Roger Morris sat at his mahogany desk and smiled. The computer screen in front of him displayed sickening profits. Leaning back in his leather chair, he placed his hands behind his thick head of black curly hair. A smile slipped across his chiseled jaw and Roger could almost taste the success. He had exceeded his financial goals for the quarter and was ready to take some time off. After all, he had been running the ranch for over 20 years. And it had been in his family for half a century. And finally, finally, he could reap the rewards he deserved.
Roger reached his hand to the sleek black phone console on his shiny desk. He pressed the first white button on the right and spoke tightly into the intercom. “Loretta, send Ed in here.” He released the button without waiting for a response. Roger loved being in control. He loved power. And he loved giving orders. And why shouldn’t he? He had started at the bottom even though he was family. His grandfather began the ranch with a few thousand head of cattle. At first, Murphy Ranch was just a small local farm in Coalinga, a city in Fresno County, California.
Things didn’t change much when Roger’s father took over. Although he managed to increase the cattle to tens of thousands, it was still a relatively small operation. But that all changed when Roger took over. He rose up through the ranks, learning the trade in the field. He started in the feed troughs, learning how to feed and rotate feed. He then moved up to fattening and finishing. His last blue collar job was slaughtering. Just thinking of those days made Roger shiver with disgust.
But now, decades later, Roger had hundreds of staff members to do the dirty work for him. Shoot, he probably had almost a thousand if you counted all the ranch hands, the factory workers, the slaughterhouse crew, the cleaners and the packagers. That was before you counted all the corporate staff. The golden goose was Hawaii. When Roger moved up to the business side of the ranch, he noticed that even though the operation was good, it could be a lot better. He didn’t care about the integrity of the ranch’s reputation as much as he cared about the bottom line. So Roger scoured over the books, trying to find the one thing that would take Murphy Ranch from good to great. And he found that one thing across the Pacific.
The Hawaiian islands were ideal for raising cattle, as long as the conditions were good. Before the droughts, Murphy Ranch had very little finishing business from the islands. But once the droughts hit, the business from Hawaii steadily increased. At first it was slow. But after the second quarter, Roger caught on and realized the potential. He knew that the islands were limited in the type of irrigation they could supply the farms. And with the decline in demand for red meat in the states, Murphy Ranch needed another cash cow, so to speak. So until the conditions changed in Hawaii, Murphy Ranch had a chance to cash in on the misfortunes of Hawaiian cattle farmers. And cash in they did.
Price gauging, inflated costs and false competition raised prices from expensive to outrageous. Roger and his team used every method they could to rake every penny out of Hawaiian ranchers. It got so expensive that many of the smaller ranches went out of business. And even though that put a small dent in Roger’s profit, Murphy Ranch was still making money hand over fist. Besides, when the small ranches went belly-up, bigger ranches like Trinity took their land and their cattle. Either way, all the cattle still came across the pond to Murphy.
Rap, rap, rap. “Come in,” barked Roger. He didn’t bother looking up from his computer screen when Ed entered the palatial office. The tall lanky operations manager walked over to the large desk and sat down in one of the low-back leather armchairs that faced the windows overlooking the Sierra Nevadas in the distance.
“What’s up boss?” asked Ed Nesbitt. He had been with Roger since the beginning, having watched him expand the business and make it thrive. Ed didn’t particularly like or dislike Roger Morris. He knew he drank too much, was promiscuous with too many women and was not a nice person. But he paid well, and Ed liked his job.
“Ed, my friend, I think I’m ready to take that trip,” said Roger, eyes still fixed on the computer screen. “Yep,” he said, shifting his gaze and smile to Ed. “It’s time. I’m going to go to the Bahamas for a whole month.”
Ed had heard about this trip for years. Roger was a man of goals. He would set his mind on achieving a certain financial goal, and when that was done, he would reward himself lavishly. Sometimes it was with cars, other times with jewelry or other material trappings. But this was the big one. Roger had talked about this Bahamas excursion for a long time. In all honesty, Ed didn’t think it would ever happen. Especially the way Roger blew money. But he didn’t let on to his boss.
“I think that would be a great vacation! And it is definitely well deserved,” said Ed, who knew just how to stroke the hand that fed him. “You’ve worked so hard to get where you are.”
Without missing a beat, the never humble Roger chimed in. “I did. In fact, when I took over this ranch had just under ten thousand head of cattle. And even though it’s been a long road, we’ve got over 100,000 now.”
