Matters at the top

I always wanted to be among the top executives of my company some day and observe their actions and more importantly get to know their topics of discussion. Usually, when I banter with my friends, it either is about the chicks or filmy material. So I was a little curious on what goes on at the top. Maybe, I am just ready for my promotion or I am just too eager to get there.

Anyways, a couple of days back, I got an opportunity to rub shoulders and have dinner with a client partner, an account manager, a project manager, and a senior domain consultant. We were at a Grille at downtown San Francisco on a dark evening. As I had guessed, once the waiter showed us the menu, my account manager started bragging about his knowledge on this restaurant and which food was the most delicious.

Though I was on the edge to chip in to garner some attention to my side, the menu was not my forte. So I preferred to remain humble & silent and listen to what these connaisuers had to share their thoughts on the food. My account manager true to his title managed the whole show and bended the people around in ordering what he believed was the best in the house.

On a side note, I ordered a Miller Lite and smoked chicken pasta with lime vinigiarette. The managers ordered Red Wine (ofcourse) to drink and hi-fi sounding dishes predominantly that comes from the sea. An example could be the crab cake (I know it is a starter or a dessert, oh whatever!).

Alright, coming back to the crux of my blog, the first true involving topic that was brought up was how their mutual friends were doing. Great I thought - this is what I too do when I meet people, my friends. Ok, as you can understand I again had my lips tightly shut opening only when I had to take in the next fork-ful of pasta. I was not enjoying this at all. I wanted to be on the conversation but these guys are not giving me a chance.

After about maybe five minutes, the topic veered away to how our company was performing - a natural transformation from the people to the organization. Ah, come on guys, come on, this was a topic where I had a lot to offer. My first talk was an answer to the question posed by the project manager. What is the trading price of our stock today? Seventy four dollars with a reduction of 1.3% - bang came the reply from my mouth. Everyone turned and made an eye contact with me - wow I enjoyed being in the spotlight though for a short while.

From that point onwards, I wanted to really get in to the discussion and make them feel I am no mean to them and I too can have a lot to offer on the table. We then discussed about speaker systems and electronic gadgets (which was my strong point thanks to browsing cnet.com every other hour). I even advised my account manager not to go for a wireless home theatre system.

Things hotted up a little when everyone started picking each other's brains on what Apple was doing, is doing, and should do. Steve Jobs could have taken a 2 page note on different strategies his company could adopt to sustain its growth. I offered my share on how Apple should really innovate and just not rest on the laurels of the ipod success - for Sony and Microsoft and others have been coming out with impressive little mp3 gadgets. I got a couple of nods from the other side of table which made be believe I had a good sense of the business world.

As we were completing our main course and looking at the dessert menu, we talked about real estate both in the United States and India - how prices are so exhorbitant in Bangalore and Chennai and how many managers in our company are doing real estate brokering full time (forget about project management and delivery, we have guinea pigs (read as leads) to take care of such primitive stuff).

On completing the dessert - by the way I ordered a NewYork style cheesecake with blackberry sauce which never arrived at the table. Huh, my bad luck or the almighty wanted to limit the carbs I was taking that night. Anyway, as we ventured out of the restaurant - only to enjoy the wet cold of San Francisco winter, we naturally talked of the weather and how the alaskan currents on the pacific ocean makes the whole west coast foggy.

When it was time to leave, I said good-bye and as I was walking towards my home I looked back at my conversations with the supposedly top executives. It was no big deal. I just realized that the casual conversations you have depends on what stage of life you are at and what interests you at that time. It was perfectly natural that I talk about chicks and they talk about stocks and I will get there when chicks are of no interest anymore (hmmm maybe the one at home) and talk more about the other earthly pleasures.