He was still trying to understand his personal history, in particular the absurdities of his travels. Things like these happened to him without respite, underscoring the fragility of the world around his own brittle persona.
One day he made a presentation at the Infrastructural Change Board of a now dead Banking Conglomerate. About the middle of his 70-slide collection the Operational Head of Transitory Business interrupted him: “Wait… wait, Sanchez, are you speaking in English? I cannot understand what you are saying, and by the way, your slides have too much text. Look, come to the next meeting in one month and we will say something about your plan.”
He had experienced moments like that one before, but the unwarranted interruption triggered unexpected noise and confusion the room. Others started to speak, and the secretary called the next presenter. The veteran consultant had to leave the meeting.
He was annoyed but not depressed. His training led him to anticipate one week of work with his team, and then many days waiting for the next meeting. It would be possible to drive his team to condense the slides into 5 or 6 and prepare for the next session of the Board.
Four weeks later he appeared at the same meeting room with exactly the same suit, same shoes, and a different tie. His turn arrived and he was smiling when he launched his pitch over the 5 slides that the Red Team had produced for him.
Around slide three, the OHTB –who up to that point had been attentively checking his IPhone– interrupted him: “Sanchez, what are you talking about? These slides have no detail! It is difficult to understand what is the matter? By the way who do you work for?”
Ignoring the last question, Florencio Javier Sanchez Corona automatically went into a meditative and relaxed mode he had learned during his long years as a consultant in the Far East and, with an elegant smile, looking at the OHTB, replied, “Thank you, no problem, absolutely, you are obviously right: these slides have no detail.” And then, raising his voice and articulating very slowly he added — “Mind these are only for people who never need the details. But I have here a detailed explanation, so I will jump right into the matter.”
Sanchez was standing with such poise and self assurance –and this time the silence lasted long enough in the room–, that he could seamlessly move to the original presentation and finish.
After he spoke, the silence around him continued, and several architects and senior managers were looking blankly into their laptops, while others promptly surrounded the OHTB… or abandoned the room without comments.
By the end of the year the proposed changes to the Digital Transformation Process still had not been applied, and the Programme had consumed one million Euros of the contingency funds. The plan was not discussed again, and Sanchez’s contract ended. Soon he was working for the Control Function of a National Bank, 700 kilometres to the East.
The Summer was hotter on the Continent so at least now his suits were more appropriate, There was not much work to do though, because the Control Bureau had no idea of what they needed or why they had fast-tracked the contract with the Consulting Corporation Sanchez worked for.