Part 10: BOARDROOM DECISION
Sean was awakened by the sunlight as it crept through the large windows in his penthouse apartment. Feeling a slight pain in the back of his head from the position he had slept in the night before along with the shots of vodka he had drank, he slowly stood up as he rubbed the back of his neck. Looking over on the mantle, he noticed that it was 7:15am indicating that he had just enough time to shower, get ready and be at work before the 9:30 board meeting.
After starting the coffeepot, he slowly made his way to the bedroom and shed his clothing to take a shower. On his way into the bathroom, he noticed the red flash blinking on his answering machine, so he pushed the Play button to hear his messages. The first call was from his father who had called indicating that he would not be at the board meeting today and requesting that Sean come spend the weekend in Greenwich to see his grandfather who had grown more ill over the years. The next call was Sheridan who wanted to spend some time with him. Sean had avoided seeing her for two weeks and knew he would not be able to hold off too much longer; after all they were supposed to be dating seriously. He was getting tired of the charade, but being with her was safe and kept him at arms length from women who had their eye on him. He decided he would call her at lunch to make a dinner date, knowing this would keep her happy at least for another couple of weeks.
After his shower Sean quickly made his way out the door after picking up his paperwork and a cup of coffee to help lessen the light pounding in his head.
He arrived at the office around 9:10am and swept past Charlotte with a sudden "Mornin".
After settling in, there was a knock at his door.
"Come on in..."
It was Charlotte; all dressed up in a revealing black mini dress and another pair of 3 inch heels and her curly auburn hair draped wildly over her shoulders. 'Will she ever stop?' Sean thought to himself.
"Mr. Logan, the board members are gathering now for the meeting you set up for this morning. I'm going to make my way in there also. Is there anything you need before we go in?" She asked smiling at him and hoping he would ask her about her car or something.
"Thanks, Charlotte." He was trying to be brief so she wouldn't have to linger around. "Could you call Windows on the World and make dinner reservations for two for tomorrow night?"
"It's already Thursday, so it may be a little late for reservations. You know they get booked up so early in the week." She was disgusted because she knew it was for he and Sheridan.
"Could you do it anyway, you never know."
"Sure Mr. Logan. Anything else?" She was wishing that there were some way she could move Sheridan out of the way, so that she could make a serious play for Sean. She saw how he reacted to her appearance as she walked in.
"No. Thanks." He said, not looking at her, but instead rummaging through his briefcase to collect the materials he would need for the meeting. He refrained from asking her about her car figuring she had handled that on her own, and he didn't want to give her another opportunity to back him into a corner.
Charlotte left his office pleased with her choice of attire and convinced that it would keep Sean's eyes on her for the rest of the day.
Sean gathered up his material and headed for the conference room where some of the board members were standing around discussing their findings on which company they wanted and others were draped in their seats staring at Charlotte and practically drooling at the mouth.
"Hello gentlemen, could we all take our seats please and get this started." Sean stated ready to get things moving.
Everyone filed into their seats and waited for Sean to take direction.
Standing at the head of the large oak table, Sean put his hand at his waist and began the meeting. "We all know why we're here today. I trust none of you got any sleep last night because of mulling over who would get this lucrative contract to save our butts, so I'm anxious to hear what you each have come up with." Sean looked around the room prompting for initial comments.
Finally, Paul Davis volunteered to throw in his opinion. He was a short, balding man who was soft spoken, but blunt. He was never very thorough about anything. He just said what was on his mind without much to back up any arguments he may present.
"I really think that the best candidate is the Becker & Becker firm. They have obviously been around for a while and they are actually auditing a few of the companies in this building, so they may be able to get started right away."
James Payton, who was the 4th largest shareholder behind Grandpa William, Phillip and Sean chimed in next. He was in his late 30's with short blonde hair and deep brown eyes. He and Charlotte had a fling two years earlier until he told her he was finished with her and had no more use of her services. Where women were concerned he fancied himself a conqueror of whomever he set his sights on. He would charm them with his wits and smooth tongue, lavish them with expensive gifts and convince them that they could not live without him and then as soon as it started it would be over leaving the women devastated and confused. He had inherited his shares along with his money from his financier father who made his fortune as a financial advisor to the wealthy in Europe. His father had also been a good friend of Phillip Logan and bought up some shares 20 years earlier when the stock was low. In business, James did not have too much scholarly knowledge only common sense to drive him forward and this is what others respected about him. He was a heckler for details whose main goal was to make money, and he knew the only way to do that was to have his investments, including Crealite, Inc., work efficiently. He always recognized others who had the knack for making sure that happened. He was outspoken, arrogant and crude but he was successful and because of this most of the board members respected his opinion.
