Chapter 13

The bed was typical of all beds in hospitals, adjustable but only to uncomfortable positions. It was morning as Ed sat next to Linda holding her while she proceeded to throw up in a small bucket. Rubbing her back and massaging her neck didn’t help her relax. Mornings were the worst for her. In addition to the pains in her abdomen, she suffered from morning sickness. The morning sickness had started the morning after she had slept with John.

Dr. Hayes came in the room about the time that Linda had finished throwing up. Sitting on the other side of the bed, he rested his hands on the head of his cane and then rested his head on his hands. Ed looked over at the doctor and asked, “Dr. Hayes, is this normal?”

The doctor shook his head and answered, “This is the roughest pregnancy that I’ve ever seen. The morning sickness is normal, but the muscle spasms aren’t.”

Linda leaned back in the bed as Ed started rubbing her swollen belly with the lotion. A sigh escaped her lips as the sensation of his touch eased the tension in her belly. They both jumped when the baby inside kicked. Linda said, “Quite active, isn’t he?”

“Is it a he?”

“Or she?” replied Linda with a smile. The smile immediately disappeared as another spasm racked her abdomen.

Ed frowned since his truth sense couldn’t decide which was the correct answer. It took him a minute to realize that she didn’t know the gender of the child. Leaning forward, he kissed her head and said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” replied Linda amazed at the loving care he was giving her.

Dr. Hayes said, “You had better go now if you are going to reach the airport in time.”

Leaving Linda here was one of the hardest things that Ed had ever done. When he had tried to back out of going, everyone in the family had insisted that he go. Bending down, he kissed her forehead and said, “Don’t go anywhere until I get back.”

She forced a laugh and said, “Get out of here.”

Ed left the infirmary of the Druid College and headed to the family suite. Ling watched him as he came closer and asked, “Why do you always take the roughest shift?”

“I love her.”

“We all love her, but this is hurting you,” replied Ling with tears in her eyes. To see Ed so concerned for Linda was hard to watch. It was even harder when he spent nearly fifteen hours a day next to her doing what ever he could to make her feel more comfortable.

“I should cancel my trip.”

“No. You must leave. I have your stuff in the car and I’m ready to drive you to the airport.”

Twenty-one comfortable black leather chairs surrounded the conference table, ten along each side and one at the head of the table. The wood of the table shone with an exceptional sheen that suggested its high cost. All of the men and women seated in the chairs were well-dressed and sitting in very dignified manners. The obvious exception was Ed, who slouched in his chair with his legs crossed with the ankle of his right leg resting on his knee. In front of each person, a leather-bound document rested on the table containing the agenda for the meeting and background information about the company. Ed had read it over very carefully. There was no explanation given for the record losses the company was reporting.

Mr. Howard Hardgrove, the CEO of the airline sat in his chair like a man that rules the world. Despite the fact that his airline was hemorrhaging money, his position was secure. He owned all of the board members. Every year, he received a good bonus and a golden parachute made it virtually impossible for them to fire him. The only way he would lose is if he resigned and that was never going to happen.

The only problem was the presence of the new board member. He stared at the far end of the table at the Druid that a number of stockholders had insisted be given a seat on the board of directors. They hadn’t even told him which Druid to put on the board, only that he was to get a Druid. At least he had used the opportunity to get rid of the pain-in-the-ass that used to occupy that chair.

Seated in the chair at the far end of the table, Ed listened along with the other members of the board as one of the executives discussed the airlines current financial straits. As part of his presentation, a vice president of the company described how he expected to turn a profit though an advertising campaign offering discount fares, painting the planes in a distinctive color, and increasing frequent flyer reward programs. Details as to the cost and return on the plan were a little sketchy.

