Job interview

Dew, a friend of Satish, works for the insurance company Clico (www.clico.com). This Trinidadian company entered the Suriname market nearly ten years ago when it bought an American owned life insurance company. Although Clico is the largest insurance company in the Caribbean and is known for its quality products and service, the Suriname market has been a tough nut to crack. Several Trini managers have tried to boost the performance in Paramaribo, but to no avail. The Suriname operations are now run from Guyana, with the manager coming to Suriname twice a month. For a couple of years now Clico Suriname is looking for a general manger for their General Insurance department. Satish applied for the position last year, but was told in the interview that he was too highly qualified, despite not knowing much about insurance! Dew was highly surprised and decided to speak with the Chairman of Clico, Lawrence Dupry, about taking over management of Clico Suriname. Duprey asked for a business plan and reasons why he should hand over management. Dew felt that the current Guyanese manager doesn't want to have a new GM as it would undermine her position and possibly lead to a pay cut as she is paid for both Suriname and Guyana (US$10,000 per month!). When the last job vacancy was placed in the newspaper two weeks ago, Anand and I decided to apply for the job to aid Dew in his plan. If one of us doesn't get the job Dew has additional arguments to present to Duprey. So we each slightly adjusted our CV and applied for the position. To our great surprised we were both invited to. It turned out we had been the only people that had applied!! We decided that we would both take a different approach. I would be the consensus builder that would welcome continued involvement from Guyana and who would have a reasonable salary indication (€3000), whereas anand would be the experienced manager who would turn the organisation inside out. Both interviews went well but lasted less than 20 minutes. Now we have to wait and see....