7 the Deal

GEOFFREY AND MAVIS
AND THE CREDIT CRUNCH
By
Geoffreysmum

(This story is entirely fictitious)

7
The Deal

After Mr Bankrupt had left, Mr Milkem got out three glasses and a bottle of malt whiskey.
“I want us to drink to a successful business partnership” he told Geoffrey and Mavis. “I'd say that with your product and my commercial capabilities, we'll be the leader in the world toffee market in a couple of years and maybe sooner.”
“But....” Geoffrrey tried to interrupt but to no avail.
“Not that it won't be hard work” Milkem continued. “I mean I don't know anything about the toffee business but...”
“What d'you mean you don't know anything about toffee” Mavis asked him? “Mr Soderbread said it was your line of expertise. He said you know everything there is to know about confectionery.”
Milkem looked uneasy for a second but he soon bounced back. “Confectionery yes” he assured them, “I know a lot about confectionery but I know it in a sort of all encompassing way so I've never had the time to go into specifics.”
Geoffrey and Mavis did not looked convinced.
“It's very simple” he told them. “If you take a famous brand of confectionery like....” he struggled to think of one, “like Heinz for example, they have people who make their chocolate and...”
“Heinz don't make chocolate” said Geoffrey, “they make beans and..”
“Oh I think you'll find they make chocolate as well” Milkem assured them. “they may make it under another name, a name not necessarily readily identifiable to the consumer but..”
“Under what name” asked Mavis?
“well I don't know, I was just trying to give you an example.”
But you gave us an example of someone who makes beans and you're supposed to be an expert in confectionery” Mavis insisted.
“Look, forget Heinz for the moment” said Milkem getting exasperated, “if we have to use a consumer friendly brand, you give me the name of a confectionery company.”
“Cadbury's?”
“Right Cadbury's it is” Milkem sighed. “Now in Cadbury's, there are the people who make the chocolate, the people who market the chocolate, the people who sell the chocolate and then there's the people at the top who make sure that all of those other people do their jobs. And that's me. I'm the person at the top. So I never actually learn how to make the chocolate and I never actually have anything to do with it, I just.....”
“Sit in a big office waiting for everyone else to do their job so you can make money” said Mavis.
“Yes I just...... No, no, no, no Mavis. I have the hardest job of everyone because I have to make sure everything runs like clockwork. You see its like a house of cards, if the card at the bottom falls, then all the others do to. Do you see?”
They didn't.
“You see I say I'm the man at the top Mavis but actually, I'm the man at the bottom holding up all the other cards because I am the culmination of all the other cards. If I fall, you all fall. Do you get it now?”
They didn't.
“But if you don't know how to do the jobs that everybody else does, how can you make sure we all do them properly?” asked Mavis.
“It's complicated” Milkem assured them. “But we will get it sorted and, let's not forget that you and Geoffrey are still the main Directors in the Company so it's still down to you both to run it the way you want to.”
“Really” said Geoffrey?
“Oh yes, this is your Company. Mr bankrupt and I may be the main shareholders on behalf of the Bank but you and Mavis are the Company. We are just here to give you good commercial advice in our positions as CEO and Chairman but that doesn't mean it's our company.” Milkem beamed at them. “So let's raise our glasses to a successful partnership.” And with that he poured three healthy measures of malt.
“Oh” said Geoffrey, “well, if we're still in charge so to speak, I suppose that's all right then. But there is just one thing we're not happy about.”
“And what's that” said Milkem in obliging tones.
“It's about the toffee. You see we just can't see how Stan can make five million bars of toffee a year. It's just not possible.”
Milkem shook his head sagely. “Don't you worry about that” he said. “You just leave that to me. Now about these contracts.”

To be continued.......

Copyright N Barton 2008