by Mel Walker
Leslie stepped toward the machine and pressed a few additional buttons. "That’s enough for now." She removed the wood and walked back toward the web camera and held it up slowly rotating it. "As you can see here is the golden arches,.." she twisted it slowly, "the bakery oven, the wheat, and of course... Jerry's dinner and diner."
The room laughed and then migrated to applause.
"Craftsmanship, quality product delivered to your customer with no restrictions as to how customized you'd like to make each facility. Think about it. You could list and show local landmarks, even local sights appreciated in that market. Help Java connect, help Java show that they are community-based." She returned to her research points. "These custom frames will help with your corporate strategy. Everyone knows you have the capabilities to open up a string of bakery shops nationwide, become the Starbucks of bake shops but it's not what you want. Java wants to leverage the local community shop that is already a part of the neighborhood. Each shop not only plugged into that community but unique within the Java eco-system, no two stores alike.
Some will be large, loud, busy with wide spaces, others small intimate shops. Each with a different design, each with a different set of frames.
The only thing consistent from shop to shop is the one of a kind workplace desk and the Java experience. Quality baked goods, incredible technology, and custom artwork and frames to appeal to the community.
We are here to support this vision. Peter and I feel that not only are we qualified and excited by this opportunity but we have such a unique product offering that we are confident you will not find another vendor who can offer this combination of expertise, quality, craftsmanship, and ability to support an aggressive rollout."
Leslie was practically beaming as she completed her wrap-up.
She knew that had performed well, but it wasn't until the question and answer session that she realized how well they had done. There were only a handful of questions, more comments than questions, which were a sure sign. The comments were all of the complimentary kind, and even the feedback was geared toward how soon could they gear up, and a few about the technology behind the frames.
Leslie wanted so much to beam about her brilliant husband, but Justin left explicit instructions with Peter that all frame technology be credited to Leslie and her company. In fact, the patent was going to be filed under her company's name. Justin didn't want any credit or recognition.
After the presentation wrapped, Leslie watched on the webcam as a beaming Peter shook hands around the room. He even received a hug or two. She could not contain herself as she burst into a laugh, happy that the phone had been disconnected.
As she took in the accomplishment, her thoughts drifted to her brilliant husband and prayers that his day was going half as well as hers.
***
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It only appeared that the podium was still shaking as Justin approached. He tried to push the thoughts of the sloppy presentation from Everett and refocus on his performance.
"Gentlemen, ladies, thank you for having me here today," he began respectfully. He ignored that the fact that just as he started the head of security came into the room and whispered in the ear of the CEO, Jacob Evans.
They both stared up at Justin.
The CEO noticed Justin pause, and he waved his hand as if flicking away a flea, Justin began again.
"A fascinating scenario was presented to us. One approach is to follow what was provided and produce a plan which addresses the needs for cuts as my colleague Everett took," Justin looked over at an embarrassed Everett and almost felt a sense of pity for him, almost.
"But any junior analyst could take that approach. I believe this scenario called for a deeper understanding of not just the financial aspects but also the business aspects of the assignment.
The goal of this exercise isn't in cost reduction it’s in creating a more accountable environment which prioritizes productive, efficient and effective manufacturing without compromising quality."
Justin watched the reaction from the executives in the room intently. A slight nod from Jacob confirmed the meat of the challenge, one which seemed to elude Everett Cooper the Third.
"I can understand how cuts may be perceived as an approach however even if aggressive cuts are implemented, without a change in the corporate philosophy and more specifically the management of these areas the problems will remain, albeit on a smaller scale
I'll jump ahead actually and work my way backward..."
Justin flipped to the worldwide schematic of the factories. "This is the current list of factories, what I am proposing is to close just one factory and open two additional ones." He paused as he received the response he expected.
Justin relaxed as he realized, he didn’t need a day to prepare for this presentation. He had been preparing for nearly thirty days. He knew the manufacturing lines like the back of his hands. He had studied plant growth, efficiency, and product management for longer than his son had been on the planet. His routine of overnight monitoring and early morning reporting had built up a reservoir of knowledge which an analyst would need a year to replicate.
Barry spoke up, "Expand? How? What would you sell? Why?"
Jacob crossed his hands and turned his attention to Barry. He raised his eyebrows ever so slightly and then turned his attention back toward Justin.
Justin flipped to a series of charts, "what you are seeing is a steady decline in the number of retrofits required of the manufacturing equipment, the calibrate rate decreases over time resulting in a reduction of quality issues, reducing recalls, returns, etc. As you can see in six months’ time over three million dollars in savings were accomplished without the loss of production quantity or the closing of any plant."
Barry stepped in, "these numbers are jived to support your hypothesis."
