Delayed Reaction

I bowed the traditional bow and left his office. This time, there was just Chung Yee in attendance. The other men were nowhere to be seen.

As I walked back to our office I thought an invitation to John Hoffer would be a way for the two of us to meet some people already doing business in China. It would give us some contacts that could be exploited to see what pitfalls or problems might arise. It seemed like good insurance. If they sent an invitation to Wray Henderson I was sure it would end up in the "round file." No matter. John was the man who counted.

I already knew I wanted to go to China before mid October at the latest. That would at least give me a month on my return to put the numbers together and see if our project made economic sense.

"You'll be in charge while I'm away, Siobhan. I'll keep in touch with you and Doogie to let you know how I'm doing. I'll also keep Wray informed by e-mail, but I'll send you a blind copy. Keep them in a separate file, just in case."

"Just in case what?" she asked with a worried frown.

"Not sure. Anyway, the more we have in writing the better I'll feel."

"You don't trust him, do you?"

"I hate to admit it, but ... no, I don't. He's pissed off at me for pulling this off and he doesn't want to do it in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't try and undermine this project. I don't like being in this position, but now that I've started the ball rolling, I've got to stick with it. It may be a fatal mistake, but at least it will be my mistake."

The look on Siobhan face was one of worry and I hated to see that. She had become very important to me and I was finding myself being very protective of her. I was fighting with myself to deny that it was more than a workplace relationship. I was having more and more difficulty believing it.

I was really pleased when John accepted the invitation to the Chinese Consul's reception. It was my chance to introduce him to Chung Yee and have him interact with several of his contemporaries who were already doing business in China. He stayed much longer than I expected and was involved in a number of different conversations, as was I. I learned a lot that evening.

The next morning my phone rang not long after I had arrived. It was before the switchboard opened so I was sure it was an internal call.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Cam. I just wanted to call and let you know how valuable that reception was for me last evening. Thank you for arranging the invitation."

"You're welcome, John. I'm glad you got something out of it."

"Yes, I did. When are you planning to go to China?" he asked.

"The first week of October, if that can be arranged. Chung Yee will let me know in a day or two."

"Good. The sooner the better. I think you've got something important on your plate. The people I talked to last night put to rest some of my concerns about dealing with the Chinese. I'm sure you were hearing the same things as well."

"Yes, I was. I just hope I can find one or two suppliers that we can rely on. I've done the preliminaries on their costs and they look very favourable."

"I thought they would. Oh, and let's just keep this conversation between the two of us for now."

"Yes, of course. I don't think Wray's particularly thrilled with my plan, but as long as you approve I'll go ahead."

"You have that approval. Try not to step on him too hard, Cam. He's been around a long time and change is very difficult for him. That's just his nature."

"Yes, I understand. I'm just glad it isn't your nature, sir."

He laughed. "Good luck in China, Cam."

Siobhan and Doogie met me at the airport arrivals area when I returned from my two weeks in China. It had been a long and tiring flight, but I was elated with what I had seen and had said so to both of them by phone and e-mail. My e-mails to Wray had been positive, not to upset him but to settle him. I had briefly considered sending blind e-mails to John, but thought better of it. No need to give him the impression I didn't respect my boss, even if that was the case.

"How are you, Cam," Siobhan said as she greeted me with an unexpected hug.

"I'm fine. Tired, of course. Doogie, Siobhan ... I think we've got a winner. Let's go home and get a good night's sleep. We'll meet tomorrow morning and I'll go over everything I've got."

We walked out arm-in-arm. I was on a delayed high with the success of my trip. I had not only found at least two viable suppliers, but I had seen some amazing plants that I didn't expect to see. The image of a backward nation trying to enter the twenty-first century was dispelled almost immediately. The plants I saw were state of the art and fully capable of producing the quality and quantity we needed.

Doogie drove and I sat in the back seat, talking incessantly about what I'd seen and how impressed I was with the new Chinese economy. My enthusiasm was contagious as Siobhan and Doogie both asked many questions about what I saw and where I went. I was operating on adrenalin at that point and could feel that it was about to run out.

