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“Mustapha, I want to grab coffee with you, which day are you free… we have a problem, but I cannot say it in the boardroom. And no one is bringing it up.”
The message came from a senior leader in a company that had just announced record profits, glowing margins, and what the chairman proudly called “our most stable year yet,” which is precisely why I took the meeting seriously, because in my experience real distress rarely announces itself during a crisis, it whispers during success.
We met at a quiet café, not far from the office tower whose glass façade reflected nothing but confidence, and before he touched his coffee he leaned forward and said something that most directors would dismiss as trivial: “The engineers have stopped arguing.”
That sentence told me more than the entire board pack. On paper, everything was green, revenue was up, attrition was low, and engagement scores were comfortably above industry average. READ MORE |