Sean however, did not care for James as a man because he saw the devastation of the women he left behind. He even remembered when Charlotte was dumped and she took two weeks off. Even when she came back, it took her months to perform at the levels she had before she and James became an item. In spite of his dislike for James, Sean did admire his aggressiveness and his lack of need for conformity. James Payton played by his own rules and nobody else's, so he listened as James replied to Paul.
"That's lame Paul, you must have heard about them in the elevator or something because if you had read their prospectus, you would have seen that their revenue has declined for the past 4 years. They may be out of business themselves soon. If you read the newspapers you'll also see that they recently gave a few bad audits, for which they are being sued by two of their former clients. Not to mention their projected cost for doing this project. What kind of business redevelopment can they do for that little bit of money? If you ask me, they're just trying to come in as the lowest bidder so that they can generate some kind of revenue for themselves, and if we take the bait, we're just gonna get a half baked job and end up in worse shape than we already are." James retorted, disgusted with Paul Davis' uneducated suggestion. He was convinced that the man had no interest in the welfare of the company and if he did he just wasn't trying hard enough.
"Good point James. Any other suggestions?" Sean asked.
"I liked Arthur Anderson. We know their reputation and we know that we can trust them. It's got to be them hands down," Thomas Githens added. He was one of the older ones on the board and was consistently satisfied to take the old school route. He was never really open to innovation and new ideas pointing out the dangers of these 'new fangled way of doing things'. Money was never an issue. He felt that whatever the cost the old way was always better.
James had to disagree citing, "Yeah, but you forget that our budget for this is limited and Arthur Anderson is way above and beyond what we can pay. Did you read the offer price? If not, then turn to page 39 in their proposal." Everyone turns as James continues to speak. "If you also turn to our own prospectus on page 22 and look in our income statement under operating budget for administrative costs you'll see that we can't even consider them."
Thomas objects suggesting, "We could take out a loan for the requisition amount, and at least we won't have to worry about a thorough job being done and if the people are qualified to handle something this large and important."
One of the other board members spoke up, "But Thomas, what kind of loan debt or equity? We can't afford either one. If we took out a loan that large, the interest by itself on the loan payments would break us unless any of you want it to come out of your own pockets and cover it. I know I sure can't do that."
Everyone solemnly agreed with the previous speaker and then there was a brief silence. It was as if no one wanted to mention the third company. After all they were all part of the old boys club. Older white males had always occupied the board and not even the exceptional white women in the company had succeeded in breaking the glass ceiling. Finally, James spoke up again.
"Look everyone, let's get to the point. Most of us, I would think, took a good look at these company proposals and their individual prospectus. And there is no question that the best company to fulfill our needs is this Powers & Lambert. Now, I know we have never worked with a minority company before, and I think this is why no one has mentioned them as a prospect, but if you look at their prospectus, you'll see that yes they've only been in business for 7 years, but their trend line is almost vertical, revenues are continually increasing and their client base is getting broader and better. We're gonna have to put this old boys attitude to the side so that we can make some progress around here."
"Who are some of their recent clients? And what is their assessment on the work P & L performed?" Another board member asked.
Several other board members answered.
"Well, there was an article in the Financial Times about them doing an audit of Kellogg and American Express. They also landed a deal with Maytag a few months ago to reevaluate their business because of the new CEO."
"Yeah, I have a friend who's a Vice President at Maytag, and I called him to ask him about the company. He had nothing but praise for them and said that his company has already projected an annual savings of about $1.8 million a year because of reprioritizing their industry operations with the help of P & L. He mentioned that the two partners, Jonathan Lambert and Elana Powers, personally work with their clients and they don't just leave it up to their subordinates."
