And then came the rain

It was on a sunny Sunday morning when Eckart Wintzen and Hans van der Horst came to Brazil. Sitting by the poolside of the Sheraton Hotel we talked about the big launch of Origin Brazil, the beautiful weather, the excellent preparation work by our public relation agency, the decor of the reception and last, but not least, about the beauty Brazil has to offer. Sunshine, tropical drinks and so on.

I, Karl, was relaxed end happy, everything was under control end tomorrow, on Monday night, we would have the big party for more then 200 Origin people. On Tuesday morning the press would come end in the late afternoon more than 250 prospects end customers were expected.

400 invites

We had phoned about 400 people all over Brazil, to tell them about Origin's big launch party. Our guest, Eckart, would be there with a very special talk about aspects of automation.

About 250 confirmed. What a response! Nothing could go wrong, everything was under control.

After leaving my guests end recommending one of the best restaurants in Sao Paulo, for a relaxing dinner, I went straight to the studio were the agency had prepared a last check of our multimedia show. By the way, the restaurant I recommended turned out to be lousy. Was that the first sign of trouble?

I drove down to the agency where the cell directors end their wives were waiting for the presentation. It would only take minutes and everything would be ready. This theory works in practice. The number of empty bottles was impressive by the time the show.

Waiting and Chivas Regal had a negative impact on my performance end after some tries, we decided to repeat it next day after lunch, in the reception at Sheraton.

No dia projectors

The next day, Monday. The big day of the party for the Origin people started with sunshine end happiness. After lunch we had an interview with one of the reading business magazines of Brazil. Eckart was excited, especially when I told him that his interview would be on the second page of the magazine end that he had competed with the Governor of Sao Paulo to get the space.

The interview took more than I had planned.

I went down in a hurry to the reception room. The people of the multi-media hadn't arrived. What a mess. My organizer explained that they were on the way. Two hours for a distance normally taking 20 minutes! Time is, indeed, relative.

Telephone calls, nothing helped, they didn't show up.

It was already five in the afternoon end the Origin people would arrive at six. No way could the installation of 12 projectors, video, sound system end so on be completed before they arrived. What a disaster! I found out that due to some communication problems, we didn't have simultaneous translation for Eckart's speech. I will not repeat what Eckart said, but it was quite helpful in the sense that I decided to take my first drink.

At six, together with the exceptionally punctual Origin staff, 12 dia projectors with the installation team arrived.

For Hans, Eckart end me everything looked very confusing. Right in the middle of the 200 people, the dozens of waiters end some other support people, the technicians began to install the projectors end the sound system.

I did what I should have done before. Talked to my people end relaxed.

Brazilians are different! Nobody was worried about the obvious confusion. They enjoyed the drinks, talk to the girls end joked. Everybody was congratulating me for the beautiful decor.

That's Brazil!

Then came the rain

Then, to my surprise, after two hours, the installation was ready, end the show could start.

First the multimedia show, then my speech end then Eckart's presentation. After this Hans made his speech end handed over the gift of the Holding.

People relaxed. Eckart end Hans were more or less happy, it could have been better, but they said that's Brazil end let's see what tomorrow brings.

After some preparations for the next day, I went to bed end had a good sleep until 5 o'clock in the morning. Then I was woken. It was the thunder. And then came the rein!

It rained cats end dogs for hours end hours on hours.

At seven I got up to get to the Sheraton by 10. For a drive that normally takes 20 minutes I planned two hours. My planning was perfect, I arrived at 9.30 in the Sharaton. Sao Paulo was under water.

I met Eckart end Hans in the reception end explained that there were minor problems with the water in Sao Paulo. We could be alone during the press conference, end even worse, in the evening without any prospects end customers. You can imagine how happy they became!

To my surprise, at 11, on time, the first journalist arrived. And more end more came in. They all came in spite of the floods end traffic jams.

We started the presentation. It worked great.

The questions the journalist asked were to the point, no polemics.

Horror reports

After lunch we had some hours of relaxation planned. Horror reports came in. Parts of the city under water, main streets flooded, traffic jams, end the most disturbing of au, no access to the airport because a river flooded. Oh!, I forgot to tell you, that the same night Hans end Eckart had to leave. To catch the 10 o'clock flight to good old, cola Europe. Before that there was the speech to our prospects.

