The room began to spin around my head and I felt a mild vomiting sensation. Suddenly I could hear Rahul Gupta chuckling to himself slowly in the middle of the front row that is reserved for people who have scored an overall B+ or more in marketing courses. I did not look at Prof. Koshi’s face directly, but from the corner of my eye I could see him opening the textbook to check …

At first I thought I would think on my feet, be resourceful and inventive and manage to present through all the slides by deflecting attention using eloquence and humour. But then I changed my plan, made a gurgling noise, reached for my stomach and fell to one side screaming, ‘Food … Poisoning … Help me!!!’ While falling, in one smooth motion, I reached for my pen drive and pulled it from the classroom computer. Unfortunately it was attached too tightly and I ended up pulling the computer itself from the housing, which pulled the spikebuster board, which then tugged on the LCD projector’s video cable and dislodged it from the overhead holder, and then it fell down on top of Prof. Koshi’s research assistant.

He fell off his chair, tumbled down the steps and fell half on top of me. In the ensuing panic everyone completely forgot about the presentation.

Which, when you think about it, was really my goal from the very beginning. Yes there were some issues in execution but that happens to anybody. In hindsight, when you think about it, there were a couple of problems with my brainwave that retrospectively could have been anticipated.

That is the difference with a SPARK OF BRILLIANCE. An SOB is retrospectively and modernospectively brilliant. It is born as a complete idea. Fully thought out, with no strategic or tactical loopholes.

There is practically NO CHANCE that an SOB (spark of brilliance) cannot win. In other words there is complete chance that the probability of an SOB not failing to succeed is nearly nil. I think.

The reason I introduce the concept of an SOB today is because nothing else will do justice to the idea I had last night.

So I was lying down thinking of what to tell Dominic about the meeting with Tom.

I had no doubt that Dominic would be upset and do choon-choon chayn-chayn when I met him this morning. (I don’t fully understand these childish north Indian usages sometimes. But Gouri uses it a lot.)

As you know Tom was only willing to extend the engagement by another 6 months. And only 7 Dufresne consultants at a time. (This is, honestly speaking, insufficient time to make a genuine strategic transformation to a large diversified international organization like Lederman. Maybe if he wanted us to look at only one or two divisions then ok. Otherwise really it is a waste of time. But if the client wants to commit suicide … who is the consultant to give him advice?)