"$1.8 mill huh?" Sean asked, trying to avert attention from the red flush on his face at hearing Elana's name. He saw where James was directing the board and he saw that no one could argue with him after these facts were just verbalized. Despite his personal feelings of not wanting to come in contact with Elana again after all of these years Sean had to admit that her company was the best on the list and that she and her partner could definitely turn things around for Crealite. The only problem now was getting the older board members to take a chance on a minority firm, so he interjected,
"If we could project a consistent significant savings for 6 to 8 quarters similar to Kellogg, we would be out of this slump. But what about Powers & Lambert's asking price to do the work. What does everyone think about that?"
Thomas offered his opinion stating, "It's a little more than I would think to pay a minority firm, but I'm sure we can offer them something significantly lower and they'll be glad to take it?"
James was annoyed at the suggestion saying, "Now why would you want to do that when they have explicitly defined how much they need to complete this project. Their pricing structure is more than reasonable for a company their size and with the experience they have. We couldn't get away with offering them less money even if we tried. Some of my business associates say the woman who heads this operation is all business and any hint of discrimination or funny stuff because they're a minority company and she won't deal with you period. She's said to know just about everything there is to know about reengineering businesses as well as the financial aspects of how a company should budget and finance their operations to keep revenues at a maximum and boost earnings per share ratios. She's like a walking library on the subject and that's why they're so successful. So it seems that we really need them now considering our situation regardless of what color they are. I don't think we should play with them on pricing because we may end up loosing out."
"You're right James, we won't be haggling over prices. Whoever is chosen will get what they ask for. Does anyone else have any comments or ideas?" Sean asked.
Paul Davis added, "What if they don't do a good job. Then that's going to do us in and them. I don't want to be responsible for putting a minority company out of business."
Sean was now getting as irate as James already was and answered Paul. "It seems that your worries are unfounded because their tract record is excellent and has been for the past 6 years at least. We need to get beyond this color barrier and recognize that this is the best company for the job, and we should let them come in and do what they do best. The only other viable choice is Arthur Anderson and they're just too expensive for our pockets right now. Is there anything else to be said on this subject before we vote on it?"
No one responded.
"Well on that note let's have a vote. All those in favor of Becker & Becker, please indicate by a show of hands" Only Paul raised his hand meekly, then put it down after seeing that no one else shared his opinion. Sean continued, "Ok all those in favor of Arthur Anderson please indicate such by a show of hands." About 4 out of the 16 members raised their hands. "Now all those in favor of Powers & Lambert, please indicate such by a show of hands." The remaining 12 members raised their hands; many doing so reluctantly, but knowing this was their best choice.
"It seems that Powers & Lambert has it. All those in favor of the motion to select Powers & Lambert as the designated CPA firm to overhaul our business, say I"
Everyone said "I" in unison and Sean continued, "Those opposed say na." No one objected. "Let it be recorded that I put forth the motion to select Powers & Lambert as the designated CPA firm to overhaul our business. Anyone to second the motion?"
James raised his hand. "I second the motion."
Addressing Charlotte, Sean directed, "Ms Braumly would you please record that the Board has unanimously voted for Powers & Lambert and that the vote was motioned and seconded by myself and James respectively. Now gentlemen on to other business..."
The meeting went on until 11:30 with board members relaying news for the week from various departments and bringing out potential problems that would need to be solved in the near future. Afterwards everyone broke for lunch. Sean instructed Charlotte to inform P & L of their decision and to set up a meeting at their convenience. He also asked her to set up the meeting with his father because he did not want to risk having to deal with Elana even though he knew that the actual partners rarely did the footwork. His life was simple and uncomplicated, and for now he wanted to keep it that way.
Satisfied with the choice the board had made and feeling somewhat proud of Elana for accomplishing all that she had in such a short time, Sean remembered what George Powers had told him about wanting Elana to accomplish all that he had and even more. Now it seemed that she had. She was a founding partner in a CPA firm that had quickly gained the respect of major corporations and had even broken the invisible glass ceiling at his own company. From looking at their prospectus he could see that she was on her way up even further and he surmised that she had everything she could ever want. He briefly wondered if she had gotten married and had children, but dismissed it knowing that she must have because surely no man, once he encountered her would let her get away, not like he had. With that thought he retired to his office for the remainder of the day.
