Business Doctors - Management Consulting Gone Wild by Sameer Kamat

Author:Sameer Kamat [Kamat, Sameer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Booksoarus
Published: 2014-04-23T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The next morning, Schneider was back in the office scouring the newspaper headlines, looking for some positive news. Though there wasn’t much in the papers to be thrilled about, he was relieved that Project Lean and Mean had been completed. It was time to get back to regular business. Time to get back into the marketing mode to try and grab a few good assignments. Win projects that will help him strengthen his company’s bank balance.

Like all modern offices that promoted the concept of transparency, Schneider Associates also had glass partitions that allowed anyone from any corner of the office to stand up in the cubicle and get a complete 360 degree view of the entire office. He saw Martin approaching his office and the glass door opening.

Martin peeped in, “Busy?”

“Come on in, Martin. What’s up?” Schneider gestured.

“Bad news from Acme. Colin called up in the morning. The management team there is clear that they do not see a need for our services from the coming month. However they’ve promised that they’ll settle our pending fees as soon as we send them our invoices.”

“We were expecting that anyway. So, it doesn’t come as a shock.” Schneider said this without showing any signs of stress. Though in his heart, he had been sure of getting some small, repeat business. He wondered if there was another reason, besides recession, for the sudden demise of his firm’s business. “But there’s more that you want to tell me, right?”

“Yes. We are running low on cash reserves. Paying salaries might not be an issue for the next two months, but bonus payouts will be a challenge,” Martin revealed.

“I know. I had that at the back of my mind as well. I’m thinking of communicating this to our guys now rather than saving all the bad news till next month, when the bonuses are due,” Schneider looked back out of the window towards the Hollywood sign. When they had newly moved into this new office, Martin had pointed out, “If you squint your eyes and check out the sign, it reads Hell good.” This was a far cry from the current state.

Since the time Schneider Associates moved into their first real office, Schneider had thought through many of his problems while looking at this view. Today was one of those days when the view of the mountains was crystal clear. Ironically, the direction in which Schneider Associates was heading wasn’t half as clear. The spiraling issues that the general economy was going through did little to help Schneider’s situation.

“Are you thinking of layoffs?” Martin was curious.

“I don’t want to go down that route if I can help it. In the short history of Schneider Associates, we’ve never handed out pink slips. It has been a high performing team and we’ve hand-picked each of our consultants after a lot of effort and diligence.”

Martin knew Schneider did not have a ready answer. “I’ll head back to my desk. Gotta fill up the time-sheets and prepare the invoice for WFB.

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