As everyone nodded in agreement at the plan, Ed snorted in disgust. His reaction caught the attention of Mr. Howard Hardgrove. It was his desire to get them to cut a bonus check for taking such an aggressive action to increase revenues. There was a wonderful little summerhouse that he wanted to buy in Cape Cod. Having a member of the board scoff at the idea was going to make it hard to sell them on the idea. Turning to Ed, he asked, “What do you find so offensive, Dr. Biggers?”

Ed leaned forward and said, “Your flights are flying at an eighty- seven percent occupancy, which happens to be near the highest in the industry. Already, you buy back tickets from your customers because of over-booking practices. Selling more tickets isn’t going to turn this company around. You have to make money on the tickets you are selling.”

“So what do you suggest, if you know so much?” asked the CEO rather irritated at the Druid’s comment. This was his company until they voted him out or he retired. He didn’t appreciate having this Druid shoved down his throat and it was time to put him in his place.

Ed had arrived that morning and been admitted to the board less than an hour before. He had very little insight into how the business was run, but the fact sheets that he had read while waiting for the meeting to begin bothered him tremendously. It wasn’t so much that they were outright lies, but that they didn’t reflect the truth. There was no way to assess the true value of the company. Ed said, “Give me four days of complete access within this company, and I will tell you exactly how to turn it around.”

Howard, voice dripping with sarcasm, said, “It will take you four days to figure out where the bathroom is.”

“Then I take it your answer is no,” replied Ed.

“You can present your findings at the next board meeting in three months,” replied Howard thinking that this concession would prove to some of the more troublesome stockholders that he had tried to cooperate. By that time, he would find some other mechanism to get rid of this pain in his side.

Eyes flashing, Ed stared at the CEO as he said, “The next board meeting is the Stockholders meeting. By that time, this company will have lost a half a billion dollars and won’t be able to recover. Six months from now, you’ll be filing Chapter 11. Look at the numbers yourself and you’ll see that I speak the truth.”

Howard sat back and said, “My offer stands.”

With an abruptness that shocked the others in the room, Ed stood and said, “Fine. I resign and shall inform the stockholders that voted me on the board the reason for my resignation.”

As Ed turned to walk from the room, Howard realized that this man meant business and wasn’t here to play games. If the stockholders found out that he had kept Ed from doing what he was brought in to accomplish, then the next stockholders meeting would be a disaster. Thinking hard, he shouted, “Get back here.”

At the door, Ed turned and said, “Sir, don’t waste my time. In less than a year, John Carter and myself developed a plan that brought down organized crime in America during a single day of raids. If my efforts aren’t supported by you, then nothing I say or do can help this company.”

Slumping in his seat, Howard knew that he was defeated. He replied, “Four days, that’s all you get.”

Ed smiled at what he planned for the next meeting and said, “Great. I’ll make all of the arrangements and we’ll meet in four days from now.”

Howard frowned at the loss of control over the meeting and said, “We’ll adjourn now and meet again in four days.”

Smiling at the discomfort of the CEO, Ed said, “I expect that you’ll introduce me to your executive staff in two hours. I suggest that you tell them that if any of them miss this meeting that you will personally fire them.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Dead serious.” His flat voice conveyed the seriousness of his stance.

For the next two days, Ed spent twenty hours a day going through various aspects of the business as a plan formed in his mind. Walking through the accounting department, he grabbed accountants left and right telling them to follow him to a conference room. Men and women broke down into tears as he pushed them to limits that they had never expected to encounter.

After twelve hours, more people were called into the conference room. These were the individuals that adjusted fares over the course of booking flights. He was relentless in his questioning. With single-minded determination, he sought to understand how every aspect of how fares were computed. These individuals broke down under his constant grilling as he questioned every business practice that they employed in setting fares. Time after time, they had to admit that they had no real data to back up the rules that they followed.

The third day was spent constructing a plan to turn the company around financially. Accountants struggled to make sense of the numbers as a clear picture emerged of how the airline would be run in the future. The people in charge of setting up the fare schedule complained that his approach would lose them passengers. He argued back that they could afford to lose the customers that cost them money. As the argument became more heated, Ed realized it was because they were arguing to keep their jobs. A simple compromise was established.

