S’bu’s capability

S’bu hardly slept and was the first one at the office. He was going through his presentation one last time before his meeting with the board members.

Thandi, Mandy and Menzi called to wish him luck and a lot of his friends sent messages wishing him luck. The time for truth had finally come. S’bu walked into the boardroom followed by Charlie. The members were already seated anticipating his arrival. S’bu greeted and took a seat that use to be reserved for his father and Charlie sat next to him. He looked through the room and saw his father sitting next to the door smiling at him, familiar faces of man and women who had been in the board for some time now. Some probably knew more about JJL than him. He took a deep breath and started his presentation.

“Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to our first board meeting. I apologise for not meeting you earlier but I needed to do my research first. I want to thank all of you for standing by my father’s side throughout the years. I wish and hope that I could also receive the same support as I take over the position of being the CEO of this company. In front of each of you is the draft proposal for the future of JJL. JJL has exactly one thousand five hundred employees, it’s the fifth in the province and has supported a multiple charity organisation and awarded scholarships for a number of deserving students. The charity organisations, sponsored students and JJL profit are all listed on tables 1,2 and 3 respectively. As you can see, the JJL model is perfect and there’s nothing to change on it. I do however propose merging JJL with another wing that’s mostly youth based, the SJC. As you all know, the youth is the future of this country, with it comes unlimited possibilities and profit. At the moment SJC has been focusing but not limited on upcoming sportsman and women and promoting sports in underprivileged communities. In the next coming months we will be adding a research division to the company. I will stop here for now and give a chance to those who seek clarification and answer your questions.”

Hands went up immediately and question after question came. Members were not happy and objecting merging JJL with S’bu’s company SJC that had no reputation. They feared that the merger will cost them a lot of money, JJL was making a lot of money for them and they were not willing to loose it by funding his company. Ironically, Mr J was the only one with no objections.

Charlie was sweating listening to all the comments, he could not help but worry for S’bu. The board members did not look pleased with him at all.

S’bu on the other was so calm, he had done his homework on all the members and anticipated their response. When they were all done making their comments, he handed them a file on SJC. “My PA and I will go for tea now, please look through the file. The meeting will resume again in half an hour” he said standing up and leaving the boardroom followed by Charlie.

In his office, G was waiting with his breakfast as usual. He ate feeling very confident, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

“Why are you so calm?” Charlie who has been watching him since they came out of the meeting finally asked. He was so worried for him that he couldn’t even eat his breakfast but S’bu who should be worse than him was the exact opposite.

“Today I’m going to change the mentality they have about young people” S’bu said with confidence.

“I hope so because if you get fired today, we will both be jobless” Charlie said.

“If I get fired, you will have a new boss, you won’t be jobless” S’bu reassured him.

“If you get fired, I quit and leaving with you” Charlie insisted. S’bu found him at a very low and desperate time in his life. He got him the job of being Mr J’s PA, insisted that he studied further and even payed for his university fees.

S’bu was touched by Charlie’s loyalty. “I will not forget your loyalty” he told him.

“I owe you more than that”Charlie replied.

“30 minutes is up, let’s go find out if we still have a job” S’bu said indifferent.

S’bu walked in the boardroom again followed by Charlie.

“I believe you have all studied the file on SJC, does anyone have any objections to the merger nowadays ?” S’bu asked.

Everyone shook their heads. How could they turn down a company that made millions of rands of profit with just one basketball player? They thought S’bu was new in business only to find out that he was already a multimillionaire from a company he started from scratch too. Some could not even look at him in the eye after the comments they made earlier.

“A lot of young people that seem naive and inexperienced are going to walk through these doors. Unlike what you did to me today, I hope you will reserve your judgments and comments until you clearly understand their vision and concepts” S’bu told them. “JJL and SJC will now be Jobe and Company. The managers for JJL will remain the same, SJC will be headed by Charlie here who recently completed his degree in business management and Tsepo who has a lot of experience in sports. Not only will we be opening our doors for the talented youth, we will also nurture that talent, help them to be future business leaders, promote research and uplift our communities” he said concluding his speech.

A round of applause followed but the loudest came from Charlie and Mr J.

Mr J now knew that his company will be in good hands and his legacy would live through his son. He could now rest and start traveling with his wife. The rest of the board members learned that their new CEO was more than capable and not a push over as they originally thought.