The corporate jungle can be a dangerous place. It is filled
with fierce creatures. To survive one must know the hierarchy, value the
hierarchy, respect the hierarchy… Only a fool lets himself get it wrong.
My reporting line in Global Water Development is directly to
the CEO of GWD. My CEO in turn reports into a Senior Managing Director at
Blackstone. Thus in my corporate jungle the Blackstone Senior Managing Director
is a big Silverback Gorilla (not a reference to his looks, more a comment on
his alpha maleness!). I, on the other hand, am a little capuchin monkey.
Cheeky, cute, but with a tendency to become irritating.
Late last Friday I had an email exchange with my Senior
Managing Directors right hand man, a chap called Bilal. I think of Bilal as a
Silverback-in-Training. I have met Bilal twice. He is (like all Blackstone
people) very bright, very focussed, very competent. Despite being a very busy
man he had facilitated an introduction for me. I decided to drop him a short
email of thanks.
In my defence it was late and I had spent the day in darkest
Sweden (not the natural habitat for a capuchin monkey). I kept my email short
and sharp: ‘Brill, thanks for this, much appreciated’. The ‘Brill’ was
an abbreviation of Brilliant. I thought this was obvious.
Unfortunately a few minutes later I got a 2 word reply, which
read simply: ‘Its Bilal’.
No exclamation mark. No smiley face. No ; ) Did he honestly
think I had got his name wrong? Was his email steeped with humour, anger, or
just plain indifference? I decided to send a rather clumsy apology, explaining
my mistake. I held my breath for the reply. This time it was three words:
‘Ha! No worries’
Phew. Monkey gets to swing in the trees for another day…
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