Nefarious - Part 6

a bit part in a TV gangsta pilot

meet the family -
I mean "THE" family

[continued from posts of May 3 & 26, June 7 & 21, and July 4, 2009]
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NEFARIOUS

Pronunciation:

\ni-ˈfer-ē-əs\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Latin nefarius, from nefas = crime, from ne = not + fas = right

There were a lot of things that were not right in the unfolding of these vignettes. Like many things, though, you sometimes don't spot them except with hindsight. Then it is usually too late to change things.

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It was somewhere in the 3rd - 4th month after the take-over of the company - or should I have said the purchase of the company. The original announcement stated the company had been sold, so we'll stick with the original terminology. Eventually I came to view it otherwise.

I met with our Vice-President of Sales for the Western Region at our company terminal office in northwest IN as requested. Our discussions quickly turned to efforts to increase revenues. He told me he was impressed with the efforts to reclaim business from various government entities. Many of our company's terminals were starting to get calls from various government agents asking us to transport freight for them.

That was the good news.

The other news was that he was getting pressure to produce more in his efforts to help to make additional acquisitions. I was not privy to what was going on in the acquisition area.

I was soon going to know a little more than I was comfortable with knowing. He had an idea he wanted to explore with me ... over a nice lunch someplace.

We drove to a nice restaurant in a south Chicago suburb.

Conversation continued on many different topics. Part of it helped clear up, for me at least, what some of the miscellaneous meetings he often had with non-trucking related businesses were about. He explained that the parent holding company that had acquired our company was involved in a lot of different types of holdings, including other trucking companies. Part of his responsibility was to help in the acquisition of companies that were in financial difficulty.

Our parent company had teams of lawyers and accountants who spent their time and energies identifying medium sized companies who were in trouble with various lenders. Once those companies were identified, they sent in people to talk to those businesses about helping them get out of the financial trouble in which they found themselves. My impression is that the tactics used were definitely strong-arm tactics.

That helped make sense of some of the experiences I had with him - like the guy who came out of his office screaming and cussing and calling me a 'goon'.

That was part of my VP's job - to convince these distressed business owners to sell now, while they still could. Of course the offers were for very low prices. He wasn't scoring too often lately and he needed to make some kind of headway soon.

In the short time with our company, he was learning a bit about our industry. He thought he noticed an area that was ripe for growing, and he thought I could help make it happen. The old adage, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" came to mind. In his words, "You help me, I owe you - I help you, you owe me."

There is a segment of the trucking business that is not controlled by the trucking companies. It is controlled by Independent Agents ... similar to the Independent Agents in the insurance business. An Independent Agent represents a number of different trucking companies. It is his job to find the best company with which to place the business for his customer, the shipper. Agents have access to additional trucks that are not in the employ of the one specific trucking company. They also have access to many shippers of freight that don't rely solely on specific trucking companies.

Our Vice President of Sales for the Western Region wanted to explore the possibility of growing the segment of our business that is controlled by these agents. Like many trucking companies, we had a network of agents that carried us as one of the choices they had available to them. We needed to find a way to get them to tender more freight to us.

How were we going to do that?

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[to be continued as I make the time - stay tuned]

Nefarious - Part 5

a bit part in a TV gangsta pilot

meet the family -
I mean "THE" family

[continued from posts of May 3 & 26, and June 7 & 21, 2009]
- - - - - - - - - -
NEFARIOUS

Pronunciation:

\ni-ˈfer-ē-əs\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Latin nefarius, from nefas crime, from ne- not + fas right

There were a lot of things that were not right in the unfolding of these vignettes. Like many things, though, you sometimes don't spot them except with hindsight. Then it is usually too late to change things.

- - - - - - - - - -

The next two weeks were spent living in our Detroit Headquarters. I was constantly on the phone trying to resurrect expired Government contracts. It was no easy matter. Most were either expired by a seeming 'lack of interest' on our part, or canceled 'for cause'. 'For Cause' meant we screwed-up somehow. I was now trying to convince rigid government underlings that we would do a very good job the next time - if there was a next time. Part of my spiel was that we had new owners who were very interested in, and committed to, serving our government.

My job also involved convincing our operations people that this was priority freight. If any of our branch locations was tendered freight by any government entity, it must be handled, and must be handled efficiently and expeditiously. They already had their hands full trying to meet other expectations of various sales managers from around the company. All of them were under the gun from headquarters to generate more revenue by soliciting and moving more freight.

