It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [58]
Is personality much more focused than we give it credit?
“Julie?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Let’s check something. . . .”
18
“It’s impossible to work with Hilton, I’m telling you.” Bill Peach is deeply irritated.
“I must say that it took you quite a while to reach this startling conclusion,” I tease him.
We are sitting in a restaurant having our monthly lunch. It’s a tradition that started when Bill nominated me to be his replacement as a divisional manager. I enjoy these lunches. For a long time they had been my main channel for hearing all the juicy gossip from the high windows. Bill likes it because he’s always known that I’m totally loyal to him. Today, I’m part of that close circle, which makes our lunch meetings even more fun.
“Come on, tell me, what happened this time?” I’m all ears.
“That bloody rattlesnake. That no good doublecrosser. You won’t believe what he’s done.” Bill still has to release more steam.
“As long as we are discussing Hilton, I’m afraid that I won’t have any difficulty believing anything.”
“You know that Granby has to submit an investment plan to the board?”
“Yes, I know.” I’m not smiling any longer. I also know where the money for those investments is coming from. It’s my companies’ blood that they are fighting over.
Bill is too busy being angry at Hilton to notice me. “So, naturally, Granby turned to Hilton and me to prepare a plan. We decided to be gentlemen about it. Hilton a gentleman, what a joke. I should have known that it would never work. Anyhow, rather than fighting about the money, we decided that each of us would submit a plan for exactly half the sum.”
“And then you find out,” I’ve been with both of them long enough to guess, “that you have submitted a plan for half and Hilton submitted for all of it.”
“Who told you about it? No. It’s so obvious, huh? But you should have been there, when he persuaded me that this time it would be okay. How he proved that it is the only way that makes sense for both of us. And I, the fool, fell for it.”
“You deserve it,” I say.
“Right. Everyone who believes m anything Hilton promises deserves it.”
Vultures deserve whatever is coming to them, I think to myself. We are going to sell my companies and they are already fighting over the blood. Damn Hilton, that’s for sure, but also damn you, Bill.
We eat our club sandwiches in silence.
I’m not fair. What the hell do I want from Bill? That he will not fight for investment for his group? If he was the one that initiated the sale of my companies then it would be another story. But he wasn’t. He was not involved at all.”
You know, Bill, Bob and Stacey are taking it very hard. They don’t like the idea of being sold, one bit. And neither do I.”
“It’s understandable. No one wants to be in your shoes. But that’s life. The periphery is always sacrificed to protect the core.”
“I guess so. By the way, when the time comes, I’m relying on you to find a proper place for Don. Will you?”
“Any time.”
“I’d like him to have a line position. He is ready.”
“I can always use a person like Don. But why do we have to talk about hypothetical situations? Listen, do you know what that creep Hilton suggested? That we invest twenty-two million to buy that worthless company in Idaho.”
“Why?” I’m surprised. “We already checked it out. Their patents are dubious, the real brains left them years ago. Besides, why so much?”
“Hilton had to inflate his plan to show that he needed all the one hundred and thirty million. You see, he didn’t want to use any of the suggestions that Trumann said were no good, so he threw in everything else he could think of. The only criteria was that it look good. And you must admit, on paper that company looks quite good.”
“It’s all a big show,” I sigh. “Granby wants to look better and be able to blame Trumann and Doughty for selling too low, so he pretends that my companies can be sold for much more money than is realistic. Hilton wants to be