Sean was awakened by the sunlight as it crept through the large windows in his penthouse apartment. Feeling a slight pain in the back of his head from the position he had slept in the night before along with the shots of vodka he had drank, he slowly stood up as he rubbed the back of his neck. Looking over on the mantle, he noticed that it was 7:15am indicating that he had just enough time to shower, get ready and be at work before the 9:30 board meeting.
After starting the coffeepot, he slowly made his way to the bedroom and shed his clothing to take a shower. On his way into the bathroom, he noticed the red flash blinking on his answering machine, so he pushed the Play button to hear his messages. The first call was from his father who had called indicating that he would not be at the board meeting today and requesting that Sean come spend the weekend in Greenwich to see his grandfather who had grown more ill over the years. The next call was Sheridan who wanted to spend some time with him. Sean had avoided seeing her for two weeks and knew he would not be able to hold off too much longer; after all they were supposed to be dating seriously. He was getting tired of the charade, but being with her was safe and kept him at arms length from women who had their eye on him. He decided he would call her at lunch to make a dinner date, knowing this would keep her happy at least for another couple of weeks.
After his shower Sean quickly made his way out the door after picking up his paperwork and a cup of coffee to help lessen the light pounding in his head.
He arrived at the office around 9:10am and swept past Charlotte with a sudden "Mornin".
After settling in, there was a knock at his door.
"Come on in..."
It was Charlotte; all dressed up in a revealing black mini dress and another pair of 3 inch heels and her curly auburn hair draped wildly over her shoulders. 'Will she ever stop?' Sean thought to himself.
"Mr. Logan, the board members are gathering now for the meeting you set up for this morning. I'm going to make my way in there also. Is there anything you need before we go in?" She asked smiling at him and hoping he would ask her about her car or something.
"Thanks, Charlotte." He was trying to be brief so she wouldn't have to linger around. "Could you call Windows on the World and make dinner reservations for two for tomorrow night?"
"It's already Thursday, so it may be a little late for reservations. You know they get booked up so early in the week." She was disgusted because she knew it was for he and Sheridan.
"Could you do it anyway, you never know."
"Sure Mr. Logan. Anything else?" She was wishing that there were some way she could move Sheridan out of the way, so that she could make a serious play for Sean. She saw how he reacted to her appearance as she walked in.
"No. Thanks." He said, not looking at her, but instead rummaging through his briefcase to collect the materials he would need for the meeting. He refrained from asking her about her car figuring she had handled that on her own, and he didn't want to give her another opportunity to back him into a corner.
Charlotte left his office pleased with her choice of attire and convinced that it would keep Sean's eyes on her for the rest of the day.
Sean gathered up his material and headed for the conference room where some of the board members were standing around discussing their findings on which company they wanted and others were draped in their seats staring at Charlotte and practically drooling at the mouth.
"Hello gentlemen, could we all take our seats please and get this started." Sean stated ready to get things moving.
Everyone filed into their seats and waited for Sean to take direction.
Standing at the head of the large oak table, Sean put his hand at his waist and began the meeting. "We all know why we're here today. I trust none of you got any sleep last night because of mulling over who would get this lucrative contract to save our butts, so I'm anxious to hear what you each have come up with." Sean looked around the room prompting for initial comments.
Finally, Paul Davis volunteered to throw in his opinion. He was a short, balding man who was soft spoken, but blunt. He was never very thorough about anything. He just said what was on his mind without much to back up any arguments he may present.
"I really think that the best candidate is the Becker & Becker firm. They have obviously been around for a while and they are actually auditing a few of the companies in this building, so they may be able to get started right away."
James Payton, who was the 4th largest shareholder behind Grandpa William, Phillip and Sean chimed in next. He was in his late 30's with short blonde hair and deep brown eyes. He and Charlotte had a fling two years earlier until he told her he was finished with her and had no more use of her services. Where women were concerned he fancied himself a conqueror of whomever he set his sights on. He would charm them with his wits and smooth tongue, lavish them with expensive gifts and convince them that they could not live without him and then as soon as it started it would be over leaving the women devastated and confused. He had inherited his shares along with his money from his financier father who made his fortune as a financial advisor to the wealthy in Europe. His father had also been a good friend of Phillip Logan and bought up some shares 20 years earlier when the stock was low. In business, James did not have too much scholarly knowledge only common sense to drive him forward and this is what others respected about him. He was a heckler for details whose main goal was to make money, and he knew the only way to do that was to have his investments, including Crealite, Inc., work efficiently. He always recognized others who had the knack for making sure that happened. He was outspoken, arrogant and crude but he was successful and because of this most of the board members respected his opinion.
