Sangat Pedas

Invasion Of The Mind Peelers

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mind-peelingThough it would be a great movie title, this is not the title of a badly produced low budget Hollywood movie. Mind peelers, they come in all forms and shapes. Usually they try to avoid showing their stiff corporate background with quasi nonchalant clothes and try to make you feel they’re one of you. But on average they do a really bad job at that.

Mind peelers are mostly attracted by emerging markets which they, by definition, don’t understand. It starts with an email in which a mind peeler will mostly use the strategy of elevating your achievements, experience and personal skills to divine levels. This followed by a list of they’re personal achievements and a statement on how serious they are about the Indonesian market.

What follows is clear, a dinner or lunch invitation, preferably close to their hotel (sorry, no can do). A talk in which they will ask questions I obviously can’t or simply don’t want to answer. Awkward looks that become even more awkward when I start making jokes about the awkward situation. This is when the whole camouflage falls off and the corporate stiffness is inevitable to surface again. When it’s a dinner meeting this would be the moment where I order another absolut-red-bull and basically try to make the most fun of a lost evening by turning things around and asking questions which they can’t or don’t want to answer.

In the end they will pickup the bill (not always though), send you a polite thank you mail and then to be never heard of again… ever….

This happens week in week out for years in a row and it’s getting kinda old, obvious and less entertaining.

“Just say no to all the invitations” you might say.

Yeah sure, that’s an option. I prefer more creative and fun solutions though. Like inviting several friends in the industry, setting the location in high-class places like Loewy, Skye or Altitude to then eat and drink the living daylights out of the mind peelers. They might have some explaining to do to they’re boss coming back empty handed but with a stiff bill but at least we all had a great night.

Btw, if you were engaged in such a meeting with me in the past years, please rest assured, this post definitely doesn’t apply to you. No worries.

Anyway, I’m off preparing the guest list for the next mind-peel meeting. Interested? Drop comment.

*Waiting the next invitation*