When Doogie arrived at my apartment building, I was grateful that he and Siobhan helped carry my bags up to my apartment. I thanked them very much, pleading fatigue for not offering them a drink. I would see them in the morning, but perhaps not too early. I really needed a good night's sleep to begin to counteract the jet-lag.

Strangely, I was up at my usual time, but decided to forgo the exercise room. My energy level was down and I didn't want to make myself ill from exhaustion. I was going to have to pace myself for a day or two to get back on local time.

I arrived at the office only a few minutes later than my usual time and wasn't surprised to find Siobhan already at her desk looking her usually bright and lovely self. I had become so used to her being there that I took it for granted. I shouldn't have, but I did.

"Cameron MacDonald, what are you doing in this early?" she demanded. "You're at least a half day out of synch."

"I slept on the plane," I fibbed.

"Did you? That would be a first." She'd been on enough flights with me to know that I didn't sleep on planes.

"Well ... I dozed."

She gave me a look of disbelief, then gave up the argument.

"I know Wray will want to see you this morning. Are you ready for that?"

"I suppose. I kept him informed by e-mail, so there won't be any surprises. Actually, some of his replies seemed to indicate he is softening his approach. Maybe I'm winning him over to our side."

"I sure hope so," she said seriously. "You've put everything on the line for this project. I'd don't think I could handle it if we failed."

"I have no intention of failing. My trip was better than I expected as I told you last night. I've taken some pictures of the plants I was in and I'll use them to make my case with Wray. I'm just wondering if John will want a report too."

"I hope so. He's on your side from what you've told me. I hope your report reassures him."

I looked at her with fondness. She was a spirited young woman who, without doubt, was on my team. Her loyalty was unquestioned and I felt her full abilities were still untapped. I remembered her comments when I first interviewed her. She saw her job as a stepping stone to an executive position at Emerald. In my mind, she had already established her credentials.

Dougie arrived shortly afterwards and we shared a coffee as I filled them in on my trip. I had downloaded my pictures onto my laptop and used the endless hours on the flight from Beijing to label them before I was unable to remember one plant from another. I took the usual sightseeing pictures, of course, but I kept them separate.

"I wish you guys could have been there," I said as we worked our way through the images. "It would have knocked your socks off to see how modern and sophisticated these plants were. I was told to expect them, but until I saw them with my own eyes I wasn't ready for just how far they'd come."

As I flipped through the pictures on my large desktop monitor, I could see Doogie becoming more and more confident in our strategy. I could almost hear him working on his sales pitch to the troops next month. I was sure he'd have them up for the game.

True to form, Wray called and asked me to meet with him at ten o'clock to review my trip. I downloaded my pictures into two memory sticks, one for Wray and one for John when I got the opportunity to pass it along.

"So, how's the jet-lag," my boss asked affably.

"It's there all right. I won't be staying up late tonight, but I should be back to normal in a couple of days."

"Good. Your e-mails said you were pleased with what you saw and that you took some pictures. I'd like to see them."

"Right here," I said, passing the memory stick to him.

He plugged it into his desktop immediately and brought them up. I had labelled them for easy identification and they were in date order from the beginning of the trip.

He didn't say anything as he began to scroll through them but the look on his face showed surprise. This wasn't what he was expecting to see.

"The two plants I was most impressed with were in Zhengzou and Huainan. They aren't far apart and have good rail and road access. Huainan isn't a big city, but it's growing very rapidly. Zhengzou is much bigger and well established, but it too is growing. I talked to a couple of regular travellers to China and they say that every time they go to Shanghai or any of the other big cities, there are new buildings that weren't there a year ago. The growth is amazing."

Wray was nodding, fascinated with my pictures. I had taken some close-ups of equipment with my guide's permission and I could see he was impressed with the sophistication and complexity of the equipment. All of it was Chinese developed and built.

As he finished going through the pictures he leaned back in his chair.

"You're convinced these people can do what we need done?" he asked sternly.

"Yes. I've seen enough and talked to enough North American businessmen to convince myself that they have the equipment and skills to give us what we want."

"You realize it's your neck on the line, don't you. I won't be able to save you if you're wrong."

