Chapter 1
8:00 pm - The Place Bar
"Now, I want to offer a toast to our dynamic duo!" Juan stood up, getting everyone's attention at the table, and raised his glass towards Luciene and Victor on his left, and exclaimed in a proud voice. “To the two smartest idiots in this country, who managed to convince the board in a single presentation of results to change the entire annual plan to add the Noan project with a high investment and direct contact with the best employees in the company!”
“CHEERS!” Everyone was very excited about the new achievement, especially the two responsible for the performance with the directors of the Delin Company.
Voices and laughter spread through the family restaurant that had the best beef jerky ‘Escondidinho’ in town. Friends and families gathered there every day to enjoy a tasty meal, even having musicians a few days a week, although today only the sound of conversations could be heard from the other tables.
Being in the far corner of the restaurant, Juan allowed himself to speak with great excitement about everything that had happened in the past few months.
As the leader of the team, he felt overwhelmed by having achieved an objective that for him seemed almost impossible in the planning of the previous semester. But seeing everyone's commitment and effort, he did his best to acquire the necessary resources and give all the necessary support.
Recalling several key moments for the group. All the stages that passed, interviews and questionnaires with thousands of customers, and content analysis to form an information network with the data that would be used to support the Noan Project.
The smiles and bright eyes denounced the excitement and anxiety for that new project that they would be developing. Perhaps Aline even shed a few tears while Juan spoke about the great achievement and the pride he felt for everyone, but while Juan declared all the joy of his soul, the waiters arrived with the food, spreading an extremely powerful feeling among those present: hunger.
And after almost 25 minutes of Juan talking, with the food finally on the table, and yet it didn't look like he was going to finish anytime soon, Luciene had to find a loophole to take the floor before the opportunity passed.
"Thank you all. But remember, it was a team effort ” she exclaimed quickly, receiving grateful looks from everyone. She even managed to hear a relieved sigh from Nala to her left.
"That's right!" Victor amended “If it wasn't for everyone's help with the data for analysis and field research, we could never have come up with such an impressive result ” Even though he had spoken to prevent the word from returning to Juan, Victor was truly grateful to everyone on the team.
They looked into each other's eyes at those two tables together and had no words to thank everyone for their efforts. After Victor's first presentation on the team after signing, a simple and superficial analysis of the relationship between certain types of marketing and online sales, as well as the customer feedback, they work together to allow the company to move forward in the industry if certain changes were made.
With that in mind, they were able to carry out a large-scale survey that made it clear to the board and investors the urgency to migrate the company's focus to the online environment.
Luciene quickly nodded several times and continued, smiling with her eyes almost closing. "And without your advice on data analysis, we would never have such strong arguments for Noan's approval!"
We never imagined that a progression based on the results of the company's last three years in the marketing area would be so innovative and shocking. Okay, the software tool S has several possibilities for analysis, but it was just a few graphs of the variables of external influence... who would say that no one had noticed the influence of interactions between customers to purchase... This is a little sad in truth. It means that we still have a lot to learn and do. She thought to herself.
Even though she had been working at Delin for two years, Luciene had never headed such an innovative and important action, something she would never have even dreamed of when she joined the company.
“Ownnn! Lu, Vic, don't be so modest! You were the ones who tried hardest. I never thought anyone could beat uncle Juan's hard work, but you guys were amazing. ” Exclaimed Nala excitedly, giving an affectionate side hug to Luciene and, even though she wasn't very comfortable being seated, she rocked her almost jumping on the chair.
"Yes! Yes! Delin's sun and moon! When one finished a part of the work, the other took over and continued. A true cycle routine! Hahaha ”Themistocles spoke of his new nicknames excitedly, winking at Victor who smiled in a sigh. At first, I didn't like the term, but he insisted on them so much that ended up catching on.
'There's nothing else to do, now just accept' It was what Victor thought whenever he heard it.
Luciene and Victor really made an exemplary team. Their collaboration, interaction, goals, communication, everything was interconnected and worked perfectly as well-fitted gears, allowing both them and everyone around to work in a focused and objective way.
