Why This Program Manager's Bold 'Forgiveness Over Permission' Move Saved a Major Client

So, if I'm not wrong, uh, can I just rephrase the question you just asked me? Sure. Yeah. So, um, you said that if I, if I'm very confident about some initiative or some, uh, solution of any problem, um, and I did it without like, without permission, and then, um, I'm, I'm happy to, uh, beg for the forgiveness, and I did it.

Hm. I have to think on this. This is really uh interesting question. Um, um, I'll try to, uh, answer your question, but, uh, it's vaguely, um, mapping this, this, uh, uh, this question, so, um.

Um, so, uh, I was working in Nigeria, uh, earlier, um, uh, in my previous job in Western Africa, um, with, uh, with Kellogg's subsidiary, uh, and my, uh, core business was to provide haulage services to different customers, and one of the customers was ABN Web. Um, brewery company and, uh, we were providing them, uh, mm, our trucks, um, and they were using those trucks and they were putting their brewery and then they are sending it to different uh locations of Nigeria so that was the context of it, so, um. We were having a problem over there, um. One of our trucks, uh, every truck is, is, uh, in that, uh, brewery was having 22 pellets, so. Um, you know, in, in brewery, um, you ship, uh, items with the full of, with the, with the, um, glass bottles with the liquid in it, and then you bring it back with the empty bottles. So that was the case. Um, so, what happened, um, One of our drivers, uh, went to ship, uh, to a very far place from that factory and then came back after 4 days of, uh, a trip. So when it came back, it's supposed to carry 22 pallets of empty bottles, 22 pallets of empty bottles of the same like of of their, their, uh, brewery, um, but that particular driver was not having even a single, uh, pallet in it. So, um, I got this information on the same day, um, and I, I was very much aware that our customer would be pissed, uh, because of this, this reason, uh, and this was what are one of the. Very bad impression to our customer, which our, our client, uh, Avian.

to factory to customer factory. OK. To us, to a factory and uh I went there, I checked with that, I checked with the track uh uh and the driver, the, uh the driver representative was there. I was checking with them. I was saw that what was the problem and all. So, um, I, I, I later find, I later, uh, got to know that, uh, the driver got robbed in between, uh, and because of that, it was not having a single, uh, bullet inside it. So, uh, I begged, uh, the forgiveness from the customer that please, uh, this was the last time, uh, this was the, uh, one of the rare incident, uh, we are having, uh, and the customer got robbed in between, and that's why that, uh, particular driver couldn't, uh, take it everything back. So, um, and I asked him to go for the, uh, go for the debit note and we We'll take it, uh, with us, OK, but that particular gesture of me going there, uh, to that kind of problem, um, the client was very happy, uh, because he saw that the, uh, one logistics manager, logistics fleet manager came there for its fleet to support that fleet, uh, that, uh, he's there, um, and, uh, um. For any problem he, he will be there so that gesture was, was very positive from the customer side. I mean from, from my side and to customer and customer was very happy on that part and it, it, it, it, it, uh, created a bond with the, with the, with the manager over there.

So just that's out of curiosity but I was, I was in big trouble, um. Uh, because, uh, there was not a very good time for me to travel one place to another place. Um, I had only two, native people over there in, uh, my car. Uh, one driver, one another guy. When I came back, although like I, I was safe, everything was good, um. When I came back, it went to. The HR head Uh, that, that, that thing went to HR head. That thing went to our, uh, CEO, CEO Nigeria office, um, and I was getting so many mails and I was like kind of told, so I, I was, I was kind of given the warning for that, um, but, um, I, I tried to, uh, Convinced my manager over there um that this thing happened and uh because of that, I went there and uh we really uh It we really build a, a strong relationship with our clients. That's not, not a problem, but, um, I, I, I remember that day it was, it was tough for me. Uh, I was about to lose like I, I thought I, I will lose my job.

I feel I made the right decision. I still feel I made the right decision, but I think I should have taken care of the safety at the same time, uh, into consideration. I should have, uh, um, taken my, my line manager, uh, into account, um, for that particular reason specifically, that, uh, I'm going out at least. So, um, that was kind of naive for me on that, that time, but I felt good that I went to a customer and I meet him and I, I tried to like I sit with him like for one hour and then I just, uh, created a kind of a very good, uh, bill, uh. Customer relationship building up. So that was a good, good, good thing from my, my side, um. But I was about to lose my job.