I nodded. I didn't have any illusions about Wray going to the wall for me.

"Well, I'm still not sold, but apparently John is. I assume he's going to want to see these pictures and talk to you, so I'll let him know you're back."

"Thanks. I'll be available," I said, rising and getting ready to leave.

"Is Cruickshank going to be ready to make this presentation at the planning meeting?"

"Yes. We'll be working on it over the next three weeks. I should have some better numbers before we present our plan."

"Very well. I want to see the numbers and the outline before you present it. I don't want any surprises."

"Understood," I agreed and left his office.

Well, I didn't have his ringing endorsement, but at least it wasn't as negative as the last go around.

"How'd it go?" Siobhan asked immediately as I returned.

"Not bad. Better than I expected, in fact."

"Good. You didn't need a battle right now. You look exhausted still. Why don't you lock yourself in the office and take a nap. I'll hold off the dogs until noon," she said softly.

I sighed. It was a good and sensible idea. "Yes, Mother," I agreed.

I walked in, closed the door and slumped on the leather sofa. Leaning back, I closed my eyes and as the movie title said, I was gone in sixty seconds.

Two hours of sleep did me some good, but I was a bit groggy when Siobhan gently prodded me awake just before one o'clock. She'd put a tray with a sandwich, a carton of milk and a large chocolate chip cookie in front of me on the coffee table.

"Thank you. What's on our schedule this afternoon?"

"Nothing. When you finish your lunch, go home, go to bed, and don't come back here until tomorrow," she said in a no-nonsense voice.

I looked up at her with affection. "Yes, Mother."

I got a nice smile as she turned to leave. I ate my sandwich, drank the milk, stuck the wrapped cookie in my jacket pocket, grabbed my briefcase and coat and left the building. Mother knows best.

Chapter 5 Expect the Unexpected

I needed another ally in my quest to sell the Chinese Project to our people. I was confident that John was on my side and even Wray had ceased his criticisms for a while. But, like any other corporation, there was an inescapable component that I needed to include. The money man. In this case it was the money lady, one Lynda Powell, CFO.

"I'm quite cross with you, Cameron," she said sternly after I'd sketched out the strategy and where we were at. "You've given me very little time to do what's necessary for the planning meeting."

I was concerned for a moment, but then could see that while her words were sharp, the look in her eyes was anything but.

"However, it's nice to see someone come to me with a plan that will push this company forward instead of retreating into a shell."

I nodded and smiled. We were on the same page almost immediately.

"I've got some more numbers coming this week on landed costs of specific items," I said, "so we could slot them into our existing cost models and see what they give us."

"Yes, as long as there aren't any unknown costs to be considered."

"Such as?"

"Shipment delays, shortages, dock strikes," she said, shrugging.

"They're giving us pretty strong assurances that they won't have any problem meeting our needs within our schedules. In talking to some of their customers, they are telling us it isn't a problem. As far as a dock strike goes, they'd just divert to Seattle and truck the containers up here."

"Good, you've at least thought about problems like that. Now, what do you want from me besides updated costs?"

"I was thinking maybe a side-by-side comparison of finished cost to show what it would mean to the sales people. They're the ones who have to sell our products. They'll tell us quickly enough if we're on the right track."

"Yes, that's easy enough to do," she said, thinking about something else I suspected. "What about growth? What would be possible if you had a market advantage for say ... a year or two?"

"I'm not sure. That's a question for Doo ... I mean Doug Cruickshank. I'm just an operations guy," I shrugged.

"You're a little more than that, Cam. Tell Doogie ... that's his nickname isn't it? Tell him I want to talk to him about that and ask him to come prepared. I want to give him some tools to do a real selling job on this project."

"Thank you, Lynda. I really appreciate your jumping on board."

"Next time, come and see me sooner. I hate to get all my development information from John," she smirked.

I was surprised, but I shouldn't have been. "How long have you known?"

"The day you met with John and Wray. John was sure you'd need some hard numbers to work with. I've been waiting for you."

"Mark it up to a stupid rookie mistake, Lynda. I should have included you from the very beginning and I won't make that mistake again."