"Excellent point sir, however," Justin stepped away from the podium to his briefcase and pulled out folders of papers and passed them around, "they are real numbers based on assembly line 08327 which I have been monitoring every morning. These are savings - savings which can be replicated across the globe resulting in the saving of tens of millions of dollars, enough to not require the closure of any plants."
The team examined the documents, "how is this even possible in such a short time?"
Justin flipped to another slide which showed his device – the Les More.
“This sir is a proprietary one of a kind instrument which is more accurate, costs a fraction of and is easier to use than any monitor on the market. General Modifications is the only company on the planet with this invention. We have been using this tool on line 08327. If we implement this across the globe and update our quality assurance programs, we will achieve our goals."
"I’ve never heard of this. Who owns it? And, can we be certain it won't make its way to our competitors?" Jacob Evans finally spoke up.
"I'll get to that in a moment, but let’s talk about the new plants."
The team had almost forgotten about that. "There are two other components of the plan which will increase revenues. Secondly, we in-source quality assurance.”
“Insourcing? That would mean we would perform quality assurance activities for our competition. This is absurd, a complete fantasy.” Barry stood. As he turned expecting to receive support from his colleagues he was met with a stern look from Jacob Evans.
“Barry? Will you please stop interrupting? It appears my eyes are being opened to exactly where the talent lies in this organization.”
Barry slinked down to his seat like a snake. “Please continue,” Jacob added.
Justin bit his lower lip to hold back the laugh which was bubbling up. He hid behind a fake cough as he regained his composure, “As I was saying, we bring in manufacturing from other companies strategically, of course, but we convince them we can build their products with better compliance and quality and costs than they could; because we actually can. We use our economies of scale worldwide to sell this a
nd keep all our plants up and running at full capacity.
Which brings me to our last opportunity area: our employees. We have dedicated employees with years of experience which we should be leveraging further. I suggest we create a consulting division, rotate employees through the division and provide industry expertise at a price for those other organizations who are trying to figure out what we can do blindfolded already." Justin flipped a series of charts outlining the cost and revenue and more importantly profit projections.
“One area which General Modifications currently spends less than our competitors on is outside consultants. Why? Because we have talented employees. It’s a competitive advantage, and one we not leveraging at all.”
Justin didn’t have time to prepare financial sound projections, but he could read the mood of the room. It wouldn’t be necessary. He ended with one word, “Profits.”
There was joyous laughter in the room as the men nearly began to count their bonuses in front of Justin.
Jabob stood, "wonderful Justin. Barry, you can stop this silly process- Justin will head the group and will deliver these numbers to us."
"Of course sir. Right away." Barry fumbled and turned to the Human Resources rep, "make it so."
Justin beamed as he shook Jacob’s hand.
The room was covered in smiles, except the one person who should have been smiling the most. Justin bit on his lip and spoke, "There is one other thing, however, and for this, you will need to be seated."
Justin watched their concern looks on their face return as they returned to their seats.
He took a deep breath as he prepared to make the ultimate C.L.M. - a career limiting move.
***
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Justin turned toward the CEO. "This morning you received a disturbing email correct?"
Jacob shifted in his seat, "how do you know about that?"
"And you have been working with security to discover who sent it correct?" Justin continued. “In fact, the only reason you are here today isn’t to monitor these presentations, you wanted to be in the same room as my colleague Marcus Levins, and see how he’s connected to the email, correct?”
Jacob glanced toward the security officer and nodded, "it will be only a matter of time, we are making good progress."
"Well, you can call off the hunt."
"Don't tell me in addition to solving our manufacturing issues you've added internet forensics to your skill set?" he kidded.
Justin laughed, "you can stop looking because I sent that email."
"You did what?"
The room became silent for a few moments.
Justin walked around the podium, "for those not aware, General Modifications has been systematically eliminating senior colleagues, more specifically those approaching thirty years of service and have been removing them through position elimination. I was one of these workers up into a few moments ago - on the bubble."
Justin continued on as Jacob sent one of his underlings out of the room, Justin assumed to notify the rest of the team to call off the hunt.
"I needed to collect evidence but didn't have access, so I used the account of my college Marcus Levins to break into the systems necessary. In the email, I’ve outlined the emails, the reports, and discussions on this topic. The email threated to turn over all this information to a reporter who would, of course, destroy the stock price which in turn would mean the end of our CEO. Shareholders love profits; they don't care how you get them but don't embarrass them or make them lose money. They can be vicious and turn on you in a hot minute."
"You are fired, Jacob barked with fire in his voice.
"Hold on one second, if you fire me don't you think I will go directly to the press with this story?"
"You'll go directly to jail is what you'll do."
"That may be true, but it will be a scorched earth walk to the prison. Who knows you may end up in a cell next to me."
