VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [147]
“Here,” he said, handing it to Amy, “you might need this down by the water on a day like this. Besides, you got that company of yours to fly; you might as well have the jacket.”
It was his Marine pilot’s flight jacket. Amy held it up and looked at the patches, the squadron patch on the right shoulder, American flag on the left, some garish other ones, and high center in the back: the U.S. Marine Corps mascot bulldog with jauntily tilted World War I helmet and a smoking cigar clenched between jaws.
“Wow, I should wear this to the office,” Amy said.
“They’d better get out of your way.”
“Ooo-rah!!” she yelled, putting it on.
He placed both hands on her shoulders to steady her, took something brassy from his pocket, then began to pin it to the jacket over her heart.
“Your wings?” she asked.
“My naval aviator’s insignia,” he said.
“Does this mean we’re going steady?”
“It might.”
19
“So the perennial question,” said Amy, “is, what do we do for an encore?”
The second quarter was drawing to a close, and Amy was holding a meeting of the Velocity Team minds – the usual crew: Sarah, Wayne, Elaine, Garth, and Murphy, plus of course Amy herself. As had become customary, they were meeting in the Hi-T trade show display conference room, which still stood on the Oakton plant floor next to Godzilla. Erected here the year before, it was never the original intent to keep it in the plant this long. Certainly Amy was no longer holding regular staff meetings here. But it had proven to be so handy for production meetings that it had never been taken down. Then someone had backed a forklift into it, severely denting one of the walls, and the industrial smell of the plant had gotten into the draperies and carpet – so it was never going to see a trade show again and Amy just said, “Keep it.”
So for the Velocity meetings, when they discussed how to keep the Reality Tree growing from a current reality to a stronger, better future reality, they always came to Oakton. Amy thought it worthwhile to keep reminding herself and everyone else that Godzilla was still the Drum of the business.
“We’re about to go into the second half of the year,” Amy was saying, “and I think that this could just be the best year Hi-T has ever had. We had a fantastic first quarter. The second quarter, based on the numbers I’ve been seeing, looks strong. If we can continue the velocity we’ve achieved – just to use my new favorite word again – we are going to be the best business in Nigel’s group. And wouldn’t that be sweet? So our objective today is to add some new branches to the old Reality Tree, and – what’s the matter?”
She was looking directly at Garth Quincy, who was squirming and frowning as Amy talked.
“You look like you’ve got indigestion or something,” Amy said.
“Well, we all know first and second quarters have been strong pretty much across the board,” said Garth. “But I have to caution you that my salespeople are reporting some softness here and there. This is particularly true in certain segments, like the construction and maritime markets.”
“Interest rates have been rising,” said Elaine. “So it’s obvious that the economy will cool down at some point.”
“How bad do you think it could be?” Amy asked Garth.
“Of course, I don’t really know. Probably not that bad. But I hate to see us get our hopes up and then the market won’t let us accomplish what we set out to achieve.”
“You know, Garth, we’re calling it the Reality Tree,” said Amy, “because we’re trying to keep a realistic link between the current state and the future state, whatever direction we decide is the best for the company and everyone associated with it.”
“My suggestion,” said Wayne Reese, “would be to look at our future from our customers’ points of view. We need to ask questions as if we were them. Questions like, ‘Why do I want to keep dealing with Hi-T?