Sean however, did not care for James as a man because he saw the devastation of the women he left behind. He even remembered when Charlotte was dumped and she took two weeks off. Even when she came back, it took her months to perform at the levels she had before she and James became an item. In spite of his dislike for James, Sean did admire his aggressiveness and his lack of need for conformity. James Payton played by his own rules and nobody else's, so he listened as James replied to Paul.
"That's lame Paul, you must have heard about them in the elevator or something because if you had read their prospectus, you would have seen that their revenue has declined for the past 4 years. They may be out of business themselves soon. If you read the newspapers you'll also see that they recently gave a few bad audits, for which they are being sued by two of their former clients. Not to mention their projected cost for doing this project. What kind of business redevelopment can they do for that little bit of money? If you ask me, they're just trying to come in as the lowest bidder so that they can generate some kind of revenue for themselves, and if we take the bait, we're just gonna get a half baked job and end up in worse shape than we already are." James retorted, disgusted with Paul Davis' uneducated suggestion. He was convinced that the man had no interest in the welfare of the company and if he did he just wasn't trying hard enough.
"Good point James. Any other suggestions?" Sean asked.
"I liked Arthur Anderson. We know their reputation and we know that we can trust them. It's got to be them hands down," Thomas Githens added. He was one of the older ones on the board and was consistently satisfied to take the old school route. He was never really open to innovation and new ideas pointing out the dangers of these 'new fangled way of doing things'. Money was never an issue. He felt that whatever the cost the old way was always better.
James had to disagree citing, "Yeah, but you forget that our budget for this is limited and Arthur Anderson is way above and beyond what we can pay. Did you read the offer price? If not, then turn to page 39 in their proposal." Everyone turns as James continues to speak. "If you also turn to our own prospectus on page 22 and look in our income statement under operating budget for administrative costs you'll see that we can't even consider them."
Thomas objects suggesting, "We could take out a loan for the requisition amount, and at least we won't have to worry about a thorough job being done and if the people are qualified to handle something this large and important."
One of the other board members spoke up, "But Thomas, what kind of loan debt or equity? We can't afford either one. If we took out a loan that large, the interest by itself on the loan payments would break us unless any of you want it to come out of your own pockets and cover it. I know I sure can't do that."
Everyone solemnly agreed with the previous speaker and then there was a brief silence. It was as if no one wanted to mention the third company. After all they were all part of the old boys club. Older white males had always occupied the board and not even the exceptional white women in the company had succeeded in breaking the glass ceiling. Finally, James spoke up again.
"Look everyone, let's get to the point. Most of us, I would think, took a good look at these company proposals and their individual prospectus. And there is no question that the best company to fulfill our needs is this Powers & Lambert. Now, I know we have never worked with a minority company before, and I think this is why no one has mentioned them as a prospect, but if you look at their prospectus, you'll see that yes they've only been in business for 7 years, but their trend line is almost vertical, revenues are continually increasing and their client base is getting broader and better. We're gonna have to put this old boys attitude to the side so that we can make some progress around here."
"Who are some of their recent clients? And what is their assessment on the work P & L performed?" Another board member asked.
Several other board members answered.
"Well, there was an article in the Financial Times about them doing an audit of Kellogg and American Express. They also landed a deal with Maytag a few months ago to reevaluate their business because of the new CEO."
"Yeah, I have a friend who's a Vice President at Maytag, and I called him to ask him about the company. He had nothing but praise for them and said that his company has already projected an annual savings of about $1.8 million a year because of reprioritizing their industry operations with the help of P & L. He mentioned that the two partners, Jonathan Lambert and Elana Powers, personally work with their clients and they don't just leave it up to their subordinates."
