Trending Topic - Management Novel

Thursday, August 20, 2015 | 83 days until the conference | 153 registrations

‘Meditating, are we, Victor?’

Upon hearing Jacques Lodewyks’ deep voice, Victor VanWely quickly lifted his feet off the radiator. He turned his leather desk chair so abruptly, he had to hold on to the top of the desk to stop the chair from spinning out of control.

           His guinea pig, Napoleon Bonaparte, gave a loud wheek from his cage in the corner of the office.

           ‘Jacques, what a pleasure,’ Victor said. Meditation, if only he could. Perhaps it would inspire him to find the ultimate solution to his troubles. The director of the National Society for Rodent Professionals was facing the biggest challenge yet in his career.

           ‘Coffee?’ asked Victor.

           ‘No thank you,’ Jacques said, placing a hand over his heart. ‘Doctor’s orders.’ He ignored the chair Victor offered him, took a celery stick from his coat pocket and stuck it through the bars of the guinea pig’s cage. Napoleon eagerly tugged the treat into the cage and began nibbling away at it thoughtfully.

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Friday, Augustus 21, 2015 | 82 days until the conference | 155 registrations 

The next morning, Victor went into the office early. He was convinced he would be the first one there, but Casper was already behind his desk, his face flushed with hard work, fervently typing away on his keyboard.

           ‘Stressed?’ he asked.

           ‘Aren’t you?’ Casper replied. ‘Do you have any idea how much we still need to get done for Rodentia?’

           Victor sighed. ‘I know. As soon as Martine comes in, I would like to have a short meeting.’

           ‘A meeting? I really don’t have time.’

           Victor gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and went into his office. Behind him, he heard Casper call out: ‘and Martine certainly doesn’t.’

           Casper was his only full time employee. He had been working here longer than Victor and dynamically tackled communications. Casper also organized the annual National Spring Conferences. These had become a matter of routine, and with roughly one hundred participants on average, he could easily manage alone. However, Rodentia was a completely different ballgame. As of a month ago, they had therefore hired backup, in the form of Martine. She managed logistics in order for Casper to be able to fully concentrate on marketing and communications, contacting the speakers, recruiting sponsors, and the press. For weeks now, Casper had been trying to arrange an interview with Instinct, the most respected trade magazine for pet professionals. So far it had been in vain. The journalist kept insisting a conference was not newsworthy, which made no sense to Victor whatsoever: after all, the program was incredibly interesting, wasn’t it? 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Friday evening, August 21, 2015 | 82 days until the conference | 157 registrations

‘Hey, digi-illiterate, how’s things?’ Dick was practically inaudible, with all the background noise drowning out his voice on the phone: laughter, music, clinking glasses.

           Victor looked at the clock. It was five thirty, he had half an hour before he was supposed to meet his friends at the Crippled Horse. He never missed after-work-drinks on Friday.

           ‘I tried WhatsApping you, why don’t you have that?’ Dick said. ‘Anyway, the weather’s great, so we met up an hour early. We’re outside on the terrace.’ He whistled into his phone, Victor winced and moved the phone away from his ear.

           ‘You should see all the eye candy passing this place.’

           ‘It’s pretty busy at the office,’ Victor began, noticing Casper through the open door, who was peering intently at his computer screen.

           ‘Oh, come on, live a little. You’re the boss, aren’t you? Delegate, man! It’s pretty much the first thing we learned to do at our MBA, and that’s over twenty years ago.’ Dick’s voice suddenly sounded far away. ‘Yeah, go on’ Then he spoke into the phone again: ‘We’re on our second round already, take a break. It’s the first time, since the end of the holidays, we’re all together. Stella was asking for you already. I am ordering you a beer as we speak.’

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Monday, August 24, 2015 | 79 days until the conference | 161 registrations

In the middle of a discussion regarding the color of the volunteers’ T-shirts, Victor noticed Casper’s eyes wandering in the direction of the door.

           He looked over his shoulder. Stella’s daughter had done her best to put on a businesslike appearance, but despite the toned down grey dress, he still saw in her the jolly little pig-tailed girl, who used to play in the café when her mother was on duty. Casper clearly saw something else entirely.

           She stood in the doorway, a little timidly. ‘Mister VanWely?’ Her long blonde hair flowed over her tanned shoulders. Pale blue eyes appeared when she lifted her sunglasses.

