Nigel Young spoke for the first time. ‘It would seem an apposite choice of action in our present circumstances.’
‘Yes, it’s a fair point,’ said Sorenson. ‘I’ve discussed this with the two major shareholders, Mark here and Dr Fairfax. Our view is that we should allow the company to settle down over the next couple of months. If the situation still looks poor, we’ll seek a buyer. I know Dr Fairfax’s view, in particular, is that we owe it to Richard to try to keep the company independent.’
‘I think we also owe it to Richard to prevent his company from going bust,’ said David. ‘I respect your point of view, and especially Dr Fairfax’s, but if we don’t put the company up for sale now we might be too late. It can take six months to find a buyer. I’m sure the last thing Richard would have wanted would be for all the people who worked for him to lose their jobs.’
David made his point well. I was a little disturbed to find that I agreed with him.
‘Crap,’ said Rachel. She was fiddling with her pen agitatedly. I guessed she wasn’t allowed to smoke in board meetings. ‘That’s crap David, and you know it. Richard didn’t want to sell, so we don’t sell. Simple, right?’
Nigel Young’s nose moved up a few degrees at this exchange. David ignored Rachel’s comment.
‘Rachel, I don’t want that sort of language used at board meetings,’ said Sorenson firmly.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘Rubbish, then. But I know no one in the company wants to sell out now. We want to see it through.’
‘I think you’ve made your point, Rachel,’ said Sorenson patiently. ‘Now, shall we vote on it?’
We all looked at David. He didn’t rise to the argument. He knew the decision had been made. He voted against the proposal, but graciously. Nigel Young, of course, voted with Sorenson.
‘Thank you,’ said Sorenson. ‘Now, we have just one more item. I propose that Mark Fairfax be appointed acting managing director of FairSystems plc, and be nominated to the board.’
Willie seconded the proposal. That was the sort of thing he was there for.
‘Any comments?’ Sorenson asked. I knew that he would have already discussed this with everyone round the table, but I was still nervous.
David Baker leaned forward.
‘David?’ Sorenson’s voice was ostensibly welcoming, inviting comment. But there was a note of warning, too.
‘What will be the term of this appointment?’ he asked.
‘Initially, three months,’ Sorenson answered.
‘Meaning that the appointment will be extended for another three months after that?’
‘No, not at all. At the end of the three months we will either appoint an MD on a permanent basis, or the company will be sold, in which case the purchaser would make his own appointment.’
‘I see,’ said David. ‘And in the event of a permanent appointment being sought, there’s no reason why internal candidates would not be considered?’
David was setting out his position quite blatantly, I thought. Still, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
‘No reason at all.’ Sorenson had paused just long enough before making this statement to give it all sorts of ambiguity. ‘Any other comments? No? Fine. Let’s vote then.’
Under Sorenson’s heavy gaze, my appointment was unanimous.
‘Welcome, Mark,’ he said. I smiled politely. ‘Willie will deal with the formalities.’
The meeting broke up.
I cleared my throat. ‘Rachel, David, Willie. Can I have a word?’
We waited for Nigel Young and Sorenson to leave.
Young nodded politely to me as he left the room. Sorenson paused. ‘Well, I’m off for a round at St Andrews,’ he said. He clapped me on the shoulder. ‘Good luck, son.’
I needed it.
As soon as they had gone, Rachel lit up. Willie sat attentively, waiting to be told what to do. David showed signs of minor irritation. He was an important man with things to do. My first challenge. Five years older than me, an MBA, years of experience in the computer industry, eighteen months at FairSystems. He should have been running the company, not me. That’s what he thought and perhaps he was right.
I smiled. ‘As Walter said, I’m only here for three months. I know you’re all good at your jobs, and I don’t plan to interfere. I believe FairSystems has tremendous potential, and I’m going to fight hard to make sure it survives to make the most of it. I’m sure we all want the same thing.’
I looked round the table. Rachel lounged back in her chair, watching me, and took a drag of her cigarette. David sat upright, impassive. Willie caught my eye, and nodded encouragingly. I was grateful.
‘I won’t be taking any salary for the next three months. I know we need the cash.’ Willie relaxed a little at this. One expensive chief executive on board could have been enough to topple the company over, things were so tight.
‘Now, I’d like to spend the first few days getting to know in detail how the place works. So, if possible, I’ll spend this morning with Rachel, this afternoon with David, and tomorrow morning with Willie. Can you all manage that?’
They nodded.
‘Good. I’ll use Richard’s old office. If you want me for anything, please come and get me.’
David coughed, and shifted in his chair. ‘Actually, I’ve just moved my own stuff in there. You can use my old office if you like. It would make a good temporary base.’
I suppressed a smile. I had expected this. Frankly, I couldn’t have given a toss where my office was. I had even considered setting up shop with the programmers so that I could really get an idea of what was going on. But if I didn’t care, others did, especially David. He hadn’t wasted any time. He must have moved his stuff in over the weekend.
‘I’m sorry to inconvenience you, but for appearances I think it’s important that I use Richard’s old office, don’t you?’ I smiled at him, polite and friendly.