"You're forgiven ... provided you get those numbers this week," she smiled.

I felt relieved and yet chastened by this woman. She was in her fifties, married almost thirty years to a successful artist, Darren Powell. Like her, he was brilliant at his chosen craft, extremely well read, possessed of a lively sense of humour and he loved his spouse passionately. They seemed on the surface to be opposites, but they were anything but. I kicked myself once more for not including her right from the start. Thankfully, John had covered for me.

"So how did your meeting with Lynda go?" I asked Doogie as he plunked himself down in front of my desk.

"It was a bomb," he grinned. "Clary nearly shit himself when Lynda gave him the projected earnings from sales growth."

I'd been around Doogie long enough to know that "a bomb" was good. Clary, was Clarence Woolfolk, our Marketing VP.

"Clary's been nattering at me for weeks to give him the skinny on this plan. I've held him off until now, but you can put him in the "sold" column as far as I'm concerned."

"Well done, Doogie. I think that puts us well on the road to being ready. How are you coming with your presentation?"

"Bloody good until Lynda threw that projected profits spanner in the works. I've got some more work to do now ... not that I mind," he grinned.

"This is going to be a very different planning meeting from the ones I've been at in the past few years," I observed. "I just hope our people get as excited about it as we are."

"Too right," he nodded.

"Well young lady, are you ready for this?" I asked as we walked down the hotel corridor to our meeting room.

Siobhan smiled at me and nodded. "I'm really looking forward to this, Cam. All the work you and Doogie have done to spring this on the people has to be worth it."

"Well, you were right there with me every step of the way. You know everything that I know, so if I stumble or lose the plot, I'll look to you to rescue me."

"Okay. I'll try and be prepared," she promised.

The morning session of the meeting ground through the numbers for the year-to-date and the year-end projections. I was only barely paying attention except for our numbers from operations. I had asked Siobhan to present the distribution numbers while I looked after the manufacturing numbers. I wanted to get her better known among the troops and I also wanted to see how she handled herself in front of an audience. I had no need to worry.

"Well done," I whispered as she returned to her seat. She nodded her thank you and looked pleased. She had got through it without a hiccup and had handled a number of questions from the audience with ease. I was proud of her.

The lunch break signalled the end of the current year review. After lunch we would begin the plan for the next year. In talking to Wray, Clary and John, who chaired the meeting, we thought it best to present the Chinese Project after the afternoon break. I was pretty sure that would wake the audience up and get their full attention.

Only a handful of people knew about our strategy, but after lunch a couple of those people, Lynda, Clary, and John, couldn't resist hinting that we had something in the wings that would change their thinking. I could hear some of the murmurings as these little tidbits were dropped, but I didn't think anyone had guessed what we planned.

It was just 3:15 that afternoon when Doogie stood in front of the assembly and turned on his lap-top projector. The first slide read "The Chinese Solution" in Chinese style typeface and had the background of an illustration of a traditionally dressed Chinese man bowing toward the audience. Doogie just couldn't resist, but he had everyone's attention.

Doogie stood up there for the next hour and just blew the audience away. When he was done, there was dead silence for a few moments until the sales manager from Chicago stood up and began to applaud. Within seconds that was followed by several other sales managers and people joining the applause until by the time it took to stand, the entire audience was applauding.

Doogie stood there transfixed. He had no idea how to react. Oh, he was happy all right, but he stood frozen in place while all the applause was going on. It took a while for it to die down. I thought he would walk off at that point but he didn't.

"I'm sure you lot think this is all my doing," he said, with a serious gaze out over the group. "Well, it ain't. I might have mentioned it to someone and then that someone mentioned it to someone else and the next thing you know, here I am.

"Cameron MacDonald is the reason this has happened. He, and his boss Wray, and John, and Lynda, and Siobhan Mulcahy, and Clary have all made it work. But it was Cam who grabbed the idea and took off with it. I was just lucky enough to be the bloke that gave you the good news," he smiled. "I'm glad you liked what you heard. That's plenty good enough for me. Thanks," he finished and walked away from the podium.