“Wow,” Ed said, having heard this story a hundred times. “Can I ask you something boss?” Ed wanted to know, just in case he ever wanted to take the reins of the operation. “Was this path to success a smooth ride?” Ed already knew the answer but figured he’d give Roger another opportunity to gloat.
“Nothing is easy, my friend,” Roger said, glad for such a loyal confidant. “Sometimes you run into problems along the way and you deal with them. Remember that feed incident in SoCal?” Ed nodded, recalling the problem with a satellite ranch years before.
“Well,” Roger went on, “You’ve got to do whatever it takes to reach the goal. Even if that includes being ruthless.” Ed recalled that the solution to the feed issue was anything but ethical. In fact, Ed had been unsure if he wanted to continue working for the Morris family and for Roger after he saw how mercilessly they had destroyed their competition in southern California.
Roger opened his mouth and was about to continue his boasting when the phone on his desk rang. He stopped and picked it up, annoyed that Loretta didn’t screen the call first. “Morris!” he yelled into the phone. Instantly, Roger’s face softened just a bit.
“Gary!” he said, happy to hear from a fellow rancher who was far from competing with Roger. “What’s going on? I was just telling Ed here ...” Roger stopped. Ed could tell he was listening and from the looks of Roger’s face, the news wasn’t good.
“I see, uh-huh,” Roger nodded and tapped a few keys on his keyboard as he stared angrily at the computer screen. “Yes, uh-huh, is that so?” Tap, tap, tap, a few more strokes. “Well, thank you Gary. Thank you very much. Yes, uh-huh, you too.” He dropped the receiver heavily onto the cradle.
“Is everything alright boss?” Ed asked.
Roger tapped the keys a few more times and then raised his finger to the computer screen. He traced a line across the screen and pointed to an account highlighted in green. “Is everything alright? Well,” Roger said to Ed as he turned the screen toward him. “What were we just talking about? Doing whatever it takes to reach the goal?”
“Yup, that’s what you said,” Ed answered.
Roger smiled devilishly. “Well, it appears our friends at Trinity Ranch have been experimenting with a pilot irrigation program. I guess they want to try watering their own fields so they don’t have to send their cattle to us for fattening and finishing anymore.” Ed heard the words come out of Roger’s mouth but wondered why he wasn’t angry. Trinity Ranch was Murphy Ranch’s biggest account.
“And if that happens,” Roger tapped a few more keys. “If that happens, we will suffer a huge drop in profits.” He turned and looked at Ed. “And I won’t sit by and let some little Hawaiian farmer determine the future of Murphy Ranch.”
Ed just shook his head in agreement. “No, boss.”
“So that’s why, that’s why we aren’t going to let them succeed.” Roger put his hands flat on the desk. “This is a perfect example of how sometimes the path to success is not easy, and sometimes you have to be ruthless.”
Ed just nodded as Roger continued. “And this is the perfect time for me to show you how to handle it the right way!”
Roger reached across his desk and buzzed Loretta through the intercom. “Send Josh and Roy in.” Again, he didn’t wait for a response.
Moments later, two rough looking ranch hands entered the office. Josh was over six feet tall and well kept, despite the fact that the sun had taken its toll on his California good looks. Roy, on the other hand, was just under 5’8 and looked like he rolled out of a biker bar. The two men stopped just short of the armchair occupied by Ed. They knew better than to sit.
“Hello boys,” said Roger, smiling broadly. “How would you two like an all-expenses paid vacation to Hawaii?”
The two ranchers looked at each other, stumped by the question as Roger continued. “You just need to take care of a little business for me while you’re there. You’re familiar with Trinity Ranch, right?”
The two men glanced at Roger and nodded slowly. They were beginning to figure out what Roger wanted from them as he went on. “It seems the ranch is conducting a rather successful experiment with irrigation ... irrigation that means they won’t need our services anymore ...” Roger waited for the two men to catch on completely.
After a few seconds, they both smiled. Once Roy pieced it all together, he shouted in excitement, “Oh, yeah, irrigation! Hawaii here we come!” Josh elbowed him and glared, mouthing the words “shut up!” He didn’t want the boss to think they wouldn’t be able to handle the job.
Roger watched, wondering if he had made the right decision calling them in. There was a reason he kept them on the farm and not in the office, after all. But it was too late now. The cat was out of the bag, and the pilot irrigation program had to be stopped. Roger had never failed at anything, and even though he didn’t have the brightest men on his team, he wasn’t about to let anything get in his way of success now. He took a deep breath, called all three men in close and began to outline the plot to sabotage the irrigation system at Trinity Ranch.