VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [146]
Therefore, for all of those reasons, throughput had gone up. On the production side of Hi-T, there had been an upward spiral, as predicted by the Turnaround Tree: improved operations had pleased the customers, and pleasant customers had re-energized the sales force, who in turn had delivered more sales. Indeed, Oakton was converting sales orders into delivered goods at a faster rate than at any time before, and revenues ramped upward.
The same was true at F&D, with Sarah delivering faster and better fulfillment of obligations, and Dr. Marv being the catalyst to bring in new accounts to drive revenues. Given the vastly improved efficiency of Joe Tassoni – and the other analysts as well – they were able to get results “out of the building,” which had become Sarah’s mantra, at a faster rate, yet with superb quality and creativity. Again, throughput had increased.
At the same time, inventory and investment had been declining in a relative sense. Inventory in production had contracted thanks to the time-based reordering and the faster, smoother production output. At Rockville, the project inventory – the billable or logged hours against a given project, which could not be billed until certain payment conditions were met – was also down in a relative sense, because the flow was better. Reports were leaving the building quicker, and so were the invoices. As for investment, in both segments, no significant new plants or equipment had been added, so the business was earning more with the same investment – a thing of beauty in the eyes of any capitalist.
Operating expenses: also down in relative terms. Overall expense on the manufacturing side had actually risen slightly, mainly because payroll was higher, as Oakton had hired a few extra hands to protect speed. But in proportion to throughput, the increase was, in relative terms, a net decrease – which is to say that the gains in revenue and income far exceeded the amount added to payroll. And in Rockville, the elimination of Viktor’s salary alone brought down current expenses, as Dr. Marv was a fraction of his price. And no other significant expenses had risen because of what they had done.
So Hi-T had fulfilled its purpose. It was a money-making machine, a money-growing machine. In standard accounting terms – by generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP – the picture was quite pretty. Revenue was up; cash was growing. Long-term debt was being paid down; short-term liabilities were down overall, as well as down relatively. And in the equity portion of the standard accounting equation, net income was gloriously blossoming.
At the end of the year, Hi-T had had the third best year of its existence, despite the slow start in the first quarter. The first quarter of the new year was recorded as the best single quarter ever in the company’s history.
And was Nigel Furst appreciative of these accomplishments? Well, he was not unappreciative. With almost no fanfare, he finally and officially deleted the interim from Amy Cieolara’s title, which was now “President, Hi-T Composites, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Winner Corp.” Of course, the interim had never been there on her business cards or stationery or anything public. Still, she felt better having it gone from the internal files.
Plus, there was more! Nigel gave her a 5 percent raise. He was also charming and nice as he did so, saying he wished it could be more but that new austerity measures approved by Peter Winn forbade any executive raises above 5 percent. Amy just looked at her pay stub after the raise took effect, shook her head, grumbled to herself, and said nothing to anyone else.
Tom Dawson, perhaps, did better by her. The weekend after Amy was no longer “interim,” Tom gassed up his plane and they flew to North Carolina’s Outer