First reaction, to get a helicopter to the airport. Telephone calls to companies, all helicopters full, because of the traffic, but then we found one. Great! The only disappointing thing was that the Sheraton's heliport was not approved for landing. We found another in the neighborhood , but the air control stopped helicopter flight schedules after six o'clock.

About five o'clock I discussed the issue with Eckart end Hans. They were used to rein. Whenever he came here it rained. But never such a disaster!

My secretary called taxi companies end they said that there was access to the airport.

Anyhow, we would probably be on our own tonight. Who in the world would face the traffic jams to come to a company inauguration?

On time the commercial end technical managers arrived, all had spent more than two hours in the traffic.

The reception girls came, extremely nice looking, very well selected end very helpful indeed.

Beautiful decorations

How did we decorate the typical American Sheraton room, with its flowery carpet, its golden hand rails end mirrors on the walls?

Completely different to what people expect when they are invited for a high tech party for a high tech company in an American hotel.

We put a black carpet on top of the ugly one, put white sheets on the walls end put, in strategy places, modern Brazilian paintings of the best known, most famous painters. (We got them from an exposition hall). We put spots on the paintings. It looked like an art exhibition end not a normal reception.

Now the moment of truth.

At 06:30 the first customer should arrive.

At six, suddenly and unexpectedly a group of prospects came in. That never happened in Brazil before, nobody comes earlier, always later, than expected.

And then they all started arriving, one after the other telling us sad stories of being 2 or 3 hours in their cars, about factories under water end so on. We delayed the start of the presentations, because people still kept coming.

The snacks end drinks were very well received by everybody, except by Origin staff, who had to stay sober until the end of the cocktails.

We followed the firm advice of our coach, Eckart, end always put one of our commercial or technical managers next to a prospect. Origin people were not allowed to talk to Origin people, end it worked.

After a while, we had about 120 of the 250 expected guests in the room, representing more than the 60 largest companies in Brazil. The show started. Big success! Eckart's speech was outstanding, people loved ft, the right message, no commercial bla. bla. bla...

90 minutes to arrive

The airport is about 30 minutes drive, we allowed Hans end Eckart 90 minutes!

After everyone has left, the night went on end I was waiting for the return of Mario, the guy who took Eckart end Hans to the airport.

At 1 o'clock in the morning I got concerned, at 2, I got worried, at 3, I got drunk end at 4, I went home. No message, no sign of life.

I was in a deep sleep when at 7:30 in the morning the telephone rang. The guy on the phone spoke a strange language end I had a terrible headache. It took me some time to find out that he was talking Dutch. It was Eckart.

They didn't make it. They arrived 50 minutes late at the airport.

I picked them up at the hotel end took them to the Holding. There they saw the pictures of the disaster which hit Sao Paulo the day before of which they became victims.

But now we had sunshine again end everybody seemed to forget the day before.

A few hours later I just dropped them at the airport end when I saw them stepping on the plane I returned to Sao Paulo. Terrible days!!

High quality

Finally, the outcome. The Origin people were convinced that the company is solid end that we are really in business. Our prospects understood the message very well, everybody said that they see Origin as a serious company, in the same way as they see Arthur Andersen, our biggest competitor. We got 80 direct calls end contracts out of the event. More than the number of companies attending the meeting because about 50 people sent telex, fax or called apologizing for not showing up but, asking for information end visit. That's what we are doing now. All cell managers end myself are visiting prospects to discover their requirements.

After the first two weeks of visit, we have placed proposals with about 20 companies, from large multinationals to smaller local companies.

What we learned was, that all our press releases end Ad placements had almost no impact. The impact was the invitation, the high quality reception, the audiovisual end Eckart's presentation. They got the result. They recognized that we have serious parent companies end that our shareholders believe in Brazil. Even under the economy pressure and the rain. A hard thing to do.

But, don't forget: in Brazil it may seem to be all sunshine end fun, but sometimes, down comes the rain!!!

Karl Thieme, director Brazil