Training, Vegas Style

The response to not posting has been incredible. I am sorry I missed the last few days but I have been trying to figure out in my mind who was sleeping with who. Vegas was wild in 2006 and with Don and The Co Founder trying to continually do a head count it was difficult to figure out who was coming and going.

This was the first year that the power that wanted to be, general electrified, decided to go to Vegas early and hold a training seminar for a few days. It was an orientation of sorts of new salespeople from around the country. And, as was the apparent initiation process for the sales team, especially the women, a few more hours than had originally had been scheduled had to be spent with middle aged, slobbering drunks in order to get trained.

The company had already been threatened with numerous sexual harassment suits and the in-office training segments usually so a rapid drop out rate after the first "get acquainted" dinner. Vegas certainly didn't change that.

While The Co-founder and I watched as ill advised people, disguised as union employees, attempted to construct the Fire M booth, the training session was going on back at the Riviera. Naturally, general electrified had to address the people that were just joining giving the same canned speech he was brought up on…

"We will be spending a lot of money on product dewelopment this year and we are wery,wery, excited to have you join the team," said the general.

Of course, as he was looking out into the new crowd of recruits he was automatically thinking how stupid this new group of Americans could be. The women, mere targets in his world of hunt and peck, were all eventually going to become "idiots" and he usually decimated the whole group at that evening's executive dinner.

At this particular gathering, he had already commanded one woman back to New Jersey because she had stood up to his foolishness long before the party began. At one moment The Co Founder was running around telling everyone he was going to write a press release telling the industry what a coup it was to steal her from a New England dealer group, while the Sales Manager was demanding she accompany him to a strip club, while the general electrified was preparing to fire her because she was someone he had to look up to. This didn't fly in the Indian hierarchy. Looking up to women, no matter how tall is a slight on one's ego.

Yet in his penny pinching ways, he decided to rent the Frank Sinatra suite to hold an introductory party for all the dealers. His vision was to introduce the training program. This was very important to the company because amongst the crumbs of product that India had managed to under develop this training product would save the company. This of course was just an excuse for general electric to show off to the ever evasive Chairman of the Board, soothing his concern for continual losses. If the general could get The Co founder's father in law to chase windmills with a clear mind of new product launches, the heat would be less to endure.

And, since no dealers ever showed up, opting for gatherings of a more sophisticated, less raucous environ, the general never had to worry about any client speaking of product and delivery inefficiencies.



Tomorrow: If these beds could talk....they can.