Free Web NovelChapter 411: Anything Else We Need To Discuss?
"I listed the names based on each of the dealer’s relationships with HG." Wendy replied, "The best are at the top, the worst at the bottom. The names marked in red are the VIP clients. Of course, many of these dealers have worked with HG for many years. It was a large company and was not short on resources. These dealers would probably give HG a second chance as long as they are promised some compensation in return.
"My goal isn’t to buy over all the partners on that list. I think having one-third of them under my control should be enough. I’ve already done the calculations. Exactly one-third of the customers are unwilling to accept extra compensation; their only requirement is that HG pays the amount stated in their contract. The other two-thirds are all ready to give HG a change.
"HG can still make it through these hard times. Your only goal should be to take care of those customers belonging to that one-third. If two-thirds of the customers request to end their contracts and you try finding someone to sway the public’s opinion of HG, then it won’t be so easy for the company to pull out of this mess.
"There are a total of 13 names marked in red. I’ve already contacted all of them.
Three of them have already decided to end their contracts without even bothering to negotiate an alternative. I’m going to individually meet with each of the ten remaining clients beginning tomorrow. Of course, I won’t be able to manage meeting with everyone in the span of a few days. I can probably only speak with four or five clients. I’ll let you know once I decide which clients I’m going to meet with. As for the others, you can take care of them in what little time we have left.
"We can’t buy over all the customers. Timothy would only suspect that we have some sort of ulterior motive. Afterall, I’m the only one who has primarily been in contact with most of the customers. If I can’t convince any of them to return that must mean I am a liability. I’m guessing that Timothy is going to been in meetings all night. Once the meeting is over, I’ll give you a more detailed list."
"Okay, I’ll be waiting for that list." Michael felt himself sobering up after Wendy finished describing her plan. He could not recall when exactly Wendy had changed;
since when had the woman who had always wholeheartedly supported him suddenly begun taking charge?
She had analyzed the entire situation thoroughly. In fact, she had thought things through far better than anyone else would have. Michael felt a crushing weight settle on his shoulders. The onslaught of stress was a good thing, however. It would ensure that both of them worked together.
"Okay." Wendy gave him a one-word response then was silent for a long while. frёewebηovel.cѳm
"I know you’ve been busy lately, but you need to take care of yourself too. Even when you’re working don’t forget to eat and rest. Okay?" Once they had finished the business formalities, Michael was able to show Wendy how much he cared about her.
Wendy gave a small grunt then sighed, "I know that these clients won’t be easy to buy off. After all, we have never partnered with MC before. Even though MC’s designs were well known domestically, internationally, however, they could not beat HG’s notoriety. When HG and MC first began their partnership, I was the one who requested to go to MC. All these clients primarily sell clothing. If you don’t have anything else to sweeten the deal, then it’ll be difficult to achieve your current goal."
"Don’t worry. I’m going to try my best to do everything you’ve told me to." Michael told her. Once he finished speaking, another thought entered his mind, "Wendy, you already have a strategy in mind, don’t you?"
"Yep, I do." Wendy had already come up with a backup plan, but she didn’t want to test it out.
...
Wendy sighed and continued talking, "Do you remember that hotel room I stayed in before leaving Lake City?"
Michael nodded, then remembered that Wendy couldn’t see him, "Yes, I remember. I made your living arrangements. The room was the penthouse at the very top of the building."
"Have any people stayed there in the past two days?" Wendy asked.
"No, after you left, the apartment has remained empty. I didn’t want to let other people stay there. I wanted the space to stay untouched."
Wendy felt deeply touched by Michael’s words. She had already guessed that in such a short amount of time nobody would have checked into that room. She didn’t expect Michael to have insisted on leaving it empty, though.
"Is something wrong?" Michael asked, "Did you find the place uncomfortable when you stayed there?" Michael could not think of any other reason why Wendy suddenly brought up that room.
"There were two vases on the table next to the writing desk; one of the vases was filled with fresh flowers, the other with artificial flowers. I left a note inside the vase of artificial flowers. Once you send someone to the room, you’ll know what I’m talking about."
