Gail swivels away from her computer and twists her head and shoulders, trying to release the tension in her neck. She glances at her watch. Four hours have passed and she hadn't even noticed. This morning she had felt terrific. She had almost bounced from her car into the building. Now, looking at the document she just finished composing, she feels even better.
She taps out a message for Scott, attaches the document, and e-mails it. Scott will never believe it. Not coming from her.
Standing up, she stretches. Her meeting with Scott is not until one o'clock. She has just enough time to grab some lunch in the cafeteria. No, today she deserves better than that. They've opened a nice-looking deli three blocks away. Time to check it out.
Mary-Lou puts her phone call on hold and glances at her watch. "Hey, Gail. I was looking all over for you, go right in."
"Gail, great. This is great!" Scott stands up. "Want some coffee?"
"No thanks," she replies. "So what do you think?"
"I don't know what to think anymore. I never thought I'd see the day that you, on your own initiative, would up the sales forecast. And by so much?" Scott rubs his hands together, eyes sparkling.
"Perfect timing," he says. "Perfect. Actually, Gail, for the past two days I've been busy preparing a whole stack of arguments to convince you to commit to a modest increase."
"Pity I didn't know it." Gail smiles at him. "I'm sure that some of your arguments were in the form of increased bonuses for my people, or maybe options. Those are the best arguments for salespeople, you know."
"I know," Scott smiles back. "Hefty bonuses, huge commissions, and you blew it all." More seriously he adds, "Still, Gail, what caused you to raise the forecast for this year by over two hundred million a quarter?" Narrowing his eyes he asks, "Is there something I don't know?"
"Not really. You know what happened at Pierco, it was you who saved our skin there. Well, the whole incident upset Maggie to the extent that she decided not to allow it ever to happen again. That was enough."
"Gail, I understand every word you're saying. I think I even understand each sentence. But I definitely don't understand what you're talking about. I must be getting old."
Gail raises one eyebrow. "You? Old?" And in a factual tone she starts to explain. "You know the strategy that Maggie and I have adopted since the beginning of the year. Since some of our competitors became shaky we have targeted their clients, especially those clients that have not yet finished implementing. Rather than trying to convince them to throw away the competitors' ERP package and adopt ours, which probably no one would have agreed to, we offered to implement a part they hadn't yet installed. We offered our new production software, and promised unbelievable results in a very short time. This offer is very, very tempting. Many companies agreed to a pilot. We have our foot in the door."
"I know all that," Scott says impatiently. "In the first quarter, how many doors have we succeeded in getting our foot in? Almost a hundred, if I'm not mistaken."
"Yes. Do you also know that by April many of them had already increased their production to all-time record highs? You do. So after what you did at Pierco, Maggie decided that she's not going to let any of them blame us for ruining their cash flow. She insisted we approach each of the pilot plants that feed warehouses and had already increased their capacity. After we approached the first few I tried to stop her, but did you ever try to stop Maggie?"
"Talk about mission impossible! But Gail, why did you try to stop her?"
"Because she was too successful/' Gail answers flatly. "She orchestrated it masterfully. Before the clients even noticed that their inventory was going up, KPI's account manager used the client's data to point out the trend of the inventories. Once the reason for it was explained, the client didn't have any grudge against us. Then it was no problem to arrange a day-long meeting, with all the relevant people, to present the Theory of Constraints application for distribution."
"I'm sure the trust is there and the pressure is there. So you got a one-day presentation. By the way, who plays my role and who plays Brian's?"
"No, Scott, nobody can play you. Our one-day presentations are much more conventional. First, the TOC expert on the account puts them in groups of three to play on a distribution simulation. I don't know where they got it, but it's a marvelous tool to convey both the magnitude of the problem and the power of the simple solution. You should see the participants after the session. Talk about conviction! Then, one of our guys presents the software, and then the KP1 account manager constructs, with them, the next steps."
"Which are?"
"That's where it gets really interesting. To implement the distribution solution we must offer to replace the competitors' order-entry module and the measurement module. As you can imagine, we are only too happy to do that. Well, in half the cases the clients agreed, on the spot, to a sizeable pilot."
"Very nice." Scott is pleased. "Piloting such a big chunk of the ERP system, and with the bottom-line results, doesn't leave the competition much chance. It's just a matter of time until such a sizeable pilot will turn into a full implementation."
"Correct. But don't you want to hear what's happening in the other half of the cases?" Gail teases.
"You mean there's more? Of course, what I've heard so far wouldn't have caused you to increase the sales forecast. Okay, Gail, let's hear the full story. What's happening in the other half?"
"Well, it takes some more negotiations, but we've closed, or are about to close, contracts to install our entire package for the whole company. That's the problem."
"What problem?"
"I mean, that's what forced me to revise the forecast. In the forecast we did last December I was hoping that the pilots would expand toward the end of the year. As it is now, I can't possibly postpone enough even to the third quarter. The pressure to bring the inventories back under control is so high that these clients don't want to hear about any postponement. They insist on starting ASAP. So, some major contracts that I planned to work on toward the end of the year are closing this quarter."