After his tenth call from Howard Hardgrove and several attempts to undermine his efforts, Ed used his cell phone to call for reinforcements. The plan that emerged was radical, but had the ability to immediately turn the company around, without seriously impacting the majority of people that worked for the firm. There would be some that could be significantly hurt by the changes, but they were the ones most responsible for the problems.

A rather tired Ed sat in the first class seat waiting for the other board members to arrive for the remainder of the board meeting. It was the only first class seat in the plane. There were exactly twenty-one seats in the coach area of the plane. He had worked most of the night getting the plane fixed up for the meeting and hoped that his point would be taken by the other members of the board.

The board members entered the plane not knowing what to expect. The looks on their faces as they were lead to coach seats were priceless. Ed was enjoying himself tremendously as they tried to fit in the narrow chairs with hard cushions. Once they were seated, the ‘fasten seat belt’ sign came on.

Howard complained bitterly about the seating accommodations. He kept elbowing the man seated next to him and his knees were hitting the chair in front of him. Irritated, he said, “You can’t conduct business cooped up like this!”

A very pleased Ed took his seat on the back row as a stewardess lowered a screen for his presentation. While she was busy doing that, another stewardess came up the isle with the pushcart offering each person a beverage and a bag of peanuts. Several of the people sitting on the isle complained when the cart hit their elbows. Tempers were approaching the boiling point and they had only been in the chairs for ten minutes. The stewardess reminded each person that they had to fasten their seat belts.

Once everyone had been served, Ed said, “Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to coach. I think that we would all agree that it isn’t very pleasant. This is the service that you are selling your customers. Lots of comfort for the money, but I’m sure you know that. Oh, wait one minute, you get free first class seats when you fly.”

Howard shouted, “How dare you!”

“With great ease, I assure you,” replied Ed as he turned on the projector for the presentation. “The first slide shows the average cost to transport a customer from one point to another via this airline. Of all your costs, only one is really significant. Thirty-five percent of your cost goes into ticket sales and passenger management. That figure is the amount that it costs you to sell a ticket, give tickets away on overbooked flights, and handle seating assignments. It doesn’t include advertisement.”

As people examined the slide, Ed could tell that there weren’t any surprises in the figures. In a way, that surprised him, but it didn’t slow him down. He flipped up the next slide and said, “For each passenger that you carry, you are losing an average of three dollars.”

Howard interrupted, “So tell us something that we don’t already know.”

This was as Ed suspected all along. They knew that they were losing money, but didn’t want to change the way they operated to make a profit. With a smile, he threw up another slide and said, “This is how the figures could break down if you go along with the plan that I’ve developed.”

There was stunned silence in the plane as people looked at the slide that Ed had put up on the screen. He let them process it for a minute and then said, “Ticket sales and customer management have dropped to one percent of the total cost. Advertising drops to five percent. This is assuming an average occupancy rate of fifty percent for each flight.”

“Fifty?”

“Yes, fifty percent occupancy rate.”

Howard stuttered as he said, “I notice that the fuel and airplane costs have risen to forty percent.”

“Yes, that’s true,” remarked Ed as he looked at the slide.

“Fuel is cheap!” On an earlier occasion, he had claimed that fuel was expensive.

“The reason the percentage is so high is that we are assuming that fifty percent capacity pays for the entire cost of transportation and services. Ninety percent of each ticket sold above that capacity is pure profit,” replied Ed with a smile knowing that he had hit them below the money belt.

“How do you expect to achieve this?” asked Howard convinced that this guy had played with the numbers in some funny manner.

“Do you want the truth?”

The CEO replied, “Of course I want the truth.”

“The first action is to reduce the cost of ticket sales and customer management. We shall have to adopt a fixed rate pricing and a no refund policy on tickets. Once the seats on a plane are sold out, that’s it.”