“I have not been acquainted with you. How can I consent to be a director in your company?” said Marudhamuthu.
“Sir! I’ve been running my business since five years. I started my firm as a private limited company. In these five years, I have earned a good name in the market and my company has grown significantly. Since the turnover of my company has crossed the threshold limit of fifty crore rupees, it is now deemed a public limited company. Only my family members are the directors in my company - no outsiders have invested in it. I am not going for any public issue. I have no bank loans. You can find about me by checking with my bank, or by inquiring in the market. I have brought the financial statements of my company for the past five years. Please have the experts in your organisation look into it. There is nothing wrong or shady about our affairs,” said Aravindan.
“All that is fine. But why should I join your company as an honorary director? How will it benefit your company or my company, for that matter?”
“Sir! It will be presumptuous on my part to suggest that you or your company will get any benefit by your becoming an honorary director in my company. It will only cause you some burden, since you might have to spare a few hours for us in a year, for attending one or two of our board meetings. It is a small burden, but still a burden. What is the benefit to us? It is simply your association. I have been observing the growth of your company for many years. You are my role model. My desire to have you as a director in my company is entirely driven by my self-interest. I am being frank with you about my intention to have you as a honorary director in my company. Now, it is for you to take a decision on accepting my request.”
“Sorry, Aravindan. Your line of business and mine are entirely unrelated. I don’t wish to take on any additional responsibility. I regret I can't accept your request” said Marudhamuthu.
But Aravindan didn’t give up. He went to meet Marudhamuthu two more times. On each occasion, he took his company’s General Manager, Selva, along with him.
Still, Marudhamuthu didn’t change his decision.
“Sorry, sir! I won’t trouble you again!” said Aravindan, the third time he met him.
“That’s fine. My best wishes to you. Now that we have got acquainted, you are welcome to meet me anytime - but not to discuss this topic!” said Marudhamuthu, with a smile.
“I can assure you, sir, that I will never bring up this subject again. I consider it my good fortune to have got acquainted with a great person like you!” said Aravindan and took leave of Marudhamuthu.
After returning to their office, Selva came to Aravindan’s cabin and said, “Sir! I want to ask you something.”
“I know what you are going to ask. But before that, let me ask you one thing - how is Sukumar, the engineer who used to work for us?”
“I don’t know, sir! Why do you ask about him? We fired him for his fraudulent activities. I don’t think he would have been able to get another job anywhere” said Selva, puzzled about Aravindan bringing this subject up.
“Well, you told me that our competitor, Sabesan Industries, had been planning to use him to illegally make use of our technology, right?”
“Yes, sir! Sukumar had told some of our employees that he was going to take revenge on us. But it seems Sabesan Industries has now dropped the idea of using Sukumar's services. When Sukumar recently went to meet their Managing Director Sabesan, Sabesan refused to see him and gave him a message that he should never come back to their place. I hear that Sukumar has been grumbling ever since, saying he doesn’t know what has happened. But why are you asking about all this?”
Aravindan chuckled in satisfaction. “Alright, now ask me what you wanted to ask me!”
Still wondering why Aravindan was jumping from one topic to another, Selva said, “Well, I don’t understand why you repeatedly kept asking Marudhamuthu to join our company as an honorary director, even after it was clear that he won't agree to our request. Moreover, even if he had joined our company as an honorary director, how would it have helped us?"
“When you told me about Sukumar's plan to join hands with Sabesan to undermine us, I was thinking how to counter his move. We couldn’t prevent Sabesan Industries from using our technology dishonestly. And if they did, we couldn’t take legal action either, since it would be difficult for us to prove it in a court of law. Then I learned that that Marudhamuthu had been Sabesan's mentor, and that he had even helped Sabesan to start his business. So I figured that if I could make it appear that Marudhamuthu was close to us, Sabesan wouldn’t dare to cross our path. That is why I met Marudhamuthu three times, to create an appearance of he being close to us. Since Sabesan always keeps an eye on us, I knew that the news of our meetings with Marudhamuthy would reach him. But he wouldn’t know what we actually talked about, nor could he directly ask Marudhamuthu about it. Just as I had expected, Sabesan thought that we had some association with Marudhamuthu and backed off, not liking the prospect of ending up on the wrong side of Marudhamuthu. Even from the beginning, I knew that Marudhamuthu would never agree to be our director, but I kept meeting him for creating an appearance of our having an association with him” said Aravindan.
“A simple yet brilliant strategy, sir! At one point, I even thought Marudhamuthu might actually agree to be an honorary director,” said Selva.
“In a way, for the past three months, Marudhamuthu had been our honorary director and helped us in a big way!” said Aravindan, laughing.
Section 2
Knowing the Right Place
thunniyAr thunich cheyin.
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