It's Not Luck (30 page)

“Are you kidding? They would love to be in the position of being the catalyst of change for a large printing company. It’s the ideal job and a great opportunity for them. On the contrary, here at UniCo they are in a strait jacket. They are not part of the core business, they are stuck out in the periphery.”

I’m excited. This idea has a lot of merit. The jump in the financial performance of the company guarantees that we can sell it for a nice bundle. But if we can sell it as a lever for change to a large printing company, then the sky is the limit.

And everybody will benefit. The buyer. UniCo. Granby will come out smelling like roses. Trumann and Doughty will be very pleased. But most importantly, Pete and his people will be in the best position they could ever hope for.

And what about me?

I’ll manage.

“So what do you say?” Dave cuts into my thoughts.

“What I say is that you are right. For a big printing company it’s a unique opportunity. I wonder if I can present it so that they’ll understand how unique and valuable it is?”

“We’re sure that you can,” they all tell me.

26

When we are alone, Julie raises the issue, as I knew she would.

“Alex, what about your job? It looks like your companies are going to be sold, and I think that you’re doing the right thing making sure that they will end up in good hands. But what about you?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I really don’t know.”

“Until now,” she says in a soft voice, “I was careful not to push you, but things are starting to fall into place. You are taking care of your people. What about a little taking care of yourself?”

“And my family,” I finish her thought. “Julie, what do you want me to do? Start pulling some strings? Put my resume in the appropriate hands? I can’t do that. Not in my position, not now. Besides, the war is still going on. I won some battles, but the major ones are still on the horizon. I cannot afford to be distracted. Don’t you see?”

She thinks about it. At last she says, “I would feel much better if I knew that you had a plan. Not just for your companies, but for yourself. Is it too much to ask?”

Contrary to the common opinion, I hate to plan. Especially when Julie is involved. I know my wife. When she is talking about a plan, she doesn’t mean some vague list of actions. She will maneuver me into performing a meticulous analysis. In this regard, she is more Jonah than Jonah.

However, nothing is bad about it. It’s good to have a plan.

“I must agree with you,” I say. “The time has come to put together a rigorous plan.”

“Do you have enough intuition about the subject?” Now Julie is all business.

“I think so.” It’s not as if I haven’t thought about it the last few months.

“Good.” A pad appears in her hand. “As long as we’re talking about you—not UniCo, not your companies, not your people—but you, do you have any quarrel with the following objective: ‘Get an equal or better job’?”

When Julie moves, she moves.

“No quarrel.” I try to be as practical as she is.

“If that’s the case, I think that we agree on the Thinking Process we should use,” she says categorically.

“Yes. The Prerequisite Tree.” I’m also a good student of Jonah’s.

“Okay, start to raise obstacles.”

Now, I know that this might sound strange. If we want to reach an ambitious objective, why start by raising obstacles? Isn’t it counter-productive?

But this is Jonah’s way. As he puts it, “Always start with a step that people are expert at performing.” And everyone of us is an expert at bitching and moaning. In other words, coming up with all the reasons why it can’t be achieved, raising obstacles.

“We still don’t have a marketing solution for Stacey’s company. This is a big problem.” I start to bitch.

“Agreed.” Julie writes it down. “More.”

“The profits of Pete’s and, even more, Bob’s companies are still far from being satisfactory. I know that we took the proper actions but it’s not yet in the bag. If we have to sell them now we are not going to get much.”

“I’m writing it as two obstacles,” Julie informs me. “One is ‘Profits of Pete’s and Bob’s companies are abysmal.’ And the second, ‘Values of Pete’s and Bob’s companies are low.’ Okay?”

“Fine,” I agree. “Now take what we discussed at dinner. This issue is not yet complete. In spite of what I said I don’t yet have a clear understanding of the buyers’ needs. At least not to the extent that I can put together a persuasive enough presentation.”

“Why is it so important?” she asks.

“What are you talking about?” I’m surprised. “How else can I leverage the price of Pete’s and Bob’s companies?”

She writes it down and then says, “Alex, will you please start to address the real obstacles. If you want to get an executive vice-president position in a substantial company, you must have excellent recommendations from respectable and powerful people. It’s essential.”

“Yup, it is. Add it to the list.”

“Well?” she says.

“Well, what?”

“What about some more obstacles of that sort. You know much more about it than I do.”

“You are doing very well,” I encourage her. “Please carry on.”

“As I understand it, there aren’t many jobs like that waiting to be filled.” She doesn’t like that she has to bring it up.

“What an understatement. But remember, to get one of the few that are there, recommendations are not enough. I must have an outstanding record. Otherwise I don’t stand a chance; the internal people are the first to be considered. And Julie, so far, as an EVP, I don’t have an outstanding record.”

“Turning around your companies from bottomless pits into what they are today is not enough?”

“No. Not if they are sold for less money than what they were bought for. Besides darling, you’re ignoring Stacey’s company. As it stands now, it’s going to be sold for demolition. Any executive carrying a black mark like that can kiss good-bye any chance of getting an equivalent job in another company.”

Julie is not getting excited. She’s heard all of it before, one way or another. “Do you have more obstacles to add to our list, Alex?” she asks in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Just the fact that Trumann and Doughty are not kids. They are the shrewdest, most clear-minded business people I have ever met. I guess that when you’re talking about recommendations, you are talking about them?”

“Yes. As I understand it, they think highly of you. As they should.”

“Darling, this is a tough world. Trumann and Doughty would never make a recommendation that they didn’t feel totally comfortable about. They must protect their reputations. If they recommend somebody, he or she better be good.”