He stared at me for a moment, making up his mind whether to make an issue of it. He decided not to. ‘OK,’ he said, gracious again. ‘It will be available tomorrow.’
‘Thank you, David. All right, Rachel, shall we go?’
I followed Rachel along the corridor. The all-important first meeting seemed to have gone well, but I was sure David would pose problems in the future.
‘I’m pleased you’re with us,’ said Rachel.
‘Yes?’ I said surprised.
‘Yes. Big Wal said a lot of good things about you. Said you were a bit like your brother. And we need someone to hold back David.’
Big Wal. I smiled. Not a bad name for Sorenson. ‘But it must be difficult for you to have someone thrust in over your head.’
Rachel laughed. ‘Oh, no. The last thing I want to do is manage this place. I want to make VR machines. You can deal with all the crap.’ We wandered over to a coffee machine. ‘Want some?’
‘Please,’ I said. ‘Black, no sugar.’
She pressed a button and the machine whirred and ground until it dribbled black liquid into two cups.
I thought about the board meeting. Sorenson had clearly dominated it.
‘What were those meetings like when Richard was there?’ I asked.
‘Different,’ said Rachel. ‘You still got the impression Walter was in charge, but he let Richard do most of the running. I reckon he thinks they need a firmer hand now. And he’s probably right.’
‘He’s impressive,’ I said.
‘Big Wal?’
‘Yes.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘He told me what he did with Melbourn Technology. How he brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy.’
Rachel snorted.
‘Wasn’t that true?’
‘Oh yes, it’s true all right. But didn’t he tell you what happened to the poor wee guy who founded it? John Naylor?’
I shook my head.
‘He ended up with nothing. With less than nothing; the bank took his house.’
‘Sorenson told me that they needed
new management.’
‘Maybe they did. But explain to me why Sorenson grossed over a million from the deal, and Naylor, the man who invented this wonder-product, ended up a bankrupt?
‘Sorenson’s good, all right, but he’s always looking after number one. If I were you, I’d remember that.’
We entered the large software room and wended our way through the toiling programmers towards Rachel’s office. There was silence, just the faint click of keyboards, every head staring at a computer screen. I glanced across to the electronic window; it showed white sand, and palms, with the sea rolling gently against the beach. I smiled to myself – Greg would have approved. Despite this view, the lack of real windows was disconcerting. The walls were probably a lighter shade of grey than the sky, but it would have been nice to have been able to check it for myself.
Rachel shut the door, and we sat at her little table. ‘So, what can I tell you?’ she asked.
‘I’d like to know more about the applications for our VR system. We don’t produce all the programs in-house, do we? Who writes the software?’
‘This is where Richard’s strategy was truly amazing,’ she said. ‘We’re in touch with dozens of software companies, all experts in their particular fields: auto-design, education, military simulation, or whatever. We provide them with the FairSystems world-building software, and the FairSystems hardware, and encourage them to design virtual reality applications. Richard persuaded them that virtual reality was just about to happen, and it was just about to happen using FairSystems technology.
‘But with Richard’s way of working, they all stay independent. We can’t afford to buy them. We don’t want to, and they don’t want us to.’
‘So, how do they get paid?’
‘Only partly in cash. Mostly they get access to each other’s ideas and equipment. There are tiny firms all over the world looking for new ways to use our technology.’ Rachel was getting into her stride. ‘For example, most of the work on Bondscape wasn’t done by Richard at all, but by a company that specialises in financial software, based in New York.
‘Within three months there will be fifteen new VR application packages completed. Within six months there will be forty. Bondscape’s one of these. Everyone is just waiting for VR systems to be mass produced at an affordable level, and then the market for all these products will take off.’
‘And FairSystems will be right in the middle?’
‘That’s right,’ said Rachel. ‘We put it all together. We make a lot of money.’
I was impressed. It sounded like a neat, low-cost way of placing yourself at the centre of the coming virtual reality revolution.
‘How do you keep in touch with all these people?’
‘E-mail. Here, I’ll show you.’ She turned to her computer, and flashed up a screen full of messages. ‘Everyone communicates this way now. It works well, especially when you’re working on a computing problem. You can send computer files to each other as well as text messages. The guys out there will often communicate with one another using e-mail, rather than speech, even though they’re in the same room. That way they don’t interrupt each other’s train of thought.’
I looked at the group of programmers outside Rachel’s office, tapping away and thinking. Very odd.
‘Is Walter on the system?’
‘Oh yes. It’s often the only way of getting hold of him. I’ll get someone to put you on tomorrow, once you can get into Richard’s office.’
‘Thanks.’ I scanned the messages on Rachel’s screen. There was one which began ‘What the hell is going . . .’
I asked Rachel to call it up. She did so, reluctantly. It was a message from Matt Gregory of Chips with Everything. It had that day’s date at the top.
‘What the hell is going on with you guys?’ it read. ‘Now Richard’s gone, who do I talk to? Not that arsehole Baker, in case you were wondering. Are you for sale? Are you still making VR machines? What gives?’
Rachel was watching me closely. I laughed. ‘Not shy of saying what he thinks, is he?’
