“The playing field is different, the rules are the same. We promise you a rich learning experience. In the course of the first year you will pick up various skills - managing the media - who are our immediate customers; and the celebrities - who are our suppliers, in a sense…”

The man just wouldn’t stop. Despite his dramatic gesticulations and obviously fake promises, there was one slide in his presentation that held the attention of everyone in the auditorium - the money on offer. A lakh a month plus a cut on every deal.

“One of your very own alumni made a cool 29 lakhs last year”

Now, I have always believed that the ultra-greedy, ambitious, ‘Merc in 10 years’ image is just a media stereotype and b-school grads were hardly like that. We did look for other things in the jobs that we picked up. The questions that came up during these pre-placement talks by the recruiters, covered a lot of ground apart from just the compensation package.

“…After tax…”

But it was only human to listen up when someone was talking this kind of money.
“So how do you think my talk went? Do you think we’ll get some converts?”

Vinod needed some reassurance as always. And as always, Rajeev was around to provide it. Apart from being a very able CFO, he was an expert counselor. Incidentally, he was also single-handedly responsible for around 60% of the deals that Salmon Bank pulled off.

“Of course, you saw their reaction to the numbers. Money, showbiz. What else could these kids want in a job?”

“Are you sure you have those many vacancies to fill? You said 4 to their placement rep, didn’t you? And we haven’t even covered the other campuses yet.”

“Much depends on the Abhirami - Ashutosh deal. If that does go through, it’ll be a nightmare without some top-class managerial support, and that’s where these MBAs come in”

“Where are we on that one, by the way?”

“Ash’s warmed up to the idea, saw the value right away. Abhi needs some time, we need to talk in terms of an exit in three years, I suppose. She’s looking at it from a purely financial point of view. Ash is going to talk to her personally tonight”

“And Ash would be OK with a divorce?”

“I think so - we’ve handled such cases before. You remember the Shweta case? We got almost equal media funding for both the marriage and the divorce. How does it matter as long as our media partners are happy with their TRPs?”

“I still think we need to be proactive in business development. One deal hardly needs a team of 5-6 people in all. We need more deals, even smaller ones will do”

Rajeev let out an audible sigh. Vinod did tend to belabor that aspect

“Vinod - we are pitching to every damn actor and actress in the age group 20 to 30 for heaven’s sake”

“I don’t think there should be an age limit at all. Mcmann Bank made millions on the Liz Burley-Kayar deal, they are hardly young.”

“We have a team working out all sorts of combinations. The team’s pitching to just about anyone who’s single. In fact, we are being approached by fledglings…”

“We don’t want to become a shaadi.com, Rajiv, I hope you understand that. There has to be a story. No one would watch you and me getting married.”

“Maybe…might be kinky, you and me”

“Knock it off, you know what I meant”

Vinod wasn’t really in the mood for frivolity. He knew that this deal would really catapult his organization into the big league. His vision was to be in a position of such power that they would literally dictate who merged with whom, strange as it sounded…

***

“Abhi, I need you”

Ash knew that he had to start strongly if he had to make a successful pitch. He had chosen this after many hours of thought. In fact, each slide of his presentation had behind it, many hours of scrutiny and revision.

“OK, take me through your presentation”

The first few slides covered the cash flows. Salmon bank had spoken with CDTV already, which had agreed to fund the marriage to the tune of 50 crores. Even assuming a marriage expense of 5 crores, 45 crores went to the kitty. He would get 50%, she 40 and the bank 10. Ash was agreeable to an equal payoff but he used these numbers as a starting point to negotiate.

“Go on”

He then listed out the joint endorsements that they could sign, the movies that they could star in jointly and other joint ventures.

“Ash, I think these would happen anyway, I can sign on these many by myself, as I’m sure you can”

“Hmm. You have a point. But do let me finish”

He then showed the cash flow for the divorce. It envisaged a messy affair which would get about a year of media coverage.

The ending was the killer - a romantic slide with a poem and some music and the question - ‘Is the deal on?’

“My answer is…”she smiled, “yes! I need you too, Ash”

And they shook hands on it.

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