Chapter 6: A Challenging Proposal

The office was a drag on Monday morning. All work, redistributing responsibilities and among other things, preparing for my trip to Melbourne and then the other 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, an Australia-wide transport company, but concentrating on Queensland and partly invading farther north, was something else. Peter had tried several times to sell our products and had come back defeated every time. He believed that it was not 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 be even better?

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, the percentages of their numbers on cost and expense 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 number was considerably higher than the numbers I had from the States, and even higher than those of some competitors ... Analyzing personnel costs, a similar picture developed. Perhaps there was a chance to propose to NT a detailed analysis of these and corresponding numbers 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 different from when she had left. She interrogated Maureen and she can be quite formidable! But the only answer she received 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, my friend 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 should not worry because you are gay. This did not 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 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 am a fifth Dan. 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 should not worry. I should still be prepared, however, to receive a call from the lady. And would I please tell him what had gone on with 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 now than that you are taken by surprise. Maureen’s mother is the CEO of the transport company you are going to see week after next.”

“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 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 she had to tell me. And why now? 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 emotional between to two of you so, please forgive me. As you said, that is your business now. Good luck on both fronts – on one at least you will need it.”

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?”

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

“James, my love, it was awful. I could not concentrate on anything throughout the day and have been sitting before 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 have glazed 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 a major fight with her mother, had put her foot down that certain subjects were hers to resolve, and hers only, 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 the moment at the Gap, and why my voice was so distant. I should be there taking her into my arms! And at this moment she would give me a completely free license to hunt freckles all over her body! But unfortunately, this license would expire on soon ... So what would I do?

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 did not 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 recompense 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 for yourself. And just to make you jealous: I am inspecting very carefully and in loving detail 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 the 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 once more, have the two meetings on Friday, reserving NT for the last, 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 had just not 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 another meeting soon. I was puzzled: why was this 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 did not 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. 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 lady 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, severely dressed in a business suit, and striding forward aggressively.

“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. Why should we hear another one?”

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 could not do anything. Again, her voice was extremely aggressive, and it seemed to be personal. My colleague 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 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 details 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 the presentation could become reality.”

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

“Mr. Winter, I want to apologize for the way you were received here. It was not a good beginning, 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 for lunch on Sunday to our house – 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.”