Chapter 6: A Challenging Proposal

The office was a drag on Monday morning. All work - redistributing responsibilities, checking on customers and prospects, talking to staff, colleagues and my boss, and preparing for my trip to Melbourne and then, the next week, to Brisbane. There, one visit was to a satisfied customer, more a courtesy call from a new executive than anything else. The other one, National Transports, a transport company, operating throughout Australia but concentrated in Queensland and partly invading farther south, was something else. Peter had tried to broaden the sale of our products and services several times and had come back defeated every time. He believed that it wasn’t the quality of our proposals, but that the CEO, Mrs. Monahan, was the devil herself. She was never satisfied and always wanted more and expressed her opinion rather decisively. One of the problems was that she ran the company with an iron fist, and it was very profitable. What could we offer to make them any better?

I also wondered about Maureen’s name (Monahan) and the suspicious remark she had made when I mentioned the Iron Lady. Why had she smirked?

I had asked my people to do some research on methods of transportation in Australia and, based on our contacts with the National Association of Transport Companies and our customers, we had a good overview of general information and the balance sheets of the major companies. Was there anything that in reality was different from what the official numbers showed? I remembered Maureen’s comment on the illusion of reality and looked at the numbers again.

Compared to the competition, their margins looked fine, but what if I were to look at them in a different way? They had fewer trucks than the other companies, and if one calculated the cost of these trucks per unit the result was considerably higher than the numbers I had from the States, and even higher than those of some local competitors. Analysing personnel costs, a similar picture developed. Perhaps there was an opportunity to propose to NT a detailed analysis of these and corresponding figures and we might have a chance of a promising proposal. They charged high freight rates, using their exclusive location in the east and north of Australia. Had they found a market niche? I also remembered that I still had some data on American trucking companies lying around that might be interesting. I called my people in and suggested that we should work along this line and that I wanted ideas by noon tomorrow.

In the afternoon Peter walked into my office and closed the door.

“James, what happened between you and Maureen over the weekend? Her mother called me and was very troubled that her daughter came back from Sydney completely changed from when she left. She interrogated Maureen, and she can be quite formidable! But the only answer she got was that she had met a guy at my house, had gone out for dinner and to the opera, and that the rest was her own business. She was baffled, however, because Maureen was smiling most of the evening.”

He started to smirk. Perhaps there was a payback for the Grange coming up?

“So, her mother asked me about the guy Maureen had met in my house and I had to tell her the truth about you - that you came from a well-known Nazi family, were a typical rancorous German, quite ugly, but she shouldn’t worry because you’re gay. This didn’t calm her down, however, and she wanted your telephone numbers. Expect her to call you tonight.”

He left my office and left me sitting there absolutely stunned. Nazi? Ugly? Gay? What had I ever done to Peter? I got up and walked over to his office.

“You have two options - you can confirm that you said this to Maureen’s mother, and I am going to hit you. Remember that I go to martial art classes and I am a fifth Dan black belt. Or you tell me what you really said, and we might continue to be friends.”

He laughed and said that his comments were a bit friendlier and that I shouldn’t worry. I should still be prepared, however, to receive a call from the lady. And would I please tell him what had gone on between Maureen and me? Why was she smiling?

As I turned away, I told him that it was our own business, that he should tell me who this lady is who was questioning him, and why she was concerned about Maureen.

‘Well, I hesitate to tell you, but it is better you find out now than you get taken by surprise next week. Maureen’s mother is the CEO of the transport company you’re going to see next week.”

“You must be kidding me! Maureen is the daughter of Mrs. Monahan, CEO of NT? Do you know the reason for this treatment? And why did you wait until now to tell me?”

Suddenly I remembered that Maureen had been introduced as Maureen Monahan, but I had not put all the information together, and this was stupid. Perhaps I was not thinking very rationally in her presence?

Peter looked uncomfortable and said that his parents had known Maureen’s parents, but they had grown apart after her father’s death. And Eileen, Mrs. Monaghan, had become a rather bitter and lonely woman, driven by her need to forget her husband. There had been problems between the two women, but that was a story Maureen had to tell me. He reminded me that he had told me at the party that the young lady was the daughter of a business contact of ours in Brisbane?

