It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [14]
I look at them. They have too much confidence in me. Much too much. Not knowing what to say, I ask, “Why are you two so worried about it?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Stacey smiles. “We are conservative people, we don’t like any change.”
“Yes,” Bob joins in. “And besides, where are we going to find a boss like you? Someone who is so dumb as to let us do whatever we like.”
“Thank you, Bob. But seriously, why are you worried? You are superb managers, you know Jonah’s techniques inside out. Do you think that you’ll have a problem convincing any boss, whoever it will be, to leave you alone? To let you manage your companies your way?”
“Is this some type of test?” Stacey says in a fiat tone.
“Calm down, Stacey,” Bob says. “Don’t you see what Alex is doing? Alex is rightfully disappointed. He expected us to find the answer on our own, to figure out his plan.” And turning to me, he continues, “So now you are going to ask us pointed questions until we, the dummies, figure it out ourselves? No problem!”
Don leans forward. He has bugged me more than once about my plan, and refuses to believe that I don’t have one.
“Can you repeat your question again?” Stacey smiles.
This situation is becoming more and more embarrassing, but now I’m trapped. “What is so unique about working for UniCo?” I ask. “If UniCo decides to sell you to another conglomerate, what do you care?”
That stops them for a moment. “Actually,” Stacey hesitantly answers, “as long as you continue being our boss, we don’t care.”
“Stop the flattery,” I say, “be serious.”
“No, I am serious. Look, you know our situation. You know we got these companies only a year ago, and what shape they were in. But with someone who doesn’t know, and doesn’t care, and moreover doesn’t understand our mode of doing business, do you think we stand a chance?”
Bob continues in the same vein. “They’ll just look at the bottom line numbers and see that my company is still losing money, and Stacey’s company is barely making it. Then you know what will happen. The ax will come down. They’ll start to cut expenses. They’ll start to force us into the cost world. We’ll resign and our companies will be destroyed.”
Don nods his head in agreement. What do they all want from me? What do they take me for? Why are they so confident that just because I’m the boss, I’ve got the answers?
“If our companies were very profitable,” Stacey adds, “then it would be another ball game, they’d leave us alone. Nobody messes around with a gold mine. But, as Bob said, we’re not there—not yet, at least.”
She is right. “If we were much more profitable . . . ” I echo her words.
“So that’s your solution!” Stacey says in astonishment. “You really are asking for miracles.”
“How much time do we have?” Bob asks.
“How much time until when?” I ask back.
“Until we switch ownership, until we’re sold, until we have to report to another owner?”
“More than three months,” I reply.
Stacey laughs dryly, “Déjà vu. We’ve been here before.”
“Yeah, but this time we are better off. Now we have more time, more than three months,” Bob adds sarcastically.
What they’re referring to is the time we worked together at Bearington, a plant that was a bottomless pit. We had exactly three months to turn it around, or else. . . . That’s when we met Jonah, and started to learn his Thinking Processes. That’s where we did the impossible; we actually turned it around in three months.
“Can we do it?” Don hesitantly asks.
I don’t think so. But if Bob and Stacey are willing to take the challenge, I’ll give it my all. In any event, what other choice do we have?
“Don, you haven’t worked with Alex long enough,” Stacey dismisses him, and then turns back to me. “Okay, Boss. What is the first step? Do you want a review of where we stand now?”
“Certainly,” I say, and look at Bob. “Go ahead, the floor is yours.”
He starts, “Remember the logical trees we constructed on how to handle distribution? Well, we have implemented them. Surprisingly enough we haven’t found any real problems.