Chocolate and Gold Ch. 05

Chapter 5: A Whole New Ballgame

Almost everyone arrived early for the Friday morning board meeting. We all appeared to be anxious to get on with deciding what needed to be done with Orient Pacific Imports when Mr. Yee Fung was no longer able to carry on. No one appeared more ready or prepared than Charlie. She had brought a package the approximate dimensions of a medium sized framed painting.

Mr. Yee Fung was the last to arrive, moving carefully into the board room and choosing a seat to the right of the near end. He motioned for me to sit at the end to his left. Everyone else found seats around the table. I called the meeting to order.

"I'm no expert at Robert's Rules of Order, so I'm just going to wing it. I call this extraordinary meeting of the board to order. Mrs. Wong, would you be so kind as to take the minutes."

She nodded affirmatively, having planned to do so all along.

"For the record, the following members of the board of Orient Pacific Imports are in attendance:

Harry Zheng, Chairman. Charlotte Zheng, Jean Zheng Lowe, Yee Fung Hong, President, and Wong Soo. Also in attendance is Michael Lowe, invited guest."

Mrs. Wong passed out the minutes of the last board meeting and I asked for any errors or omissions. There were none. With a sigh, I leaned back in the comfortable leather chair and began.

"As you all know, Mr. Yee Fung has advised us that his health will not permit him to carry on as President for much longer. Our objective today, with the board's assistance, is to find a management structure that will assure the continuance and growth of our company."

I had rehearsed my opening comments carefully before the meeting. I had two objectives to begin with. First, was to thank Mr. Yee Fung for his contribution over many years, and second was to segue into suggestions on how we might restructure the management. I also had to be mindful that our President's health might not permit him to endure the entire meeting, so earlier Mrs. Wong and I had agreed to monitor him and watch for signs he was weakening.

I then spent a few minutes covering the growth of the company and the important and valuable role that Mr. Yee Fung had provided. I was particularly appreciative for the time immediately after my parents' death, when he stepped in and moved the company forward. The others around the table were equally grateful, and said so. I noted with pleasure the new direction the company had embarked upon. I believed it was a clever and well thought out strategy that we should continue. Again, I had the full support of the board.

"Now for the tricky part," I smiled. "Mr. Yee Fung, if you are uncomfortable with the next discussion, please don't hesitate to excuse yourself. Otherwise, you are welcome to participate. I want to suggest we create an interim management team before we settle on a permanent one. My reason for this is that with the exception of you and Mrs. Wong, none of the remaining board members has any experience in the company's operation. We are ill equipped to run this company without that experience."

I'd thought long and hard about what to do. I had the germ of an idea, but it would be weeks, if not months before I could satisfy myself that it would work. It would also depend on how the other board members felt about the direction the company was heading. It was a far cry from the low value imports it began with.

Mr. Yee Fung nodded in my direction, but didn't move to leave. I decided to continue.

"I would like to suggest we nominate Wong Soo to the position of Vice President, Operations. I think this is the most logical move. She will need support personnel, of course, and I would like to open the meeting to suggestions."

Charlie didn't waste a second. "I second the nomination. It's the only sensible move."

"All in favor?" I asked.

The vote was unanimous, including Mr. Yee Fung.

"That was easy," I chuckled. "Congratulations, Mrs. Wong."

She wore a bemused look, but she said nothing other than, "Thank you."

"I also have a suggestion that may surprise you. I was wondering how the board would feel if we invited my grandfather, Zheng Ming, to sit on the board. We could use both his experience and his wisdom."

Mr. Yee Fung was nodding with a smile. The idea obviously appealed to him, but he said nothing.

It was Charlie once again that spoke up. "I think that's a hell of an idea, Harry."

I decided to flesh out the concept a little further. "With today's communications, we could keep Grandfather Zheng current so that he wouldn't have to travel from Scottsdale unless he wanted to. I haven't seen him lately, but perhaps you can tell us how up-to-date he is with the direction of the business, Mr. Yee Fung."

"I have been talking to him at least once a month, and I can tell you he is well informed. I think your suggestion would be welcomed by him. Perhaps even more so by your grandmother." He had a sly smile when he said that.

