It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [35]
“You and your hunches,” Trumann lowers his mug. “But one thing I’ll admit, this ‘cloud’ as Alex calls it, has very few practical ramifications, if any.” Seeing my expression, he asks, surprised, “Don’t you agree?”
I see a golden opportunity to break the good but embarrassing news about Pete’s company, and decide to move on it. “No, I don’t agree.”
As expected, they grab the bait. “What can you do with such a diagram except use it to pass the time in a bar?” Doughty says in a doubting voice.
“Actually,” I decide to be somewhat arrogant, “you bother to write a cloud only if you intend to use it. Of course, if after stating the problem precisely, after writing the cloud, no attempt to solve the problem is made, then I must agree that it is impractical. The real value of the cloud is that it provides a straightforward way to solve the problem, to evaporate the conflict.”
“Do you claim that this diagram,” Doughty carefully peels the napkin from his glass, “can be used to give us tangible results?”
“Yes, that’s precisely what I claim.”
“It can be used to help us win the game?” Trumann sticks to their metaphor.
“The game and even the set.”
“Prove it,” Doughty says firmly.
In an instant I feel like I’m under the microscope, passing through some type of important test. But not to worry. I’m well prepared.
“Let’s take, as an example, the subject we worked on all day—my printing company.” I carefully straighten the napkin. “In order to protect our shareholders we are trying to sell this company, because it is not profitable enough to justify the investment.”
“It is not profitable enough now, and according to your reports, it will be only marginally profitable in the foreseeable future,” Trumann corrects me.
“Yes,” I agree, “that is our assumption. We’ve examined the situation carefully. As you know, the key to substantially increasing profits is to do something about the losses of the wrapper department.”
“If you intend to persuade us to invest in new printing . . . ” Trumann cuts into my explanation.
I don’t hesitate to do the same to him, “And since we know that additional investments are out of the question, we have to figure out how to compose a new offering to the market. An offer based on the existing equipment, very attractive to the market and very profitable for us.”
“In short,” Doughty says, “mission impossible.”
“So it seems.” Smiling, I slowly sip the tasty lager from my mug.
They both look at me. After a while Trumann asks, “Do you mean that you found such a way?”
“So it seems.” I celebrate the moment.
“Alex, I’m going to bring you another pint, but God be with you if you’re pulling our legs.”
Trumann waits until Doughty goes to the bar. “What’s going on? Alex, you told me on the way to Europe that you don’t have a clue how to increase the sales of your companies without increasing expenses. Did something change in the past two days? Or are you trying a kamikaze move to sabotage the sales of your companies?”
“Nothing of the sort,” I assure him. “I know how strange the last five minutes must sound to you, but I’m not playing any tricks. I admit I still don’t know what to do with the other two companies, but as for the printing company, I just got confirmation on the phone that our innovative idea does work.”
“I want to hear all about it.” Trumann is as firm as Doughty.
I wait for Doughty to settle down, and then begin to explain Pete’s solution to them, giving of course the credit to whom it’s due. “So you see,” I end a fifteen minute explanation, “why I couldn’t possibly tell you about it before. I couldn’t expect you to take it seriously. Frankly, until an hour ago, I’m not sure I took it seriously myself.”
“We’ll have to wait and see if the two large deals actually go through, but I’ll admit, it is encouraging.”
“We’ll have to procrastinate with our negotiation on the printing company,” Doughty slowly says. “At least until the situation becomes clearer.”
“Yes,” Trumann agrees, “and we better prepare some more prospects. If what Alex told us becomes reality, this is a totally different