Barry stepped in, "obviously you have a proposal, or else you wouldn't have outed yourself."
Justin stepped back behind the podium, "of course I do," he picked up the clicker and flipped back to the slide depicting the LesMore device. "Ah, the savior of General Modifications. Let's revisit that patent question."
Justin suppressed his smirk as he noticed the room get deathly quiet once again. "The patent is owned by a small firm right here in town, they have worked with General Modifications and will continue to work exclusively with General Modifications under a few conditions. One, the employees targeted for elimination be provided a payout up to their thirtieth anniversary and provided full benefits befitting their years of service. Two, no actions will be taken against me for the infraction of hacking the systems and pulling the data, same for any colleague whose credentials I used and one other..."
"Go ahead,"
Justin’s breath caught as the thought of Leslie and her ability to think on the fly. He channeled her ability to improvise, "That I remain on the payroll to collect my thirtieth anniversary, and then I walk out the door with a nice retirement party which both of you will attend."
"This is outrageous."
"These are my demands. Don't spite your nose, think of the profits ahead."
Jacob rubbed his palms together, a frown spread across his face.
Justin held his breath, noting to never play poker with Jacob Evans.
Jacob clapped his hands together, "Fine. But we have demands as well. We want to meet the owner of the small firm and lock in the exclusive contract."
Justin smiled, "I think I can arrange that. Did I forget to mention that the small company is owned by my beautiful wife?"
Once again the room fell silent.
"How is that even possible?" Jacob asked.
"Because she is bright- brilliant actually." Justin enjoyed his moment in the sunshine.
"Barry, he works for you, is what he is saying true?" He searched for an out.
Barry was clearly flustered, "obviously sir we will need to check this out, however, given the level of detail and the general approach I wouldn't doubt him." Barry lowered his head realizing that he had probably worked his last day under this current regime as well.
Jacob’s eyes flashed. Fight still present and ready to fight on. Just as he was about to speak the underling returned with the head of security. They both approached and huddled quickly for a conference.
Justin paced the front of the room as he sipped from his water bottle. His eyes kept returning to the huddle, attempting to hear the group but it was pointless, both the head of security, as well as Jacob, were too experienced to make such a mistake. After what seemed like minutes but were probably less they broke. The head of security stared in at Justin as he stepped to the near wall and pressed his back against it.
"Ok, Mr. Grant here is what is going to happen. I am not about to come to any final decisions of this magnitude without vetting it with the executive leadership board. And then there is, of course, the matter of you not being exactly truthful with us here, so as Barry has mentioned there is the issue of us verifying some of the elements of your proposal...."
Justin stepped back behind the podium, "that is all fine. I have a few vacation days coming up; I’ll give you forty-eight hours to accept my proposal..."
"Or...?"
"Or nothing, you can do what you wish, but in forty-eight hours that package, as well as a summary of this meeting and this offer, will be sent to my newspaper contact. After that, the pieces fall where they may."
Jacob glared across the room at the security chief, irritation written across his face. He was the type of man used to getting his way and not being bullied. "We'll see what we can do in that timeline, however, consider your proposal as tentatively acceptable, do not move on that information without checking back with us."
"Forty-eight hours sir," Justin repeated.
"You'll have your answer by the end of the day tomorrow." Jacob stood in an attempt to end this embarrassing meeting.
“If you can indulge me for thirty seconds more, sir?” Justin stepped toward him, stopping at a respectful distance.
“I’ve been an employee here at General Modifications for nearly thirty years.” Justin lowered his voice, attempting to have a private conversation. “For the majority of that time, General Modification stood for something. It made innovative products based on its investment in people. People who were allowed to push the envelope, fail on occasion but also allowed to soar. The company treated the employees with respect and was paid back in kind.
The profits were never the end goal, but a by-product. Each succession of leadership shifted the culture. Today we are driven by the bottom line. Answering to Wall Street as opposed to Main Street. My time here is up, I know that. But for all those that remain, I ask you. No, I beg you. Listen to the people and get back to the basics. Make General Modifications the shining example in the industry once again.”
Justin paused as if expecting thunderous applause.
The CEO, however, merely scrunched his face and grunted. He stepped closer to Justin so that no one overheard the conversation. “Those days are gone, Justin. We both know it. The board places unreasonable demands for growth every single quarter, or else. I hear you, I understand the sentiment. I came up with that culture but guess what all of us old soldiers are being farmed out.”
“Sir, with all due respect, you are the CEO. You set the culture. What I outlined here today is a path to profitability in just one line of business. If you took this approach, one which treats your employees as vested, interested partners, you’d be surprised at what they can provide. Give it a chance. That’s all I’m asking.”