"What about next quarter?"
"Scott, you're forgetting the number of pilots that are still in the works, and those that we keep on launching! The pipeline for the next quarter, and the one after that, is overflowing. I must admit, you were right, there is nothing more convincing to our clients than bottom-line results. Fast and hefty."
Scott, true to his nature, asks, "Gail, do you see anything that can stop us?"
"Stop us, rto. Slow us down, yes. The software seems to be working well, and Maggie manages to always have enough good, experienced implementers. But finding TOC experts is turning into a nightmare."
"That's a concern," Scott agrees. "These TOC ideas may be basic and seem like common sense, but it's probably because they are so basic that proper education is necessary, mandatory, for people to change the rules. And changing the rules is key to the success of our implementations. Good TOC experts are vital."
"You don't have to convince me," Gail agrees. "But Scott, there simply aren't enough knowledgeable people available. And some of those who claim to be experts. .. well, they're not."
"In my attempts to learn as much as I can about TOC, I've met a few charlatans," Scott chuckles, "and that's putting it mildly!"
Gail continues seriously. "We need more TOC experts. Many more."
"I'm sure Maggie can come up with plenty of people. She's amazing at finding the best, and lots of them."
"You're wrong Scott, There aren't enough of them to find. We have to help to create them. I think you and Maggie need to join forces on this. Between the two of you, you can convince the best group of TOC experts to stop spending all their time in implementations, and switch their focus to teaching more experts. No matter how much it costs, not having enough TOC experts will cost us more."
"Okay, Gail. You're right. This is important. I'll talk to Maggie. Anything else that can slow us down?"
"There might be. But first, let me ask you a question. You said you were about to press me to raise the sales forecast. Why? What's wrong with the forecast we submitted at the beginning of the year?"
"Nothing," Scott answers. "But I knew that things were going better than we all expected, and the opportunity is simply to good to miss."
"What opportunity?"
"The opportunity to establish ourselves as the dominant ERP company. The leader. A breed apart."
Gail waits for him to continue.
"You know that last quarter only two of our competitors made their forecast."
"Do you see them offering the market anything new?"
"No." Gail starts to smile in appreciation. "I'd say that they're scrambling. They're now offering deals they wouldn't have considered last year. And we are the only ERP supplier who raised its forecast for last quarter."
"And we met it," Scott declares. "We've gotten the attention of the analysts. Now imagine their reaction when, against the background of our competitors' floundering, we raise our forecast again."
Gail's smile widens. "We are going to be declared as the winner. We'll be the only show in town. What publicity! The kind money can't buy. Scott, you know what? With such a dominant position in the market, we won't have any problem winning most of the open bids." Grinning, she adds, "Before the end of the year, I'll have to revise the forecast again. So when are you going to announce our new forecast."
"You know how Wall Street analysts hate to be caught with their pants down. Now's the best time. It's early in the quarter, enough time to allow them to revise their evaluation of our company."
"It's great," Gail is bubbling. "Right when I opened my eyes this morning I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day."
"It is," says Scott. "Actually, so far it's a gorgeous year."
After a pause he inquires, "Gail, you said that there might be something else that could get in our way. What is it?"
"I'm in such a good mood, why ruin it? We'll discuss it some other time."
"And leave me hanging? Come on, Gail, you know how paranoid I am. Talk. I want to sleep tonight."
Gail is uncomfortable. "It's the communication that we have. Actually, the lack of communication." She stops.
After a moment, Scott encourages her. "Come on, this is serious. Such things can break a company. Who's not communicating?"
Gail swallows. "Scott, it's you."
Scott's expression doesn't reveal his surprise, nor how deeply he is hurt, but Gail knows him well enough to guess. She also knows that now she can't stop, she has to explain.
"Scott," she says softly, "with Pierco, I'll be the first one to admit that you and Lenny saved our company. It was brilliant. And now we have the best product we've ever had. But Scott, the way you did it was, allow me to say it, not the proper way. You put me, and even more so, Maggie, through hell.
"We were convinced that everything was ruined while you, correction, you and Lenny, were sitting on the solution. As we found out later, all the code was finished. And you didn't tell us about it. Not a word, no warning, no clue. You waited until it blew up in our face, until our best reference was threatening us, and only then did you say not to worry. Why? Why? I might expect such an attitude from Lenny, but from you?"
Scott's eyes soften when he says, "And now you're afraid there might be some more surprises up my sleeve ..."
"Wouldn't you be? I know that Lenny is working on new things, but I don't have a clue what they are. In the past I was informed about every new development, on everything of importance cooking in our development centers. Not anymore."
She swallows hard and continues, "Scott, what's the next explosion going to be? You're so busy developing the solution, there must be something."
"You're right, Gail. You are absolutely right. I am guilty of not making the effort to communicate. So what do we do now?"
"We communicate." Gail sends a small smile. "But not now. Maggie should be part of it."
"Of course."
"What about tonight? Is eight okay?" she asks.
"No problem. But are you sure that Maggie's available?"
"She is in town, and for this, she'll be there."