Chapter 18

This called for a really strategic yet graceful ‘advance to the rear’. There was no way in Hell that we could ever comply. Success had bred defeat, our defeat. We would have to send in our ‘Big Guns’ (Erica and Kristi; but only I would offer our apology. Those Katana’s were sharp, right?).

When I kiddingly told my girls what had occurred, through no fault of Miko and kissed them and bid them all a ‘fond farewell’ they, yes they, decided there was more safety in numbers; after-all were they not Daimlers now too? Where they went, could my buddy and his wife not be far behind?

We were off to see the un-official ‘Shogun’ in Edo. (Don’t say that to Honda) Mei was on several phones during what seemed a too short flight.

Twenty minutes before landing at Narita Airport (it seemed lower this year) she came over smiling. OK Mr. Wonderful, your girls have saved your body, at least part of it another time. My government has found another source for shipping. China came through, this, at a time their trade was weakening. They had an incentive.

“Evergreen will join our Troika.” Then she asked Nadia, “so what is a four horse sled called?” She smiled now.

Evergreen was the largest transport company in the world. Mr. Chang officially had his HQs in Taipei, but like many now, Canton and Hong Kong were places where he often could be found.

Mei just shook her head once more and said, “There is something else. Ginny will tell you.”

“Master, Gina and I decided to contact our other ‘friends’ and just handle all the financial, transportation and advertising for all of them just like we (We, sure, we) do for MB and SMART II. We (We, again) will make it a neat ‘package’ since most have multi-line dealers, and will allow us to use mixed-loads in our deliveries.”

When in the Hell had she become the new car guru? I thought that was Dieter and Sven. Man, if one of them did advertising, too, I was going to take that vacation for sure!

Bridget, Monique, even Giselle were now nodding in agreement. Erica was on the phone to Sven as she told (Yes, told) him.) She heard Inga in the background say OK, for Sven. Erica told them that she and Dieter would be back in Germany to finalize that deal, and have VW start by signing the SMART II agreements too. My girls were entitled now to do much, why not, they were good.

Diane was all I had ever wanted, now these girls were building us a world Empire. I said so on the plane before we de-barking of jusy about every project they could. Erica looked at Dieter, they both had looks best reserved when the tax man showed up for an audit though.

Things had gone from a most unpleasant task to one well received, so well in-fact Toyota asked if they could co-locate plants in China and build SMART II cars. Nadia asked about Russia then, she thought some ‘Lada’ (bad, bad cars and trucks, worse than that Yugo, they lasted even longer; also some ‘Lada’ plants might be available there too.

Sure there was something of a competition between Honda and Toyota but with this new deal, each would reduce expenses for themselves and their dealers. If you were a dealer, which car would you order? The one that had shipping and floor plan cost $157 a month less costly, or the Ford or GM ones. At 100 cars a month per premiere dealer, go figure that times an average of six months or more per car and $73 less in Ad dollars. It buys quite a lunch!.

One day Diane came up to me and I got a un-expected kiss.

“What?, I still don’t want you going by Countess Von Falberg. Maybe I need to change my name to Daimler for you.”

Another kiss.

“Maybe you should, but no, I was thinking that we have some agencies and suppliers that need to better understand that all their ‘budgets’ have been cut, and that P B & J and Troika are now in charge, not them.”

The look on my face got big, very big. She was scary and I knew why even when she was good, that could be very deadly. I liked her style. I might think of one or two more ‘adjustments’ we might make.

That email network was worked overtime, both within the groups and through any old or new agency we might consider in the future for all the group, not just MB. There were changes coming.