Decide, Mr. Sharma—Is It Drought or Flood?
This story goes back over twenty years. A time when mobile phones were rare, emails were the new ‘in-thing,’ and weather forecasts were more like educated guesses.
One of my friends, Mr. Sharma, was leading the Rajasthan sales team of a top fertiliser company. Now, Rajasthan, as you might know, is not exactly known for its generous rains. Most of the time, it feels like the clouds skip over the state entirely. And when they do show up, they overcompensate, flooding entire districts in hours.
For Mr. Sharma, selling urea in this environment was like selling ice to Eskimos. Every month, the company HQ pushed him to lift the quota of fertiliser allocated by the Government of India. The targets came down from the ministry, and there was no room for negotiation—come drought or downpour, the numbers had to move.
One particular morning, after weeks of bone-dry weather, Mr. Sharma sent a carefully worded email to his General Manager:
"Sir, severe drought-like conditions continue in my region. Farmers are desperate for water. The land is cracked like old leather. Under these conditions, pushing more fertiliser will be futile. I request reconsideration of fresh supplies."
The email was sent. Mr. Sharma sighed, convinced he had made his case.
But Mother Nature had other plans.
By late afternoon, dark clouds gathered. By evening, Rajasthan saw something it hadn’t seen in weeks—rains. Not just any rains, mind you. Torrential downpour. Streets turned into rivers, and villages into islands.
That same evening, Mr. Sharma, now looking out of his flooded office window, typed a second email:
"Sir, due to heavy rains, flood-like conditions are now prevailing in my area of operation. Movement of fertiliser will now be even more difficult."
Within minutes came the reply from his utterly baffled General Manager:
“Mr. Sharma, first decide—is it drought or flood? I cannot handle both in the same day!”
The Moral of the Story?
Marketing is not always about shiny presentations and neat dashboards. Sometimes, it's about managing chaos, ambiguity, and the sheer unpredictability of life on the ground.
For people like Mr. Sharma, the reality is this: markets change not by the quarter, not by the month, but sometimes by the hour. And the best leaders are not the ones who always have clear answers—but those who can laugh, adapt, and keep moving even when the ground beneath them keeps shifting... or floating.
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