Furthermore, they were loved by everyone, especially by the team leader Juan and the operational manager Aline, the "parents" of the team, those who would listen to any concerns or difficulties, doing their best to help them with both personal and work problems, and were also the firmest and most rigorous, making everyone stay in line and exercise their best at each stage of each project.
They were also the ones who were most happy with the achievements of their collaborators. Always saying things like "the victory of one is the reward of all".
In a moment of slippage, Juan spoke again with redoubled joy for everyone's participation and his eyes shone. But when he took a breath to continue, the first voice rose in a direct plea “Look, Uncle Juan, I know you love to talk in those moments, but I'm starving! End this soon, please! ”
“Come on, Nala! You're always starving! I have never seen a woman who eats a lot and doesn't get fat. You have hollow legs!! ” Temístocles replied wryly and rolled his eyes.
“Shut up, Temí! Someone already in the third bottle of alcohol can not complain! You could have waited for Uncle Juan to finish speaking, couldn't you? ” Nala returned with an angry pout.
“Better than interrupting others. I am very quiet in my corner, without hurting anyone! ” Temí spoke, shrugging with a small smile.
“Have you two started? Do you guys never get tired of complaining? I don't even remember what I was talking about...” Juan looked between Nala and Temístocles with a tired smile on his face. He didn't know how many times these two argued every single day, and how many times he had already talked to them about how to avoid this nitpicking at work.
“Sorry, uncle” - “My bad, Juan” Looking at their faces of regret, he shook his head amused. The phrase ‘But we’re not in the company, so I don’t have to stress myself…’ just crossed his mind when he heard an “Ouch! Why did you kick me?!" from Temístocles towards Nala, he had to take a few deep breaths: No stress. No stress. He repeated with himself almost like a mantra.
"Ah, leave them, Juan." Aline spoke quietly next to Juan “Don't you know that opposites attract? Who knows, maybe it’s the beginning of love?” She joked in an insinuating tone, barely holding back her laughter when she saw their desperate faces.
"NO WAY!!" They shouted in unison
"At least now they agree hahahahahaha" Luciene laughed at their reaction.
“Stop it, aunt Aline! And you too Lu! ” Nala's irritated expression, with a wrinkled nose and a very fluffy beak in her mouth, only made Luciene more eager to tease her. Unfortunately, she missed her chance when Victor interrupted to keep the moment from going any further.
"Okay, okay. So, can we eat? ” Seeming to remind them of the starting point of the discussion, everyone looked at Juan expectantly.
Although they liked him a lot, his speeches were really really long... They spent two hours just listening to him talk when it was Aline's birthday. No one could wait any longer to smell that tempting smell, and they didn't want to risk “just a few more words” from Juan.
Juan sighed with an air of laughter as he looked at everyone “Sure, go ahead. I think you will devour me if I take longer ...”
"Yeeeeees!!!" “Food time” “let's eat!!” “Thanks God” Each one who celebrated differently. It seems that hunger spoke louder after all...
“Take it easy, you all! Were you tied up?! The food will not disappear!” Juan was impressed with the speed that everyone attacked the table. He reflected looking at everyone: Let this not reach the ears of the board…. I can't imagine how much nonsense they would talk about maintaining the high standard and the company's fine image ... although I doubt that any of those starters would come to a family restaurant.
"Please guys, save some face to me and Juan... it's not like we lead people from prehistory!" Aline made an angry face while trying to organize them, but she still served one by one with the dishes that were ordered, making sure to add a little more than she knew each one liked. She did have a mother's heart.
With scolding and forks ready for the delicious meal, everyone calmed down the attack a little and started to talk excited and play with each other. They looked almost like family. There was nothing that could be said against that.
Young people are really energetic. Aline and Juan thought, and looking at each other in mutual understanding, they smiled, deciding that all that remained was for both of them to calm their hearts and try to at least control the volume of conversations a little before the manager arrived at their table as it happened before.