Corporate Canaries: Avoid Business Disasters with a Coal Miner's Secrets by Gary Sutton

Author:Gary Sutton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: book, ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2007-05-26T14:00:00+00:00

GE, in the seventies, was so disciplined in accounting requirements that each division had a line item titled “questionable payments.” That was where campaign contributions in the U.S. and foreign commissions paid to government officials were dutifully recorded. No matter how painful, GE accurately accounted for every dollar.

“As you wish,” Zrostlik replied, pulling away. He waved from the carriage for a furlong, while the smell of his cigar hung over the road. The clerk guessed Zrostlik’s new carriage cost $100. They watched as Zrostlik draped the reins over his lap, slid his left hand in an embroidered jacket pocket, and rolled his cigar with the fingers of his right.

“He’s found a key to our trade,” Grandpa said, “while we’re none the wiser.” Nobody replied. The three trudged on to their mine.

Two weeks and one day later, Bixby’s and Grandpa’s clerk quit, taking a position with Zrostlik. The clerk apologized. He said that with his new salary, he might be able to pay off the mortgage on his apartment building three or four years sooner. The clerk stammered that he could not afford to refuse Zrostlik’s offer.

Bixby’s and Grandpa’s faces froze. Finally Bixby said they understood. Grandpa wished the clerk well. They gave him a bushel of apples and escorted him off their land.

It took Bixby and Grandpa several months to recover, teaching a miner who could already read and write to handle their books. The promoted man’s arithmetic turned out to be nearly reliable, so with a bit of added supervision from Grandpa, no shortages or overpayments took place. They kept the coal and cash flowing. Prices were stable. Bixby and Grandpa continued to put money in their bank accounts.

Zrostlik took a half dozen more workers from Bixby and Grandpa. A few were “big shovel, no coal” malcontents. He also stole some good workers, frustrating Bixby and Grandpa, but this didn’t disable them. They became skilled at training inexperienced workers, knowing they would lose a portion to Zrostlik.

On November 14, 1885, the Harlan County supervisors told Bixby that he would not get next year’s contract for coal exclusively. Those orders would be evenly split between Zrostlik and Bixby. The supervisors explained that demand continued up, and Zrostlik’s prices were slightly better.

“Have our deliveries ever been late?” Grandpa asked a friendly supervisor. The official admitted that Bixby’s service had always been dependable, and they didn’t know how Zrostlik could perform, but with the county growing so fast, splitting the business seemed politically prudent.

Bixby and Grandpa wondered if Zrostlik might be sending cigars or liquor to the supervisors but didn’t know how to prove that or what the result might be if they did. They decided to simply work a little harder and try to be a little smarter and see what happened. With the county growth that year, they guessed that splitting the contract meant a 12 percent decline in sales for them, since increasing out-of-state orders replaced some of this loss.

Bixby and Grandpa put a few coins but no folding money into their bank accounts that January, February, and March.

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