The Girl in the Gym

Blazing Idea from a Hot Secretary

A young girl in her early twenties was sitting in her office one late morning, disinterestedly gazing at the files before her. Her dark hair was drawn up in a top knot, but she kept impatiently flicking the loose strands that had come loose around her temples and cheeks. 

Dressed sharply in a white blouse with a navy blue blazer and grey trousers, she was the very image of an up and coming corporate worker. Her expression, however, could not have been further from that image. She was supposed to have read the files for her boss last evening but put it off for she was impatient to get home. 

This morning, however, Anu Freeland cursed her proclivity for delaying her work. Even though she would not seriously get into trouble, she hated the looks she received from her colleagues and seniors whenever she was hauled up for a task undone or incomplete. "It's not my fault that this job is completely boring. I wish I had chosen something more interesting, like social media marketing or managing," she thought wistfully.

Carefully, she turned the laptop on her desk slightly, inch by inch, so that her face and hands were hidden behind it. Smirking, she took out her phone and logged onto her Facebook account. It was much more interesting than those boring old files anyway, she thought disgustedly. Facebook was more than just social media for her. It was her source of entertainment, news, gossip and also her mouthpiece. Real-time news disguised as status updates found their way to her through it. Being a popular girl at school as well as college, she had scores of friends all over the world. And this brilliant platform brought them all together. She smiled while looking at the screen, her nimble fingers typing a quick comment here and there as she clicked 'like' on a number of posts and photographs.

Suddenly a loud-voiced cracked through the room and she almost fell off the chair as she jumped in fright. Carefully peering from behind her computer, she realized that a few people had gathered in the lobby and were talking agitatedly. They were looking harried and dishevelled, even though it was still morning. This was surprising because Oceana Electronic was a firm that prided itself on not only the work it did but also the well being of the employers, and that included turning out smartly. She looked at them for a few seconds more, and once she was convinced that no one was paying attention to her, Anu retreated behind her desk again, her phone back outside.

Anu worked for a company called Oceana Electronic Inc. based in Detroit. Oceana Electronic supplied A.Fin components of a launch vehicle which was being manufactured and also launched from Nagoya in Japan. It was quite a successful venture, and the team at the company was working on the concept of Just In Time (JIT) inventory. They had been outsourcing  A Fin from a Chennai, India based manufacturer. The office was buzzing and everyone was terse because they had a delivery scheduled shortly and nothing seemed to be getting done. The launch was only ten days away and the deadline had already passed and had been extended by the Japanese. An unprecedented situation had arisen in Chennai due to which the delivery seemed unlikely to happen soon. The city had been caught in a flood, there was water everywhere and hardly anything or anyone could come out. The Japanese, while being understanding, had also extended a warning to the firm stating that all future orders from Oceana Electronic would be cancelled unless they managed to deliver the product to their manufacturing site within the next six hours. The whole thing was doomed unless some miracle happened.

For the past ten years, this Nagoya based Japanese firm had been Oceana Electronic's only client. They were completely dependent on each other and over the years, a healthy working relationship based on efficiency and trust had been built between the two. But now, it looked like the Japanese were losing patience at being held up at a crucial stage. Years of experience was going to go down the drain unless something happened soon.