Reputation

Quote & Thought for the Day -- Wednesday, 19 Nov '08

 “The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.”

--Japanese Proverb

My Thoughts:
Here is a real life incident that I had come across during corporate soft skill training – A Software Company was about to struck a Billion Dollar deal with a major Japanese bank. The marketing team of the Software Company was constantly having meetings with the top officials of the Bank. Then came the day where on a dinner meeting both the parties would settle all the deal conditions and the next day would sign the deal.

All was going well during the dinner until the Marketing lead of the Software Company finished his dinner by licking the spoon and making a sound that is considered “Bad Table Manners.” The next day the Japanese bank reported that they would not like to do business with the company whose officials cannot handle their table manners at a dinner.

And that was called as a “Million Dollar Lick.” That’s enough to convince any one of us that you first impression (or for that matter any impression) could be your last impression.