an in-principle approval though verbal. Then we arranged for one of the officers to transport a huge sum of USD cash-crisp dollar bills- on a commercial flight to the office to meet the needs of the clients. The officer carried the huge sum of cash without anyone knowing other than the airport authorities in the country of departure.
APPROVALS
The company needed the approval of the airport authority backed by the regulatory approval from my country of operation to do this cash shipment. I did get clearance from my direct boss for the cash movement, but my boss said, I wish you the best of luck because you are on your own on this. Make your decision.
The cash was successfully shipped to my country of operation and as soon as the cash landed at the company’s premises, the cash ran out in four hours because of the pent-up demand. So, I needed to ship more cash. But this time it was much more cash that was to be shipped. I told my direct boss again that I needed to ship more cash but this time with an insurance cover. My boss responded by saying, this is your call J. So, when I engaged the insurance company, the cost of the insurance cover exceeded the revenues to be generated from the combined cash transactions.
THE CHALLENGES
Yet again another challenge. Do I provide the service at a cost that exceeds the revenues from the operation, or do I risk losing the client segment? Common sense told me both options were bad. So, I had to decide by my judgment which of the two options was a better option in a bad spot. By my judgment, I opted for no insurance cover for the shipment. Don’t know where you the reader would cast your vote. Ship the cash with no insurance and run a huge risk of the total loss of cash in the event the cash was stolen in transit or lose the client segment because the company could not satisfy the cash needs of the client at such a critical time as Christmas. And this meant the client segment shifts to a competitor and the company runs a huge risk of going ‘bananas’. This was a lose-lose situation.
In addition, the next hurdle to cross was how to ship the cash. The Commercial airline refused to carry such huge cash on the flight. They told us that the risk was too high for the airline to carry such a huge sum on its flight. According to the airline, they do not have the authority to take such risks. So, they declined our request to ship cash.
THE PLANE CHARTER
So, my next option was to charter a private plane to do the shipment. The cost of the charter was significant. Again, I had to make another judgment call. This time I had to weigh the risk of losing the business of the client segment because we could not satisfy their need at this point against the risk of losing such huge sums of cash in the event for example that the Russian pilot and his co-pilot decide to divert the plane with me and a female colleague to an unknown destination and disappear into thin air for life. It sounded like a movie was in the making for me.
Again, my boss said, I am afraid you have to make the decision. It is your call. I mean we were talking of millions here. This was a case of holding a stick where both ends are rough. None of the options was comfortable. If I chose not to ship the cash, the company was going to lose its business completely and fold up and join the many others that went down in history as collapsed entities. On the other hand, if I chose to ship the cash and the pilots absconded with two ladies to ‘Honolulu’ forever, I was dead meat.
MAKE A CALL
So, I made a call. I decided to ship the cash in a chartered plane, with no insurance cover, millions of crisp notes aboard with just me, my little daughter who was coming home for the Christmas holiday, and another female colleague, just to save the business. But the risk was huge with no mitigating factors for the risks I was taking. Outright risk and when I look back, I say reckless risk.
What a movie that was unfolding! If the shipment had gone wrong, hypothetically the pilots landing the plane on an Island, jumping on a boat, and gone into thin air with millions of cash US dollars, leaving my colleague, my daughter, and I, lost in the middle of nowhere. My 25 years career would have ended abruptly.
ALL IS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Fortunately, this serious risk-taking ended up well. All through the decisions, I was making, I was praying fervently to God. I would say, God, I know you got me covered. You know I am assuming full responsibility for these decisions with your full support Lord. On the flight back to the country, I prayed through the 2-hour flight on Christmas morning. I prayed all through the 45mins drive from the airport to the company’s premises.
No one in the company knew I was coming back into the country with such a huge sum of cash, except the colleague who handled the first shipment. The colleague asked me if he should get a police escort for the drive from the airport to the company’s premises and I said NO. No one must know of this operation. The operation was known only to the colleague who did the first shipment and the colleague on the flight with me. The chauffeur who drove us from the airport had no clue he was on such a mission.
PULL UP ON THE TARMAC
We had requested the airport authorities to allow our vehicle to park on the tarmac by the plane. This permission was granted. It was only at this point the chauffeur realized he was on such a mission. But, at this point, I took his mobile phone from him so he could not make any calls. I also took the mobile phone of my colleague to avert any divulge of the information that a huge sum of USD cash was in transit. I said to my colleagues, let me apologize for my intended action upfront. I need your mobile phones, not because I do not trust you but I know this is the appropriate step to take in this process from a risk management standpoint.
As soon as we secured, the cash in the appropriate storage in the company’s premises, I went down on my knees and gave thanks to God for the successful operation.
THE BIGGEST RISK THUS FAR
This was the biggest risk I have taken professionally in over 33 years of my career. A year after this experience, I recall discussing this whole risk episode with the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer and he responded, ‘for taking such a risk then, I can still fire you now!’ But he did not fire me but we saved the company’s business.
So, I go back to where I started my article. I found that responsibility means taking responsibility for your life and actions. One must be willing to take risks and accept the responsibility of failure. Further, one must garner the strength that is required to get back up if you get knocked down.
People avoid taking responsibility for their actions because of fear of failure, feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the issue, and a whole host of other reasons. But by failing to take responsibility for one’s life, people will also fail in their career, their relationships and fail at a chance to grow.
DISPLAY COURAGE
With all humility, the experience was a bold display of courage, I would say albeit extremely risky. I am not sure I would take such risks today without getting everyone’s signature on paper. I mean everyone. In the absence of everyone’s signature, I would not take this bold step again. If the decision had gone wrong, my then 25 years of hard work in my career was going to be gone with the wind with a possibility of criminal prosecution!
So, there is something in favor of young people which is, they are bold to make decisions that can knock them down, but they know they have time to come back up. As a faithful believer, I am confident that age is not a barrier for me to take bold steps because the Almighty God that I serve has the Power to bring me back up should I fail! Praise God! I learn and grow in the process.
TRUST GOD-TRUST JESUS
Thank God for his mercies. Our God is a Good God. God’s angels are forever guarding and guiding our decisions and our steps.
So, trust God in all decisions including your tough professional decisions and He will bring you out of the fire and you won’t even smell of smoke as evidence that you went through fire! Isaiah 43: 2 says ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you’. (The English Standard Version).
Keep trusting God. He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent! Hallelujah!
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