Intentional Consequences by Charles Harris

Author:Charles Harris [Harris, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781087423807
Published: 2019-08-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

David Bernbach was just finishing lunch at his golf club when he received a call from Alice Harper, the former CEO of a Minnesota consumer products company Bernbach had helped take private several years earlier. When the company was sold to a larger competitor 34 months later, the investors tripled their money and the management team did very well. Alice deserved a lot of the credit, both for convincing her board to go private and for recasting the company’s business strategies to drive shareholder value. After the sale closed, Alice had taken some time off before accepting a new position as CEO of a publicly traded packaged foods business. She and Bernbach had remained close, permanently bound by their mutual financial success. To Bernbach, any call from Alice was worth answering.

“Hi, Alice. Beautiful day here in Connecticut. What’s going on?”

“Not much. We’re in Florida for Easter. I’m at Universal Studios in Orlando with the kids. We’re heading back to the beach tonight. Meant to call you before we got away. This may not be important, but I thought I’d pass it on since I know you’re always playing politics in your spare time. Rakesh Jain, the tech guy, called me a week or so ago to take my temperature about being part of a group of companies supporting an initiative to reunite America, as he called it. He’s concerned about the polarization of our politics and wants to try to do something about it.”

“Really? That’s interesting. What did you tell him?”

“I told him we’d take a look, but a lot would depend on how it was implemented. Turns out he’s using the same ad agency we use. They’ve made some pilot commercials, which he agreed to share with me if I’d give him some comments. I saw three of them on Thursday before we left for Florida. They’re quite good. Anyway, I wasn’t sure whether you were aware of this or not, so I thought I’d give you a call. Always good to have some excuse to talk with you.”

“I wasn’t aware he was doing this. Thanks for the heads’ up. Do you still have the commercials?”

“No, I had to do a video share with my ad agency to see them.”

“Have you talked with Rakesh about what’s next?”

“He’s planning to socialize the pilot videos and some other materials over the next few weeks. His goal is to launch no later than July 4th.”

“Good to know. If you get anything you can pass on, I’d love to see it. Would also be helpful to know who he’s talking to about this. Text me the name of your ad agency. Have fun on the roller coasters!”

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