Here at Missing Pieces/Fractured Families/Long Lost Family – delete as per local programming presented by irritating celebrity – we help people find family and friends they have not seen for many years. Often, we are a last resort after all other avenues have been tried and desperate people turn to us for one last shot at finding that long lost contact. When they have almost given up hope of re-establishing contact they come to us.

Mr FMCG Chief Executive Officer was one such person who called our hotline and pleased for our help. Mr CEO had been searching for several years without success. E-mails, letters and internet searches came to frustrating dead ends and that is where can help. Using our expert team of researchers we took this difficult case on board and the search began. We have had many successes and an equal number of failures in our search efforts and this one would prove to be one of the most difficult. Not everybody wants to be found and if you have not been in contact for so long then there is possibly a good reason why.

Endless hours of research revealed several hot leads but none that led us to the desired target. We kept Mr CEO informed regularly but with each passing month the strain was beginning to tell and frustration was evident. Just when we were considering a case closure and with hope fading fast we made a promising discovery. Sometimes our work ends like this. We have searched across the globe yet the target is actually close by. On this occasion the long lost contact was in an office not far from the location of Mr CEO.

We met the target and showed them a video of the CEO making a plea to make contact once again and get involved in daily business life. After some careful thought we asked if a meeting with Mr CEO would be appropriate and we received a resounding “yes”.

We called Mr CEO and requested a meeting in his office to update him on the situation. We did not tell him about our discovery and carefully planned to reveal the long lost friend during an S&OP Board Meeting.

Prior to the Board meeting starting we updated Mr CEO and while he feared bad news we were able to tell him our search had been successful and we had found his long lost contact only a few offices away. Mr CEO kept cool but you could sense his emotion as the door creaked open and after a pause for effect the Sales Director walked in with a sales forecast! The first time the CEO had seen a sales forecast split by brand and by sku in ages.

The sales forecast and the CEO are now in monthly contact and planning for a much better sales future.

So there you have it. Another success for Missing Pieces/Fractured Families/Long Lost Family as I smugly close this weeks’ show.