¨I never thought, however, that things would become romantic between the two of you, so please forgive me. As you said, that’s your business now. Good luck on both fronts - you’ll need it on at least one.”

That certainly put more pressure on me - to confront an irate mother who thought that she had to protect her daughter, while for me she was at the same time being a potential customer. Well, this was why they paid me my un-princely salary.

We worked through the afternoon, and I made certain that I left before seven. Back home, I waited until the clock struck seven and called Maureen. She picked it up on the first ring.

“Darling, how was your day? Did you occasionally think of me?” I asked.

She started to speak at the same time but stopped and let me finish.

“James, my love, it was awful. I couldn’t concentrate on anything throughout the day and I’ve been sitting in front of the phone for over half an hour. Why did you wait until now to call me? Don’t you like me anymore?”

“Maureen, I do have a job and it was not very easy today. Miss Parker, my secretary, even asked me whether I had any problems, because, once in a while, my eyes seemed to glaze over, and I was visibly someplace else. But I managed to survive and did my job. Tell me, why is your mother mad at me? Peter walked into my office today and told me that he had gone through a cross-examination on who I was, what I did, whether I had already committed evil crimes, and so on, and so on. He also told me that she would call me tonight to continue the questioning. What do I have to expect?”

Maureen told me to calm down - she had resolved, or at least reduced, the problem already. She had had a major fight with her mother, had put her foot down that certain subjects were hers and hers alone to resolve, and that despite all her mother’s interference, she still loved her. So, no phone call tonight and could we please talk about something else, like the tingling feelings she had when she remembered that moment at the Gap, and why my voice was so distant. I should be there taking her into my arms! And that right now she was ready to give me a completely free license to hunt freckles all over her body! But unfortunately, this license would expire soon. So what was I going to do about it?

I said that I had a vivid imagination, and I did remember the Gap and the hunting license, and last night, after I had gone to bed, I had extended already the license to all of her delicious body. It didn’t help very much, because afterwards it was worse than before. And I was certain that tonight it would happen again. Perhaps we could caress each other in our thoughts together?

Maureen moaned a bit at the other end and asked me to stop, but that I would have my reward in Brisbane. Before she hung up, I asked her whether she knew that I would make a business presentation to her mother’s company in two weeks’ time on Friday afternoon.

“I feel sorry for you already, darling. She is ready and waiting for you. Try to be objective and don’t let her get under your skin. She can be bad but remember that that Saturday you will have a very loving daughter all to yourself. And just to make you jealous - I am very carefully and in loving detail inspecting all your properties. It tingles nicely. So, get yourself something to eat, have a drink, and think that one day has already passed.”

It dawned on me that the daughter could also be evil, but that the rewards would be much greater.

So the two weeks passed - hard work during the day where the presentation was coming together, running at night and punching the hell out of the big bag to reduce my tension, and nightly phone calls that made me happy and frustrated at the same time. I had agreed with Maureen that I would arrive in Brisbane on Thursday night, would have dinner with my colleagues to go through the presentation with them once more, attend the meeting on Friday,
and she would pick me up at seven to go out for dinner.

I had found that Jim Albright was a good analyst and a natural leader; he just hadn’t been challenged before and I did this now with a vengeance. He helped a lot and I put him on my future promotion list.

The Melbourne meeting went well and there was enough interest to justify meeting agreeing later to meet soon individually with some of the association members. I was puzzled - why was my company not growing much faster? There was a bit of whining and complaining about the unfairness of life and the stupidity of customers and prospects, but nobody seemed to be willing to do something about it.

Then the day arrived - Brisbane, here I come!

The flight was quiet, and I chose to read a book, one of these airport spy thrillers, rather than go through my presentation for the umpteenth time. My colleagues were farther back and most seemed to sleep. Good for them; they didn’t have to do the presentation to the Iron Lady!

The weather in Brisbane was fine and hot, perhaps a good omen?