There was laughter around the table. Again, it sounded like an avenue worth pursuing.

I turned to Mrs. Wong. "Madam Vice President, do you have the personnel to continue operating the way we must to assure continuing success?"

"I am confident that with the addition of one bilingual clerical person we have the people we need to maintain the current operations of Orient Pacific. If we are to continue to grow, we will want to revisit our staff needs."

I was satisfied, and so, apparently, was everyone else. I looked over at Mr. Yee Fung, and I could see that he was tiring. I opted to take a break at this point. The next part was going to be more difficult.

One of the staff girls brought in tea, coffee, and soft drinks, while a young man brought in a tray of bakery items. I picked up a black coffee and a sticky bun and wandered to the end of the room. Within seconds, Charlie was at my side.

"Jesus, Harry. You've really been giving this a lot of thought, haven't you?"

"Yeah. I guess it's almost the only thing I have been thinking about."

"What about that girlfriend of yours?"

"She's in this too. Whatever I decide is going to affect her as well. That's going to be very difficult to solve, I think."

"You're thinking about staying here and being involved with the company, aren't you?"

It wasn't an accusation from her, it was a realization.

"Yeah, I guess I am. This isn't anything like I thought it was ... the business I mean. I like what I see and I like the people. I don't think I'm the right guy for CEO, but I could get interested in product development or marketing strategy."

Charlie was grinning from ear to ear. "You're hooked, Harry. Just like me."

"I kind of got the impression you'd seen the possibilities, girl. I'm interested in that product you talked about Tuesday. The solar cell thing."

"Just be patient, big brother. We'll get to that." Charlie had that bright look in her eyes that betrayed just how excited she was about the project she was promoting.

Mr. Yee Fung had retired to his office for a rest and Mrs. Wong and I resumed the meeting. She had prepared a PowerPoint presentation on the growth and financial stability of the business. I'm not an accountant, but she pointed out the excellent cash flow and bottom line over the past three years. Tight fiscal management by Mr. Yee Fung was responsible, and we needed to discuss the person who would replace him.

I wasn't surprised that Mrs. Wong had a suggested candidate. He was Controller at a local automobile dealership in Daly City, as well as a distant cousin of Mrs. Wong. She offered to have him come in to discuss the position with us and I agreed, provided Mr. Yee Fung could be present. It would be his expertise that we were trying to replace, and I valued his opinion. Again, Mrs. Wong concurred.

The rest of the morning was taken up with smaller management details, and we broke for lunch just before one. A caterer brought in the sandwiches and refreshments. As usual, there was far more than we could eat. I spent some time with Mike Lowe, apologizing for boring him with the details. On the other hand, I wanted both him and Jeannie to know just what was going on at Orient Pacific. He had an equal stake in it, in my opinion. Mike assured me he wasn't bored and looked forward to the afternoon session.

When we reconvened, Mrs. Wong continued with her PowerPoint presentation, showing the newest products, many of which lined the walls of the board room. She went over some of the decision-making that led to choosing these products so that we could understand how they came about. We caught a glimpse of her sense of humor when she showed us a rogues gallery of failed products as well. Not every item turned to gold.

Finally, she gave us a peek at some new product ideas that hadn't yet arrived, or as in some cases, the decision to add them hadn't yet been made. I could see a further shift to more complex and sophisticated products. They brought higher reward, but also higher risk. What was interesting was that a number of them were pre-sold to customers who had encouraged the company to find the products and have them produced on the customer's behalf. I liked that idea. It syndicated the risk.

There was something about the presentation that struck me as odd. "Mrs. Wong, why did you prepare this presentation? Surely it wasn't just for this meeting. It must have taken many hours to get it ready."

"You are quite correct, Harry. It was prepared at Mr. Yee Fung's request in the event that we would need outside funding for some of our more ... complicated ventures. We thought we might need to find bank financing ... or ... perhaps even government financing outside the United States."

I nodded my understanding. "A good idea. Some of those products you showed are quite exotic. It's wise to be prepared in advance. We will need to go over each of the proposals to decide which to act upon, and which to shelve." I looked around at the table and saw no dissent. Mike, however, was stirring in his seat and I suspected he wanted to say something.