           Casper nudged him and whispered: ‘Who is that?’

           Victor ignored his question and walked over to the young visitor. ‘Catja, come on in.’ He ushered the young woman into his office to talk undisturbed. He had had a long phone conversation with Stella over the weekend, during which she had urged him to take good care of her daughter.

           Catja sat down on the chair she was offered and looked around. ‘Nice office, Mister VanWely. I really appreciate you taking the time to meet with me.’ 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Thursday, August 27, 2015 | 76 days until the conference | 165 registrations

Victor stood, pondering, by Pooky’s cage. Tomorrow, he would have to report to Jacques. Since the chairman’s last visit, there hadn’t exactly been a run on registrations for the conference. It made sense. They’d been working hard, but the fruits of those labors wouldn’t be reaped till later on. Bam! Victor thought to himself.

           The invitations now boasted the following call to action: ‘Share your Road to #Rodentia15.’ Casper had made the final decision on the T-shirts (red, so the volunteers would be easy to spot) and press releases were created for various types of media (‘Rodents: blessing or plague? Rodentia 2015 seeks the confrontation’).

           Catja had been very busy working on her social media research. Every time Victor walked past, there was something on her screen drawing his attention. She had shown him how Twitter and Facebook worked, and helped him create a Facebook profile for himself. His first friendship request was to Dick, who accepted within five minutes. On Dick’s profile, he noticed his friend had been awarded Food Marketeer of the Year a few days before. Victor decided to send him a postcard. Catja also showed him Instagram. Her photo with Pooky had received a lot of likes. Victor had to admit he was rather proud of that fact, despite the resistance he felt towards the impersonal nature of social media. Although Pooky didn’t look too good. No wonder, because the water, in which Victor had dissolved the vitamin C tablets, had been left untouched. This would require more drastic measures. 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Thursday, August 27, 2015 | 76 days until the conference | 165 registrations 

Once they had all returned to the table, Catja presented her plan of action.

           ‘I’ve modeled it to the example of PetFoodies.’ She showed them a slide containing all of the social media icons, plus the NatSoRoPro logo in the center. ‘You already have a Facebook and Twitter account. You can begin posting messages on there, preferably daily. Start by posting reminders of the conference, with a link to the registration page.’ She threw her long, blonde hair over her shoulder. ‘Besides that, we want more followers. The quickest way to get those is through advertising. That way you also get seen outside your current network on social media.’

           Martine leaned forward. ‘You said we also reach a lot of people if we get replies from within our own network. Isn’t that enough?’

           ‘It works, but it needs time. Especially in your situation, as you don’t have too many connections yet.’ She looked at Victor.

           ‘Indeed, and we’re in a hurry,’ he confirmed. ‘So advertising seems fine to me. Think big.’ Dick would be proud of him.

           ‘We’re going to aim the ads entirely at our target group,’ she explained. ‘And then there’s gift promotions and competitions.’

           ‘How will those work, exactly?’ asked Victor.

           ‘You invite people to like your page in ads. By doing so, they can win a free coke, or a T-shirt, for example. If the prize is interesting, such a message gets liked and shared a lot. That creates great visibility, as well as new followers.’.....

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Friday, August 28 | 75 days until the conference | 168 registrations

The night after Catja’s presentation, Victor dreamt a lot. About grumpy guinea pigs attending his conference and proceeding to tweet about ant burgers. And about Pooky, whom he really needed to take to the vet, especially now his photos could be viewed across the world.

           The first thing he did the following morning, was drive over to the Happy Vets. Bea Goffer, the doctor on call, welcomed him warmly at the emergency consultation hour and gave Pooky a vitamin C-shot. Victor would have to return with Pooky every Monday, for a few weeks in a row, and everything would be fine. He also needed to switch to different food, because the homemade mix he fed Pooky at the moment was lacking in vitamins. He bought guinea pig power food from PetFoodies. Relieved, he drove the little animal back to the office. He had the impression it was already a little more lively. This evening, he would take Pooky home, so as to keep an eye on him over the weekend and supplement his meals. His wife would like that, too. Denise was just as much of an animal lover as he was.  