‘None of these people are.’
‘Maybe I should talk to him,’ I said. ‘On second thoughts, maybe I should talk to all of them.’
‘Yeah,’ said Rachel. ‘It can’t hurt.’
So I put together a message that was upbeat but credible. I emphasised that things wouldn’t change, and that Rachel would still be around at all times to help anyone out. I said I was proud of my brother’s company, and I would do everything I could for it. I knew it was a cynical audience, but I hoped I had pitched it right. Rachel seemed pleased with it, so we sent it out over the network. It was exciting to feel myself in the middle of this community striving towards a common goal. Richard’s goal.
‘You said all we need is for VR prices to fall. When will that happen?’ I asked.
Rachel looked away, avoiding my eyes. ‘Och, I don’t know. A year. Two years.’
I wondered why her answer was evasive. Perhaps she was embarrassed that despite all Richard’s promises, there was still a long way to go. But I thought there was more to it than that. ‘What are the obstacles?’ I asked.
‘There are several,’ she said. ‘The first is raw computing power. Any virtual reality system uses up a lot of processing power. At the moment we use Silicon Graphics workstations to run our fancier systems. For a mass market, we need to develop a system that will work well on a standard personal computer. To do that we have to work out a very efficient way of doing all the calculations involved. FairSim 1 helps, but we need something more.’
‘Like FairRender, the new graphics chip?’
Rachel smiled. ‘Quite right. Many of the calculations can be done directly on to the graphics chip, freeing up the PC’s CPU.’
‘CPU?’
‘Central Processing Unit. The chip that usually does all the calculations in the PC. Yes, with FairRender, and FairSim 2, we will be able to speed things up enough to create convincing VR experiences on a standard PC.’
‘OK, so we’re nearly there. What’s the delay?’
‘Once you have the technology, you then have to mass-produce it and market it. Chips can be very cheap, but only if you make them in vast quantities. Hundreds of thousands rather than a few hundred. Now, it’s a big risk for anyone to tool up a factory to make that many chips when there is no market yet. But until that happens, the prices of the chips will remain high because of the low production run. The same applies to other parts of the system, the headsets and so on. And with high prices, you can’t increase demand.’
I thought about what Rachel was saying. ‘So, how do we get the market going?’
‘I suppose that’s for you and David to work out.’ I wasn’t happy with her answer. There was something she wasn’t telling me.
It was mid-afternoon by the time I made it to see David Baker. He was in Richard’s office. All Richard’s personal effects – photographs, papers and so on – were in two cardboard boxes. David was busy loading his stuff into two large crates, probably the same ones he had unpacked the day before. With Richard’s photographs taken down, and the window switched off, the office looked bare indeed.
‘I saw the message you put out on e-mail,’ David said. ‘I thought it caught just the right tone.’
‘Thank you.’
‘But it might have been a good idea to have talked to me about it first. As you know, customers are my responsibility,’ he smiled as he said this.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘It mostly went to Rachel’s contacts. People we’re collaborating with on projects, rather than actual customers. I didn’t think of asking you.’
‘I think it’s better if I’m involved in all external communications,’ said David. ‘It’s important for the company to have a consistent image with the outside world. I’ve done a lot of work on improving other people’s perception of us in the VR community, and I’d like to do what I can to build on that. Richard was very supportive of the initiative.’ He was still smiling, his voice
reasonable.
Although I had avoided corporate politics at Harrison Brothers, I had watched it in action. Many investment bankers are motivated as much by power as by greed. They are also aggressive. I had often thought that it was a good thing that the Harrison Brothers junta found themselves in an investment bank rather than a third-world dictatorship; at least the knives in the back were all metaphorical.
I knew what David was doing. He wanted to slide me gently into what he considered to be my proper place – I was the temporary figurehead, and he was the man who was really going to run the show.
Except that wasn’t the way it was going to be.
There was no point in being subtle. This man had been trained at IBM and Harvard Business School. He knew all the political games anyway.
‘I know you wanted to be managing director, David. But it didn’t happen. I have that role, at least for a few months. So I make the ground rules.’
‘Oh yes? And what are they?’ There was just a trace of sarcasm in his voice.
I softened my tone. ‘You and I need each other, David. I need you, because you’re the only commercially adept person in this company. Walter Sorenson thinks a lot of your abilities. I don’t want to lose you, especially now.’
‘Well, that’s nice to know.’ The sarcasm was still there.
‘You need me, because my father and I control almost half the company. I’m only going to be here for three months, and when I’m gone, the field will be wide open for you.’ I stopped short of promising him the position of managing director after I had gone. I needed to find out a lot more about David Baker before I did that. ‘So, all you have to do is be patient, and help me. I’ll be happy to listen to all the helpful advice that you can give me. I’m sure I’ll end up taking most of it. But I’ll take the necessary decisions. This company is my responsibility, and believe me, I’m going to do my best with it. It’s in your interests as well as mine to make sure it survives. And then prospers. So, will you help me?’
David had listened in silence, his fingers propping up his chin. When I had finished, he waited, considering his choice of words.
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