Offer To The CEO

Monday, continued …

As Hou Yi and Yao Tan arrived in the foyer, a car pulled up and out climbed Amanda and with help came Anna onto her crutches. Both women walked into the foyer, talking ot each other, and Hou Yi and Yan Tan walked over and greated their wives with a brief kiss.

Hou YI turned to Amanda, and quietly asked "You explained everything to my wife?"

"I did and I am guessing you have not let my husband know my involvements of far?"

A sheepish reply from Hou Yi was "I was about to." Yan Tan shot both his wife and friend a look of contempt that he was kept out of the loop with what was going on.

Amanda turned to her husband "Do not get annoyed about this. You forget, I am employed by Hou Enterprises and when it relates to work, I have to retain my responsibilities there. You know that I love you"

Yao Tan knew his wife was correct, so knew that he could not say anything to counter it. He just wished that she was working at XF International rather that at Hou Enterprises. His problem was that every time he tried to engineer the move for Amanda, her father would stick his nose in, causing problems. At least working at Hou Enterprises she could have a career, that kept her safe but that her parents wanted to deny her.

The four of them crossed the foyer and moved to the backstage area of the theatre where the press conference was just wrapping up. Amanda looked out at the theatre which was quickly emptying. And noticed several people gathered on the stage. Within five minutes the theatre was emptied, and the people on the stage were directed to seats on the theatre, as well as other people coming in through the door.

At Yao Tan's signal four chairs were taken out onto the stage, and a camera set up looking at the chairs. Five minutes later the seats in the theatre were full and at Yao Tan's signal the four of them walked or hobbled in Anna's case out and took their seats on the chairs.

Yao Tan in his hands had a portable microphone. He turned on and started to speak "Welcome everyone from XF International's Entertainment Division, Hou Enterprises and those from our new, as yet formally unnamed joint venture company. For those who do not know, I am Yan Tan, the CEO of XF International, and the other gentleman with me is Hou Yi, the CEO of Hou Enterprises. The woman next to me is my wife Amanda Mei, the daughter of XF Interational's Vice-CEO and a lawyer employed by Hou Enterprises, and the woman next to CEO Hou is Anna Jones, also a lawyer employed by Hou Enterprises and his wife."

Yao Tan handed the microphone to Hou Yi "While we have made a press announcement, it is important to speak to all of you directly. Some of you are here, others are watching this live and others of course will be watching this later. However, we will require everyone to acknowledge that they have attended here, seen it live or watched it online, plus read the code of conduct that will be provided to every member of each company and the new joint venture."

"We also are challenging every one of you to come up with a name for the new joint venture. You will have a week from today to submit your entry, the best ten options will be chosen by CEO Yao and myself, and then presented to each of you to vote on. The top three options will then be taken to a joint board meeting of both Hou Enterprises and XF International for the final decision. Those that make the top 10 will receive a gift voucher from Fengs. The top three will receive a further, but surprise gift voucher, and the winner will receive a travel prize."

Hou Yi handed the microphone back to Yan Tan "We believe that challenging each and every one of you, will create some healthy collaboration between people and the three different groups that will; be coming together under this new joint venture."

By now there was a little bit of indistinguishable chatter from people present.

Yan Tan let this go on for a few minutes, and then said "Now there are some serious matters that we need to address, and we do need everyone's attention. While you all have contracts, regardless of who it is with, it is the intention to seek both domestic and international opportunities for you to pursue your career. Consequently, you will be required to sign a code of conduct."