“I still don’t understand the problem.” My loyal wife.

I try to explain. “If Trumann and Doughty do not get enough money from the sale of my companies, and it doesn’t matter what the reason is, they will not be impressed with me. In my position I must deliver results, not excuses. Just results, nothing else counts.”

Julie is not impressed with my emotional speech. “Anything else?”

“Let me see the list,” I say. I read it carefully. “No. I think we have all the major obstacles. Can we move to the next step?”

Starting with the list of obstacles is not as devastating as you might expect.

What’s the next step? The obvious. We all know that when the objective is ambitious it stands to reason that the plan to achieve it will contain several intermediate objectives. Where are the intermediate objectives coming from? The only reason for an intermediate objective is to overcome an obstacle that stands in the way of reaching the desired end objective. There is no other reason.

Therefore for each obstacle on our list we have to figure out the corresponding intermediate objective; the thing that if we achieve it the obstacle will be overcome.

“The first obstacle that you mentioned,” she starts, “is ‘There is still no marketing solution for Stacey’s company.’ What intermediate objective do you have in mind? How can you overcome it?”

I’m trying to be as professional as she is. It’s not easy. In her job she has developed a remarkable ability to remain analytical, no matter how emotional the issues are. She must.

“Nothing fancy. I just need enough time to implement the necessary actions. You see, the guidelines that Don and I developed are so powerful that I’m really not too concerned. Stacey needs time, nothing more.”

She writes it down and continues, “The next obstacle is, ‘Profits of Pete’s and Bob’s companies are abysmal.’ I guess that the intermediate objective is the same. Once again, ‘Have enough time to implement the necessary actions.’ ”

“Yes, and there is no problem in getting the time. I’ve already scheduled a meeting with Brandon and Jim. They will grasp Bob’s solution in no time and they’ll be happy to wait. You see, implementing this solution will bring more cash in the next few months than what they hoped to get from selling the company. And then we’ll end up with a company that can be sold for at least three times the current reasonable price. Nope, there’s no problem buying time for Bob. As for Pete, there was no problem to start with.”

“Excellent. The next one is ‘Values of Pete’s and Bob’s companies are low.’ I guess that the intermediate objective is to reach ‘Values of Pete’s and Bob’s companies are high,’ and you already took the actions that will guarantee it.”

“Nothing in business is guaranteed. But yes, conceptually you are right. What’s the next obstacle?”

“I wrote it as, ‘Not enough knowledge to construct persuasive presentation for potential buyers.’ What do you have to do to overcome it?”

“Many tiny details. I’ll spend time with Brandon and Jim to construct it. I think that between us we know enough. Besides, it will be a good idea to make them part of this process. In the end they’re the ones who will have to do the actual sale. Basically it boils down, once again, to having the time to do what’s needed. No big deal.” I’m quite confident about it.

“And this will pave the way to taking care of the next obstacle,” she says. “ ‘Value of Pete’s and Bob’s companies is not leveraged,’ is answered with something like ‘The appropriate buyers are persuaded to regard Pete’s and Bob’s companies as models.’ ”

When I nod in approval, she continues. “So far so good. Now let’s address the biggies. ‘Recommendations from powerful people are essential.’ I understand that Trumann and Doughty are your best shot?”

“Yes. And also Granby. A good recommendation from your ex-boss maybe doesn’t carry a lot of weight. But a cold recommendation is devastating.”

“I’m writing, ‘Trumann, Doughty and Granby are willing to give high recommendations.’ I think that if you achieve the previous intermediate objectives, this will come as a result.”

“Probably.”

“The next one is, ‘There are not many open positions at the required level.’ Alex, the obvious intermediate objective is ‘The right open positions are identified.’ What are you planning to do about it?”

“According to Jonah’s guideline you are supposed to ask questions like that only after we sequence all the intermediate objectives,” I tease her. “But darling, as long as I don’t take care of the other obstacles there is no point applying for any position. After I take care of them, I’ll have more than ample time to look for a job. You see, accomplishing all the other intermediate objectives will guarantee that I’ll get a lucrative golden parachute from UniCo. I’ll have enough time to look around.”

She is not too happy with my answer, but after a slight hesitation she continues. “The next obstacle is . . .”

It’s no hassle coming up with the other intermediate objectives. Then we start turning the resulting list into a plan.

We have to figure out which intermediate objectives we can achieve in parallel, which only sequentially.

Here the fact that for each intermediate objective we already have verbalized its corresponding obstacle helps a lot. Actually it makes sequencing the intermediate objectives into a relatively easy task.

How? Well, ask yourself what can possibly be the reason that we must achieve intermediate objective X first, and only then can we achieve intermediate objective Y? It must be that there is an obstacle that prevents the achievement of Y, and this obstacle is overcome by achieving X. That’s why X has to be accomplished before Y. Make sense?

To sequence we just have to find which obstacle blocks which intermediate objective. It’s that easy. When we’ve finished, we examine the resulting Prerequisite Tree. It looks good. It’s solid.

Julie remarks, “According to the tree, ‘Identifying the right open position,’ is not conditioned on any other intermediate objective. You can start now.”

“But . . .”

“But you are right. There is no point in addressing it now. It is only one of the three necessary conditions that are essential for the final objective. And relative to the other two, having an impressive track record and the high recommendations, it is relatively trivial. Yes, there is no need to address it yet.”

After a while she adds, “I like your plan, my smart hero. Now I see that every action that you took, right from the start, was on the right issues. Thank you, dear.” She puts the pad aside and comes to cuddle in my arms.