Gary held his hand in the air to quiet everyone down. “Okay, I’ve briefed you all on what’s going on and what we need to accomplish today. As you can see on the board behind me, we need some fresh ideas on new revenue streams to keep everyone happy. We’re looking for the wow factor here and I’m confident that you are going to come up with some winners. Ruth, let’s start with you.”
Showtime.
There was no need for more coffee now.
I was running on pure adrenaline.
“You got it.” I stood, grabbed my folder of notes, and walked to the front of the room, standing in front of the whiteboard facing the staff.
This is going to be flawless and well-received. They are going to love my idea.
I set my folder down on the table next to me, grabbed the pen from the ledge, and wrote on the white board, “If You Build It, He Will Come.”
“Field of Dreams,” Steve yelled out proudly.
I stuck the cap back on the pen and turned around, pointing to him. “That’s right, Steve. This was the famous line and premise from the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. How many of you have seen that movie?”
Just about every hand when up in the air.
I nodded. “Almost all of you. Me, too. Great movie. Well, in that movie, Kevin Costner’s character believed that if he built a baseball field on his property, it would attract legendary baseball players who would want to play there. Everybody thought he was crazy, but he did it anyway because he believed in the idea with all his heart and all his soul. Nothing was going to stand in his way. In the marketing world, that baseball field was essentially a product, designed to attract something.”
Many of the heads nodded.
Everyone else watched me eagerly, intrigued looks on their faces.
All except for Mason.
You have their full attention. Keep going. Knock ‘em dead.
“As we all know, sometimes having the right product is not enough. That’s why our company exists. We find undervalued companies with superior products, but inferior management or marketing skills. We buy them at a fraction of what they’re worth, then gut them and sell the good pieces for a profit. This business model has worked well for us.”
I took the cap off the pen and wrote on the white board, “Rebuild It and They Will Stay.”
I placed the pen on the ledge and turned back around, glancing at my notes on the table. “But what if we tried a new approach? What if, instead of tearing apart a company, we rebuilt it? It sounds a lot more positive, now doesn’t it?”
Some people nodded.
“It also sounds like a lot more work,” Gary said.
A few others nodded at his comment, agreeing with him.
I expected pushback, but I wasn’t finished yet.
“Unless you know what you’re doing,” I corrected Gary. “With my idea, we return to the roots of our company, consulting. There’s no overhead since we’re not technically acquiring the company, which means we have a bigger profit margin plus additional future revenue from owning shares in the company as part of the deal. The company we help will recover from its doldrums and nobody loses their jobs.”
Gary sat forward in his chair. “Give us an example.”
I smiled. “I would be glad to.”
Nick is going to love it when he finds out this will help his cousin, Jay.
I grabbed the pen again and wrote on the board, “Mathors Aerospace” and stuck the cap back on and placed the pen on the ledge of the white board.
“Mathors Aerospace is a company on the cutting edge of technology. They design unmanned drones that are able to carry emergency medical supplies to remote locations. They have a hundred other patents and are waiting for FAA clearance to move forward with many of them. But while they wait, they’re bleeding money. Normally, we would go into a company like this, get rid of the broken pieces, keep what’s working, and resell the company for a profit. We could make ten million dollars on the deal without batting an eye. But Mathors Aerospace is missing out on the big picture, and so are we. What if, instead of ten million dollars, we made a hundred million dollars? Ten times more.”
“Now you have my attention,” Gary said, as laughter filled the room. “How exactly do we do that?”
“It’s simple. Mathors Aerospace needs to use the existing patents they already own with products they already sell instead of creating brand new products that need approval and FAA clearance. They would be updating, not building from scratch. The commercial drone market should reach twenty-five billion dollars in the next five years and the biggest downside to drones is the downtime for recharging. Mathors Aerospace has a patent for a drone battery that recharges itself using the air that keeps it up in the first place. Imagine that? A drone that doesn’t need to stop to recharge? Imagine long distance drone flights? We can help them move in this direction without any money out of our pockets and I know exactly how to do it.”
I smiled, proud of my idea. I had never been more excited about my job and taking it in another direction. I wasn’t tearing something apart. I was building something.
Just like Nick.
Gary nodded, thinking about it. “Very interesting. Thoughts everyone?”
Not a surprise that Mason was the first to raise his hand.
Gary pointed. “Yes, Mason.”
Mason turned to me. “We have evolved into something bigger and better since the beginning when Gary had started this company. Returning to our roots is like taking a step back.”
I crossed my arms. “I disagree. It’s a matter of implementing a new plan that—”
“We already have a proven plan that works. What guarantees can you give that we can make ten times more money?”
“I have the numbers to show that the market—”
“Market factors can change the course of a company,” Mason interrupted again. “For instance, you can tell Mathors Aerospace to market their drones to Europe, but then Europe can outlaw the same drones. Where will the earnings come from then?”
“That’s highly unlikely and the additional income comes from sales of shares that we acquire from the company. Essentially, we would be part owners.”
“They could offer us a million shares or ten million, for that matter, but what if the stock market takes a dump and those shares are suddenly worth pennies now?”
“I’ve done the research and—”
“I doubt any of us are willing to take such a huge risk with the future of the company.”
Gary cleared his throat. “Okay, looks like this needs a little more research.”
I held up my index finger. “But I really think—”
“It’s okay, Ruth. Let’s revisit this again soon.”
My blood pressure was shooting through the roof.
Mason blindsided me.
He probably had it planned the entire time.
What a bastard.
I grabbed my files and sat down, dejected.
This outcome wasn’t what I expected.
I had worked hard on this for almost ten hours. I still believed it was the right thing to do. I had worked out all the numbers and was sure my plan was perfect for the company.
For the next hour, other partners presented their ideas, but I had no idea what they were. I had blocked them all out and had been replaying what happened with Mason over and over again in my mind, coming up with things I should’ve said to shut him up.