The first meeting went well, and the customer was happy with our products and service. After a quick lunch we walked into the NT building and were escorted to the main meeting room. It was decorated with a big meeting table, dark leather chairs and two large paintings of an Australian landscape hanging on the walls. We set up our equipment and waited for the NT executives.

The door opened and there she was. The redoubtable Mrs. Monahan, accompanied by a woman and four men. I knew at that moment where Maureen had inherited her beauty. She was stunning - long red hair twisted into a knot at her back, dressed severely, in a business suit, and striding forward aggressively. Before even sitting down, she attacked.

“Mr. Winter, this is the third presentation I am about to receive from your company about how to run NT better. Tell me why we should change our ways - we never saw any reason to do so before. Why should we now?”

There was a moment of silence and even her colleagues looked at her with surprise about this unnecessary aggressiveness. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

“Mrs. Monahan, I would first like to introduce myself and my colleagues before I try to answer your question. I am new in the job as Manager of Large Customers and had considerable experience outside of Australia.”

I gave her our names and positions, and she did the same for her people. Then I started with our presentation.

“Mrs. Monahan, we looked at all the data at our disposal and I have to admit that your company is doing an outstanding job. You are first in profitability, and among the first in market dominance in your region. There is not very much we could do for you here.”

She looked at me in surprise and asked why we were there at all if we couldn’t do anything. Again, her voice was extremely aggressive, and it seemed to be personal. One of my colleagues looked at me and whispered that he had never seen such behavior before - even from her. I told him to relax.

“Mrs. Monahan, please remember that I said we could not do very much for you in this region, the East of Australia. We believe, however, that your company has everything needed to expand farther south, and our analysis has given us some ideas as to how this could be done.”

“Let’s look at some of your numbers. Compared to your competition you are always among the best, but you are not always the best - something that you could or even should be. What we could see from your freight cost looks OK, but if one goes into more detail one can imagine that a better distribution of trucks and logistics could let you grow without any significant new investments. Let me show you a comparison with some American companies. A similar analysis can be made of your personnel cost.”

And then I want into my spiel. I had rehearsed it well, and the data was not conclusive, but suggested a way to solid growth. She interrupted at the beginning several times, but slowly got involved and asked pertinent questions. Even her colleagues felt courageous enough after the first explosions to ask questions and suggest ideas. I finished the presentation after almost three hours and was exhausted but satisfied. If she wanted to shoot me down, it would be for personal reasons, not for professional ones. We had done a first-class job.

“Mrs. Monahan, you asked us at the beginning what we could do for you, and stated that we had wasted your time twice already. I hope that this time the time was not wasted, even if you do not want to work with us. If you would agree to do so, I am certain that between your people and ours, and some of our combination of equipment and software systems, the presentation could become reality.”

She looked at me for a long time and took a deep breath.

“Mr. Winter, I want to apologise for the way you were received here. It wasn’t a good start, but you ignored it and did an excellent job with your presentation. I cannot tell you now whether we accept your ideas or not; there will be an internal discussion and we will advise you of our decision, but once more my and our thanks for a professional job well done. If we were to go ahead, you can be certain that we would ask you and your colleagues here to be personally involved. Thank you once again.”

We shook hands and when we were leaving, Mrs. Monahan called me back.

“Mr. Winter, I must admit that you surprised me. I was ready to rip your head off and you took everything with serenity, answering with data and well thought out ideas. I begin to see what my daughter sees in you and will let you and her go on your way without any interference. Let me just tell you, however, that if you ever hurt Maureen, you will regret it very, very much. I understand that you will see each other tonight and that you will stay until Sunday night. Have fun and come to our house for lunch on Sunday - perhaps a more personal contact can create a better relationship.”

“Mrs. Monahan, I was warned by my people that it would be a tense meeting and I must admit I was not prepared for the initial tension. I believe that I understand your position as a mother but had hoped that you gave your daughter more credit than you seem to have shown. But this is now water under the bridge, and I am looking forward seeing you on Sunday. I promise that I will tell my colleagues that you were formidable, but not deadly.”