Everyone was getting a lot of pressure and 'intimidation' by the new guys. It was beginning to take its toll on a lot of people. Long hours, and long days on the road away from home were becoming the norm for most of us.

Two weeks after the meeting at which I was given the charge to reestablish the 'lost' government business of our company, we had another meeting. This one was attended by all the players from that previous gathering. We each had to report on our successes. The higher ups seemed to have little tolerance for non-success reports. Individuals presenting reports with little to show for the past two weeks were summarily castigated in front of everyone present. The message spread quickly through-out the ranks: succeed, or lie real good.

For my part, while we were not actually handling any government freight, yet, I reported on the successful reestablishment of a number of government contracts. I also reported on my efforts with operations people in various of our branches. I reported how they were gearing-up to handle this renewed and soon to be tendered business.

I concluded, waiting for the shoe to fall and the screaming to start - yes, I said screaming. Our CEO had developed a reputation for 'screaming fits'. Instead, I felt the grip of this strong hand on my left shoulder. I looked up and saw the face of the man from the corner. He bent low and spoke in my ear. In those few seconds between feeling the grip of his hand on my left shoulder and looking up and seeing his face, I swear I broke into a sweat. He said something like, "Nice report ... keep up the good work." He returned to his seat in the corner...and I filled my drawers. Well, not really, but I could have.

Oh, the screaming fits. The first one I experienced was during that time I was 'living' in our Detroit Headquarters. They had a group of us who were from out of town holed-up in a hotel nearby. One night, a little after 3am, my room phone rang. The voice on the other end was Mr. B. himself. The words he spoke were distinct and certain. "There will be a sales meeting in the Conference Room in one hour - be there!"

As I struggled to make some sense of this nightmare I was sure I was having, I suddenly realized it was the real thing. I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, put on my suit and tie and headed out to find someplace between the hotel and the office to grab a strong cup of coffee. As I came through the hotel lobby I met several compatriots. They were all comparing stories of similar nightmares.

We all made it to the Headquarters Conference Room on time. We were all a little on edge as to what was about to happen. It didn't take long to find out.

He entered the room, followed by the guy who always sat in the corner. He began a tirade about how slowly our company revenues were increasing. He was almost literally having a fit. He appeared to be, quite honestly, 'stoned'. When he started throwing things across the room, the man in the corner rose, moved to him, took him by the arm and quickly escorted him from the room. The man in the room who bore the title of President of Operations rose. He said he was 'sorry' for what had happened. He also suggested that what had happened here not be talked about ... among ourselves or with others.

He said we were all to leave ... go home, or back to the hotel ... get some sleep. Then he said we needed to be back on our job, whatever capacity that was, by 11am. If we were people who normally had appointments with customers or vendors, we should be sure to keep any appointments we had already made for that day. Also, we were to take Mr. B.'s comments seriously. We needed to increase company revenues more quickly.

The pressure continued. Some few weeks after the report meeting mentioned above - the one where Mr. Corner Guy gave me a passing grade, we all received word about one of the local sales reps - Timmy O'Reilly. A real leprecaun of a guy. Well liked by everyone. Well known around the trucking business in southeastern Michigan.

He apparently was taking a lot of 'heat' from the new cadre. On this particular morning he was getting ready to make scheduled sales calls across the river in Windsor, Ontario. He was at a gas station refueling his company owned car, when he had a heart attack, and died there on the ground next to his car. His wife and family all immediately began blaming the stress he had been experiencing at work...and so were a lot of other people in our company. The lines were beginning to form in opposition to the intimidation and pressure everyone was feeling. Some quit and went elsewhere. Some thought they could fight back some way. Some of us just kept doing our job as best we could in hopes that this nightmare would soon end.

It had been long enough that some of us were starting to notice some irregularities in the way things were being done. Some people in our accounting department were whispering about new 53-foot semi trailers that had been ordered. They had seen the purchase orders. They had seen the checks go out to pay for this new equipment. No one could find where any new trailers were being delivered to any of our branches anywhere. We were becoming guarded in our conversations. We were becoming watchful in the goings on of the company.

In the mean time, our Vice President of Sales for the Western Region called me and said he had an idea. He asked me to meet him tomorrow at our terminal in northwest INdiana. Dutifully, I left home early [home was a place where I did actually get to go occasionally], and appeared at our northwest INdiana terminal at 9am, as requested.

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[to be continued as I make the time - stay tuned]