TOBY
Shareholder meeting day begins before dawn with a breakfast meeting with the entire executive team. I announce quarterly bonuses that exceed their expectations, but make it clear that the supply chain problems I’m quietly seeing examples of here and there—like the Mike Rodriguez drama, which thankfully got solved quickly, but at great expense.
“We can’t ever get too big to care about our first customers,” I remind them.
And to prove that point, the next meeting I have is coffee with Mr. Rodriguez himself. I invited him out to California on our dime, and before we head to the hotel where the shareholder meeting will be held, I take him to our production facility.
“I know this doesn’t make up for the disruption to your own work,” I say as we stroll down the production line. “But we want to be transparent in our QA efforts.”
“Hey, I’ve been in business long enough to know that bad luck sometimes strikes way more often than it should.”
“Chaos theory is my nemesis,” I growl.
He laughs. “Don’t I know it. Listen, I know I’m just a small peanut compared to what you’ve achieved, but I’m seriously impressed with how you’ve handled this. Before you get dragged off to that hotel and all the press stuff today, I just wanted to say, thank you—again.”
“You know, I didn’t say this before, because I don’t believe in sentimentality, but I remember your first order. It took me a while to connect the dots. But you took a chance on my processing chip when early reports were calling it glitchy. I’ll never forget that.”
“I’ve been married for thirty-five years, son. I’ve learned to value sentimentality. At the end of the day, the year, the decade…when you look back, it’s the relationships I see. I took a chance on your company because of your heart, not your product. And as I told you, I wouldn’t hesitate to go somewhere else if quality was a concern. But I knew you’d make it right, and you did. A decade from now, we’ll remember this moment, too.”
I have no doubt.
Cara: Excellent presentation. Gold star.
Toby: You watched?
Cara: I told you I would. I liked the bit about Mike Rodriguez. You’ve had a busy few weeks!
And the best part of it has been talking to her, which is a dangerous kind of pleasure. I need to get a handle on that feeling, because it can’t rage out of control.
Toby: That’s the job. Wouldn’t have it any other way. But it’s nice to have a weekend off.
Cara: LOL weekend off? Are you not going into the office tomorrow?
Tomorrow being Saturday.
Toby: Only for a few hours.
Cara: My face right now…
I can only imagine.
Cara: Take some time off.
Toby: Sure. Maybe we can do cyber-brunch on Sunday.
Cara: That’s not helping my impression that you work too hard, but sure, I’ll take it.