Michael owned that hotel. Luke could not control the property. Wendy had found a safe place to hide away her handwritten letter. She had worked at HG for six years.
And now she was going to slowly destroy HG with her own hands. Even though it was Michael’s company, she could never think of it as anything other than cruel.
She often wished that she was living a lie, that way she could continue happily working at HG. Unfortunately for her, that was not the case.
"Okay, I’ll go right away." Michael immediately stood up and got his car keys. He was planning on going to the hotel himself. He naturally had to see for himself whatever it was that Wendy had left behind.
"If anything happens to you, you can always call me. If you’re in danger, you need to let me know immediately, okay?" Michael worriedly told Wendy, "Don’t walk into danger by yourself, don’t..."
"Corrine..." A knock sounded on the office door, and Timothy’s voice followed calling Wendy’s name. When Wendy heard his voice, her heart skipped a beat.
She quickly walked into the bathroom. She walked up to the toilet and flushed it.
Once the sound of flushing water quieted, Wendy loudly walked out of the bathroom, her computer in one hand and her phone in the other.
She walked and talked to Michael, "Really? Are you really willing to give HG another chance all because of me?
"No problem. No problem. I’ll make sure to contact you about any other designs I create. Thank you for giving HG another chance. I won’t let you down this time."
Michael furrowed his brows as he listened to Wendy talk. He understood the situation Wendy was currently in. It was obvious that she was doing this on purpose.
Somebody must have come in to look for Wendy, so she was putting on an act.
Michael cooperated with her ruse and didn’t say anything.
When Wendy walked out and saw that Timothy was standing at her door, she excused herself on the phone and hung up. Wendy put down her laptop then asked Timothy, "Do you need me?"
"Are you free right now?" Timothy gave Wendy a tired smile as he watched her walk out of the bathroom holding her laptop. He continued, "We need to go to a meeting.
I’ve already called all of the managers at HG. We’re just waiting on you."
"Okay." Wendy agreed. She followed Timothy out of the room.
...
Wendy entered the meeting with Timothy. The room was already filled with people.
They were all familiar faces. They were the HG executives.
Wendy had been at multiple meetings with each of them over the past few years.
Unfortunately, she had really wanted to be on the board of directors and to meet with all the core personnel on the board.
Wendy took her place to Timothy’s left. Excluding Timothy, Wendy’s position was the highest in HG. HG was a design company, and designs could speak for themselves.
During the past few years, Timothy had not designed any top-selling products, most of HG’s achievements came from Wendy.
Exhaustion was carved into the features on Timothy’s face as he stood before the gathering. "I’m sure you are all aware of HG’s current situation. I’m counting on everyone to work hard during these next few days." Timothy sighed heavily then continued speaking, "I would like for each department to provide a brief overview of their current situation."
The room remained silent even after Timothy had finished speaking. The entirety of HG was riddled with problems. Nobody wanted to speak up because they knew the situation all too well. Timothy also knew. His head drooped slightly as he waved his hand in Wendy’s direction, "Ms. Swift, how about you go first."
Wendy nodded her head. Her eyes swept across the faces of all those seated in the room, and she began, "I just returned from Lake City. Compared to you all I got wind of the situation the latest. I have already contacted about half of our most important customers.
"There are about ten customers who aren’t willing to accept any form of compensation. They want to terminate their partnerships according to their contracts and and demand we pay them three to five times the amount of money for the breach of contract. About 20 customers are willing to come to a compromise.
There’s still a chance that we can win these customers back, but it all depends on our ability to compensate them. The remaining 10 clients haven’t answered my calls. I have already put together a list of clients and set the limits on their compensation."
After she finished speaking, Wendy looked down to find that her list was missing.
She had been in a rush when she left and had not brought it along to the meeting.
She quickly apologized, took out her phone, and gave her assistant a call, "There is a list of customer compensation on my desk. Can you print off 20 copies immediately and bring it to the conference room."
Once she ended her call, Wendy addressed the conference room, "I’m planning on visiting all of the important clients on the list. Please look over the compensation packages I’ve put together. Let me know if you have any problems so I can finalize the list today. I don’t have a lot of time to stay at HG. That’s all from me. Thank you."
