26. DISCLOSING COMPANY SECRETS IS ‘SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT’ – BE DISCREET
The ‘Miracle Fruit Juice’ Secret
Namugga emptied her wallet as she struggled to find some extra coins for the fruit vendor. “Surely, you should give me a discount”, she haggled. “Fine madam”, responded the old man, his friendly face peering behind a stack of ripe oranges in the market stall. Namugga whispered a hurried ‘thank-you’, grabbing the heavy baskets that were filled with an assortment of fruits.
A discerning Tuk-Tuk driver saw her from afar, and rushed to help with the baskets. As they made it through the traffic jam, Namugga could not help but thank God for the miracle that had come in form of a ‘fruit-juice business’.
She recalled how she had been retrenched from her job some months ago. The news had come as a shock, since as a widow, the entire burden of looking after her two sons was on her. There had been times when her finances had hit rock-bottom; making her feel like she had reached the end of the road.
It was during one of those times that she had stumbled on an intriguing fruit-juice recipe. Little did she know that the discovery would be the answer to her fervent prayers. The recipe was: get the fruit, blend it, add some raw eggs, blend again, chill and serve. Namugga had proceeded to experiment with a wide variety of fruits, and soon she was an expert.
The idea to commercialise her experimentations had come after her friend Tinaka, who works for a local bank, tasted the juice. “You know Namugga, this is so delicious. Why not deliver to employees at my place of work?”, she had said enthusiastically, recounting friends that could buy the juice. With that encouraging proposition, a hard working Namugga had started distributing her juices, first to Tinaka and her friends, and later to many people in the bank. As the demand for the juices grew, Namugga had been compelled to hire an assistant named Rosa, and two other girls to assist with making and distributing the juices. And, so far, things seemed under control.
The Tuk-Tuk horn brought Namugga’s thoughts back to the present, signalling that she had arrived home. As soon as she had paid off the driver, she rushed to her kitchen. The smell of sweet smelling juices greeted her. Tinaka had ordered several dozens of juices for a birthday party which was to be held at the local bank’s premises; and Rosa and others were busy preparing the order. Soon, the juices were neatly packed, ready for delivery by Rosa.
Tinaka was happy to receive the much awaited juices; requesting that Rosa stays around, at least until after tasting the birthday cake. A polite Rosa agreed. As she observed the merry spirit of the bank’s employees, the assistant felt favoured at the opportunity of rubbing shoulders with such a high class of people.
Her wandering thoughts were interrupted by a friendly lady, Hamida; “I am so impressed with your juices”, she said, sipping the juice with undisguised delight. “Tell me”, Hamida went on; “I have always tried to make peach juice for my hubby, but it has never tasted quite like yours …; what is the secret?”
Rosa smiled. “Well”, she said with unrestrained confidence, if you have a blender and know how to choose your fruits, the peach juice is not hard to make. The challenge though, is using the right amount of raw eggs.
“What!”, Sophia spluttered as she stood up suddenly, almost spitting out the juice. “You mean this thing that I have been taking is packed with raw eggs?”, she asked in nauseated disbelief. Rosa could tell that Sophia was very disgusted.
During the week that followed, the girls that went to distribute the juices at the bank returned with a good proportion of the stock unsold. A concerned Namugga called Tinaka, requesting her to find out what had caused the employees to change their minds about the juices. This is when Tinaka disclosed that people had kicked up a lot of fuss about the raw eggs in Namugga’s drinks.
As the days went by, the sales continued to decline. The situation got so bad that within a few months, Namugga was forced to lay off Rosa and the girls. Eventually, she had to close her so-called ‘miracle fruit-juice’ business.
This story reminds us of employees who have the notorious, irresponsible habit of disclosing company secrets to external customers. We need to always remember that such a tendency can be counterproductive as it could threaten the security of the organisation; damage its image and reputation; and breed competition.
Some employees maliciously spill secrets just to tarnish employers. But, we should never forget that the very organisation that we may be tempted to malign is the very mouth that feeds us. In fact, releasing company secrets is like drilling a hole in a ship where you are on-board … the day that it sinks, you could sink with it!