Own Time Own Target

Worked almost 2 weeks to prepare material for budget and forecast presentation to the president

And only after all had been printed, made into presentation files, and ppt presentation, that the most school girl of all errors showed up on the screen.

instead of total of subtotals and % against each budgets, i had total % of sub-total %. not once, but for all the countries.

H O R R O R S

The MD and other directors were aghast, but know me enough that this is totally out of character for me, and highly atypical of my work, and quickly agreed with me that it is a minor error in the formula when cutting and pasting into the presentation slide.

The President simply nodded. (I was almost grateful that I work for the very understated Japanese instead of the more vocal Americans or Europeans, surely i would have been roasted on the pits)

I gritted my teeth and went through the presentation was given a chance to do a quick change during lunch break.


Now that the dust had settled... i wonder if the error (or the miss in picking it up earlier) was indeed just an error, or an indication of something deeper?

Perhaps i've lost the respect for the endless meetings which goes in circle and back to square 1?


Damage control is the easy part,

Soul searching is way harder.


how did an error in the formula become so complicated?

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