"Mike ... anything you'd like to comment on. This is your company too."

He looked a bit startled, but then settled down. "I saw two or three products which I think would be natural winners. The portable GPS unit that would cost less than $50 strikes me as one. Also, the radio controlled vintage sports car replicas could be a great addition for the serious collector. I liked the robot too, but I was trying to figure out what you could program it to do that would be useful."

Charlie spoke up then. "Mike, I agree, but remember, lots of cell phones now come with GPS as an option. It gives them a multipurpose function, so cost isn't a big issue. I don't think we want to be in competition with Nokia or Blackberry."

"You're right, Charlie. But the GPS I was thinking of would function where cell phones don't. Back country skiers, hikers, geocachers, small boat operators ... that sort of customer."

I interrupted at that point. "We don't have to make those decisions at this meeting. I suggest we each take a copy of Mrs. Wong's presentation with us and we can review our findings at the next meeting. We'll need a way to vet each product, so it will probably mean forming a committee."

A collective groan when up from several at the table. I suppressed a chuckle. This definitely wasn't your ordinary corporate board of directors.

"Charlie, you've let me know you have a project you'd like to present. I know you've pretty excited about it. Why don't you see if you can get us excited too?"

Her face lit up as she pulled the package up and placed it before her on the table. "This is amazing," she began. She stopped unwrapping it and sat down again. "I have a friend, Ben Metzler, who is a genius ... I mean ... a real genius. He's an ex-graduate student from Cal Poly, and he's been working on alternative energy sources. I think he's got something really special here." She stood again and unwrapped the package.

"These two items are power cells. Solar power cells. They absorb ultra violet light and convert it to electrical energy. I know that's not unique, but how much power they produce is."

She had finished unwrapping and held up two metal-framed translucent panels, both of which looked similar, but not the same. She passed one in each direction around the table.

"You'll notice that one contains an inverter to convert DC to 120vAC, while the other produces conventional 12vDC. Neither of them weighs very much, just over a pound in fact. Both of these panels will produce the same amount of electrical power that conventional solar panels several times their size would generate."

I saw the look of surprise on Mike's face which must have been mirrored on mine as well. "Wow. Are you sure? That's an amazing gain in efficiency. How long will they last?"

Charlie smiled and continued. "Yes, we're sure, and ... they last indefinitely as far as we can tell. However, the process is so complex and unique, I'm in no position to describe it. Just think though, it will be a much more efficient source of electrical power and it will be both cheap and relatively simple to transport."

"Amazing," Mike said, shaking his head. I could see the wheels going around in the engineer's mind.

"The applications are unlimited," Charlie went on. "Can you imagine the ability to produce power in the most remote villages of impoverished countries? The really incredible part of this is the cost of production. After the start-up costs for producing the material and manufacturing the panel, we expect to have a unit selling price near thirty dollars!"

"What? How's that possible?" Mike exclaimed.

"I'll have to leave it to Ben to explain it to you. It has to do with something called light trapping. It's way beyond anything I understand," she smiled.

I was about to interrupt when Jeannie beat me to it. "Charlie, can you demonstrate this cell ... you know ... how it works?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she grinned with a clear expression of triumph.

She began to place items on the table in front of her. First her laptop, then an electric razor. With Mrs. Wong's help, she turned on the video display, and dimmed the lights. The projection showed the panels mounted in a small outdoor frame, and a series of electrical items were plugged into a small outlet, one at a time. There was a medium size refrigerator marked as a 15 cu. ft. SunFrost, a 32" LCD television, and a satellite dish receiver. The dish was marked as 12 volt, DC.

The various items were turned on and run for a period of time, then turned off, replaced with another item. Near the end of the video, two items were being run at the same time from two 12" X 24" panels.

"How much more can it handle?" I asked.

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know. It's still being developed, but the trials all look like we can sustain 100 watts.

"Do they ever wear out?" Jeannie asked.

"Not yet. We haven't been able to detect any decrease in efficiency in the original trial models. The material seems to be very stable and not subject to heat or cold as far as we can tell. Some of those tests are going on now," Charlie explained.