Timothy nodded his head. He glanced at the sales department head.
The sales department head looked down and sighed. He said, "Our phones have exploded with calls coming from all over the world. Customers are complaining about experiencing allergies and that the quality of the clothing is horrible. Our entire department isn’t able to address all of the calls at this point. We’ve been continuously receiving requests to cancel orders. We’re going to face two problems in the coming days. First, there are too many people canceling their orders and asking for refunds outside of the allotted time period.
"Second, our department is short-staffed. There aren’t enough people to answer all the phones, and the customers who can’t reach our department go directly to customer services to file a complaint. I’m afraid that in the next two days, we’re going to have to speak with the local officials."
Most HG products were sold in partnership with a distributor. The distributor would sell the products through retail. However, HG also had its own official website through which some customers would directly buy HG products.
The order cancellations coming into the sales department came from the small percentage of direct sales. It was the head of customer service’s turn to speak next, "Our department is experiencing the same problem as the sales department, our phones are exploding with calls that we can’t answer."
...
Even though Timothy had already taken time to mentally prepare himself, his heart sunk even lower once he had listened to his employee’s reports.
The head of public relations was speaking, "We’ve already begun urgent preparations to manage our public relations, however we can’t completely crush the negative publicity. It’s not only reportage from Rheinsville City that we’re worried about; other places have begun running reports on HG too. We can’t solve the core problem amongst all these order cancellations and customer complaints."
The head of the marketing department nervously added, "Don’t even mention our department. All of the partnerships we had previously negotiated have been dissolved. Many of our older partners are already bringing up ending their contracts."
...
Each of the department heads had already listed out their current challenges. After Wendy finished listening to them, her face took on a stony expression, but inside she was overjoyed. Timothy, however, felt the full gravity of the situation.
As the department heads finished talking, Wendy’s assistant appeared with the printed copies of the list. The assistant passed out the papers to the board. Wendy was silent while everyone examined the contents of the list.
Timothy was the first to speak up, "Don’t you think the compensation is too big?"
The compensation proposal Wendy had put together did indeed seem overly generous. She had done that on purpose. It was too good of an opportunity to miss.
She needed to make HG pay for their transgressions.
"Mr. Woods, I’m sure you understand just how serious this situation is. Right now, the most important measure we can take is to urge customers to stay with HG.
Financial compensation is just a small matter in comparison."
Wendy knew that Christian was badly in need of finances. If these were normal times, as long as HG recovered its customers and reputation, any amount of compensation would have been fine. However, if a large sum were paid out as compensation right now, Christian wouldn’t have any money left to fund DR, and that bid he had just won over would be called off.
"I know, but..." Timothy looked around the room quickly. Some things couldn’t be said in the presence of so many people. He thought about it for a moment, then decided to hold off on asking his question. He would talk with Wendy after the meeting ended.
Wendy noticed that Timothy had fallen silent. She took the moment to address the others, "If there aren’t any more questions, then I plan on discussing the compensation packages as stated with the customers."
Timothy reluctantly nodded his head, "Ms. Wendy, you still have a great deal of work to complete. There are a lot of clients all over the world. I’d like you to represent the whole company thank you."
When Timothy finished his speech, he shook Wendy’s hand. When he saw that Wendy wanted to speak, Timothy quickly interrupted her, "HG is facing its biggest challenge right now. I believe that if we all work together, we’ll be able to resolve this situation. Thank you for all your hard work."
The emergency meeting did not last long. Everybody was busy and one extra minute wasted at the meeting, meant one more problem left unresolved. When the meeting ended, Wendy went back to her office. Timothy followed her back. Wendy seemed confused, "Mr. Woods, is there anything else we need to discuss?"
"Well..." Timothy found it difficult to bring up the topic, "I just wanted to talk to you about the compensation packages. Would you be able to reduce your estimates a little? I know that you have good relationships with some of the customers. If it’s possible, could you pull some strings to reduce HG’s losses? I know I’m asking a lot from you, but HG is in a crisis. We need the money for other things. If it’s possible to offer lower compensation, then do so."