"$1.8 mill huh?" Sean asked, trying to avert attention from the red flush on his face at hearing Elana's name. He saw where James was directing the board and he saw that no one could argue with him after these facts were just verbalized. Despite his personal feelings of not wanting to come in contact with Elana again after all of these years Sean had to admit that her company was the best on the list and that she and her partner could definitely turn things around for Crealite. The only problem now was getting the older board members to take a chance on a minority firm, so he interjected,
"If we could project a consistent significant savings for 6 to 8 quarters similar to Kellogg, we would be out of this slump. But what about Powers & Lambert's asking price to do the work. What does everyone think about that?"
Thomas offered his opinion stating, "It's a little more than I would think to pay a minority firm, but I'm sure we can offer them something significantly lower and they'll be glad to take it?"
James was annoyed at the suggestion saying, "Now why would you want to do that when they have explicitly defined how much they need to complete this project. Their pricing structure is more than reasonable for a company their size and with the experience they have. We couldn't get away with offering them less money even if we tried. Some of my business associates say the woman who heads this operation is all business and any hint of discrimination or funny stuff because they're a minority company and she won't deal with you period. She's said to know just about everything there is to know about reengineering businesses as well as the financial aspects of how a company should budget and finance their operations to keep revenues at a maximum and boost earnings per share ratios. She's like a walking library on the subject and that's why they're so successful. So it seems that we really need them now considering our situation regardless of what color they are. I don't think we should play with them on pricing because we may end up loosing out."
"You're right James, we won't be haggling over prices. Whoever is chosen will get what they ask for. Does anyone else have any comments or ideas?" Sean asked.
Paul Davis added, "What if they don't do a good job. Then that's going to do us in and them. I don't want to be responsible for putting a minority company out of business."
Sean was now getting as irate as James already was and answered Paul. "It seems that your worries are unfounded because their tract record is excellent and has been for the past 6 years at least. We need to get beyond this color barrier and recognize that this is the best company for the job, and we should let them come in and do what they do best. The only other viable choice is Arthur Anderson and they're just too expensive for our pockets right now. Is there anything else to be said on this subject before we vote on it?"
No one responded.
"Well on that note let's have a vote. All those in favor of Becker & Becker, please indicate by a show of hands" Only Paul raised his hand meekly, then put it down after seeing that no one else shared his opinion. Sean continued, "Ok all those in favor of Arthur Anderson please indicate such by a show of hands." About 4 out of the 16 members raised their hands. "Now all those in favor of Powers & Lambert, please indicate such by a show of hands." The remaining 12 members raised their hands; many doing so reluctantly, but knowing this was their best choice.
"It seems that Powers & Lambert has it. All those in favor of the motion to select Powers & Lambert as the designated CPA firm to overhaul our business, say I"
Everyone said "I" in unison and Sean continued, "Those opposed say na." No one objected. "Let it be recorded that I put forth the motion to select Powers & Lambert as the designated CPA firm to overhaul our business. Anyone to second the motion?"
James raised his hand. "I second the motion."
Addressing Charlotte, Sean directed, "Ms Braumly would you please record that the Board has unanimously voted for Powers & Lambert and that the vote was motioned and seconded by myself and James respectively. Now gentlemen on to other business..."
The meeting went on until 11:30 with board members relaying news for the week from various departments and bringing out potential problems that would need to be solved in the near future. Afterwards everyone broke for lunch. Sean instructed Charlotte to inform P & L of their decision and to set up a meeting at their convenience. He also asked her to set up the meeting with his father because he did not want to risk having to deal with Elana even though he knew that the actual partners rarely did the footwork. His life was simple and uncomplicated, and for now he wanted to keep it that way.
Satisfied with the choice the board had made and feeling somewhat proud of Elana for accomplishing all that she had in such a short time, Sean remembered what George Powers had told him about wanting Elana to accomplish all that he had and even more. Now it seemed that she had. She was a founding partner in a CPA firm that had quickly gained the respect of major corporations and had even broken the invisible glass ceiling at his own company. From looking at their prospectus he could see that she was on her way up even further and he surmised that she had everything she could ever want. He briefly wondered if she had gotten married and had children, but dismissed it knowing that she must have because surely no man, once he encountered her would let her get away, not like he had. With that thought he retired to his office for the remainder of the day.