"At thirty dollars a pop, this could revolutionize the whole alternate power industry," Mike suggested. He was clearly in awe of the development.

"So, tell me about Ben Metzler, Charlie," I asked. "How did he let you make this presentation without being present? What about patents? This all seems a bit odd to me."

I don't remember the last time I saw my sister blush, but she did then, and it wasn't some faint coloring, it was a full fledged red-in-the-face blush.

"Uhm ... Ben has applied for several patents on the concept and design," she said tentatively. "I met him at one of my Planet for People rallies. He told me about the concept. I got interested, so he and I ... got together ... sort of."

Now, it wasn't like Charlie to waffle this way, so I decided to see just how uncomfortable I could make her. "So ... Ben is your boyfriend, then?"

She nodded, visibly disquieted with the question.

"And he let you bring this amazing invention to us without any protection ... I mean ... no guarantees of security?"

"Uhm ... not exactly." Now she was really looking awkward, and I caught her looking at Mrs. Wong, almost with a plea for help. She got what she was hoping for.

"Perhaps I can help you, Harry," the older woman spoke up. "Mr. Metzler brought his invention to us to see if we would be interested in developing and marketing it. Mr. Yee Fung and I thought it was a worthwhile project, but required secrecy until the patents could be established. In the meantime, we signed a confidentiality agreement with Mr. Metzler. This project may require a large amount of capital to establish it. Mr. Yee Fung said it should be brought to the full board for approval. We would undoubtedly need to borrow or arrange financing for it."

"I see. So Charlie got involved because she was Mr. Metzler's girlfriend, is that it?"

Mrs. Wong looked at Charlie and nodded almost imperceptibly.

"I was the one who talked Ben into bringing here and talking to Mr. Yee Fung. Ben had a real narrow idea of how the invention could be used. He couldn't see the big picture. He wanted to get NASA interested. I guess I brow-beat him into looking at it for a much more humanitarian use."

"And how did you know to bring it here?" I was having trouble putting all the pieces of this puzzle together and Charlie wasn't making it easy. I had to drag it out of her bit by bit.

"I saw some engineering models on the desk one day when I came in to get a tax receipt for my dividends. I started asking questions and got turned over to Mrs. Wong, and then Mr. Yee Fung. I was just as amazed as you were Harry when I saw how different the company was from what I thought it was."

"So that little act on Tuesday was just that ... an act?"

"Not entirely. I saw a lot more Tuesday, and I was really sure this was the company to make this invention into something important. I'm sorry, Harry. I wasn't trying to deceive you ... or anyone. I really believe in Ben, and I really want to make his invention a reality. I hope you guys aren't mad at me."

It was Jeannie who spoke up next. "Harry, I don't see any harm done. The confidentiality agreement didn't cost anything. We haven't spent any money yet. It looks like a great project to me, but Mike's the one who's whispering in my ear telling me to go for it," she grinned.

"Mike?"

"Jeannie's right, Harry. So far, it's a proposal. It will be up to the board to decide to proceed ... or not. Ben's an inventor, not a product developer, but on the face of it, I'd say it has enormous potential."

"Well, Charlie. I guess you're off the hook," I smiled. Actually, I was proud of my little sister. She had used some of her boundless energy on something really positive and worthwhile instead of another protest march.

"I knew you'd like it. Now how do we make it a reality?" she asked, looking around the room.

The rest of the meeting was taken up with the logistics of making decisions on the products that were already pending. They required little or no capital, so they wouldn't interfere with the solar panel concept. As far as that discussion went, there was nothing to do but wait for the patents to be granted. In the meantime, I was tasked to look for financing opportunities. For that, I would need Mr. Yee Fung's assistance. By the look of it, that couldn't wait long.

When I drove back to San Mateo late that afternoon, I had one big problem that now couldn't be ignored. What was I going to do about Vannie? I had allowed myself the luxury of focusing completely on the business this week, but now I had some important thinking to do. I knew now that I was not going back to Florida to live. That meant that if I was really serious about her, I had to convince her to come here and live in the Bay Area. I didn't have a clue what to say to her, or how to say it.