Catja and Casper were busy as bees. They were setting up advertising campaigns, placing messages on several platforms and collecting funny videos for the NatSoRoPro YouTube channel. Silly animal sounds rang through the office at regular intervals, increasingly improving Victor’s mood. 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Monday, August 31 | 72 days until the conference | 173 registrations 

In the car, on his way to work, Victor was singing along to the radio. The sun was shining and Pooky had just received another shot of vitamin C, making his movements more lively than they had been all weekend.

           During the weekend, Victor had been practicing his Facebook skills, and he had to admit he rather enjoyed seeing his friends’ posts. He had clicked several links and spent more time on it than he had intended to. He had viewed their own ads with special interest. There were three varieties: one with a guinea pig, one with a squirrel and one with an attractive female vet, throwing the camera a stern look, with the caption ‘Rodentia 2015. Register now!’ Victor thought the latter was a little forceful, but it was convincing.

Besides these ‘suggested messages’ about Rodentia, Victor had also noticed The Crippled Horse’s weekly menu flash by several times, and he had become mildly nauseated by the many Bugbites ads, displaying their strange insect-based foods. Even after he had clicked ‘unlike’ on the Bugbites page, he continued to see the ads.

           He had had his hands full with LinkedIn. Indeed, all of the three hundred contacts in his address book had received an invitation to link up, including people he hadn’t spoken to in years. This led to several enthusiastic responses, but also to some harsh rejections, like the man with whom he had an ongoing business conflict for years.

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Friday, September 4 | 68 days until the conference | 185 registrations

Victor was satisfied with Catja: she worked hard on the social media channels, and now she was wrapping stuffed guinea pig toys. Casper and she had organized a competition on Facebook, where people could win these fluffy animals. To enter, people only had to like the NatSoRoPro page and answer the following question:

Which animal is the odd one out:

beaver - mouse - rabbit - water hog?

Most people guessed the water hog, which Victor found amusing, as the water hog, better known as the capybara, happened to be the world’s largest rodent. The rabbit was the odd one out, as it belonged to the hare family, completely different, as Victor liked to explain at birthday parties. Despite the fact most people got the answer wrong, the promotion had soon earned them over one hundred new Facebook likes.

           There had been some additional registrations for the conference this week, but at this pace they still wouldn’t be able to fill the rooms. Two or three a day, that wouldn’t even get them up to four hundred by November. It was a good thing they’d taken measures, because if this was all, they could pack up NatSoRoPro. Victor was all too aware of it.

           He found distraction on Rodentnet, on which he had found his way around with Casper’s help. There were some good, substantive discussions taking place and he stumbled upon several colleagues from the field, whom he hadn’t spoken to since last year’s conference. Like Mara McKenzie. Upon seeing her small, elegant frame, you wouldn’t expect her to be one of the most successful rat pest controllers in the world. He knew she was unable to attend the conference, but she had sent some great questions for the panel leader to put forward during the confrontation panel. Other participants in the discussion were pleased to find Rodentia was planning on paying such serious attention to the topic, and some of them decided to register. 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell

Friday, September 11 | 61 days until the conference | 203 registrations 

Victor was unable to drive the jolly jingle from his mind in the car that morning, and he had no desire to. The drumming tune the boys from Viral Fantasy had picked out for the video would get a smile from a stone. Filming had taken three days, the shots were edited to the speed of a modern music video and the result was hilarious.

           In their studio, they had built an enormous guinea pig circuit, through which Pooky had to find his way to ‘Rodentia 2015’. Running, and with eager wheeks and purrs, the little animal crossed bridges, climbed a mountain, slid off a slide and ran circles in a running wheel. His chewing movements had been synchronized with a voice saying things like ‘where’s the party at?’ and ‘guinea pig powerrrr!’ In the end, he pushed a button with his nose, opening the door to the final area: Rodentia2015. Banners fell from the sky, disco lights flashed on and loud music started to play. This gave Pooky such a fright, he jumped backwards into a panicked summersault and nearly fell off the table supporting the circuit. The slow motion image of that moment was Victor’s favorite scene.

           When he saw it for the first time with Catja and Casper yesterday, a weight had fallen off his shoulders. Catja had been in stitches watching Pooky rolling around in the running wheel and Casper, usually so serious, nearly choked on his coffee during the scene that showed Pooky walking through high straw and sneezing into the camera. All the viral demands had been met: it was funny, unexpected and international. Pooky had been renamed SuperGnawer, a character that far outdid the modest little chewer who spent his days contentedly sitting in his cage. 

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Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell