A Sesson With Horse Dick Harry
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Rebuilding Harry Ch. 04 free porn video
When he arrived at work on the day of the presentation, Harry noticed that Mrs. Kowalski was still at the desk, and Veronica was nowhere within sight. He felt himself sink a little. It would have been nice to think he could have gotten a shot of confidence from her support that morning, but apparently he was on his own. When he said his good morning, and opened up the door to his office, though, he saw a steaming cup of coffee sitting on top of a checklist, along with a small memo. ‘R is going to surprise you with certain files. I might be able to cover. -V’
Harry grinned, before reaching into his desk and pulling out the final presentation notes and report to be photocopied, sitting within a manilla folder. He brought it out and handed it to Mrs. Kowalski, giving her the photocopying instructions for the meeting. He then walked back into the office, and took the customized box of files he’d made based on the previous day’s research with Roger, and shoved it under his arm, and walked down the hall towards where the meetings were usually held, coffee in one hand, the box held in place against his hip by the other. When he got inside, he noticed that it was empty, and he began to set up for the meeting, rehearsing his presentation to himself as he took sips from his coffee, trying to quell the anxiety within him. Although he was sure he didn’t need her help, part of him hoped that Veronica would show up a little early just for some reassurance, but when the first executives popped in for the meeting, he realized he was going to be on his own. Mrs. Kowalski showed up with the reports, and he circled the table to distribute them, and was settling the transparencies next to the projector when the stakes were suddenly raised.
‘Hello there, Mr. Stevens,’ said Charles Nunberg, the chairman of the board, when he came in, walking up with a hand outstretched. Harry was a little surprised by the direct greeting, since it was the first time anybody higher than a vice president had spoken to him directly since he started working at the company, let alone shaken his hand.
‘Hi there, Mr. Nunberg,’ Harry said, suddenly a little on edge. Mr. Nunberg was old enough to be his father, with a slightly portly look that might have been fat or the holdover of a lot of muscle, and considering the squeeze that handshake had put on him, it was probably the latter. He was an old man with a young face, and really nice grandfatherly eyes that almost made you comfortable, were it not for the fact that he still looked able enough to swim with the sharks. He looked like the classic business executive, the sort of man who reaked of power and benevolence and usually surrounded himself with pitbulls to take care of the nastier side of business for him.
‘Oh, please. It’s Charlie,’ Mr. Nunberg said with a chuckle. ‘We’re a company of the new millenium! No need for unnecessary formalities here.’
‘Alright, uh… sir,’ Harry said, looking beyond the smiling executive to where the surly assistants were sitting in their full suits, appraising him. Mr. Nunberg laughed again, before turning to go to his seat at the head of the table, opposite from where Harry was going to do his presentation. Right before sitting down, though, he said, ‘Oh, and by the way, excellent hire on that Veronica of yours. An intrepid woman.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Harry said as the executive sat down and began to mumble something incoherent to his assistant on the left. How did Veronica get a chance to meet with the chairman? He breathed in quickly and shook his head. Never mind, he thought, the presentation, focus on the presentation. He went back to where he’d set things up, and just then, Reg walked in with his secretary and Veronica in tow. Veronica quickly made a beeline for him.
‘Hey stranger,’ Harry said, trying to talk through a smile as the room quieted down.
‘I’m so sorry, Harry,’ she said, trying to compose herself. ‘He’s got a surprise planned, I know it.’
‘Well, let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,’ Harry said.
‘I think it’ll be okay,’ she said. ‘But Harry, really, I’m so sorry.’
Harry smiled, and noticed that everyone was completely quiet, waiting for him to begin. He looked at Veronica, smiled and nodded, and she sat down next to him. He looked at the chairman, who nodded and waved a hand, beckoning him to begin.
‘Uh, hi,’ Harry said. ‘I’m Harry Stevens from accounts management. I work under Reginald and am one of the agents for some of our small to mid-sized clients, and I’m here to talk about the problem that’s been on some people’s minds since the last quarterly report. I know that between that and the audit, there’s an interest to try to make some changes that look good to investors, and I guess I’m here to give you my opinion on what strategy we should make. If I seem nervous, sorry, it’s my first big project here.’
He made a quick pause after the introduction, and prepared the first transparency. ‘Veronica, can you turn off the lights, please?’ he asked, and she got up to do it, forcing a smile. He noticed that there was a look of concern in her eyes, and it was odd, because suddenly, despite his quick apology should he seem nervous, he didn’t feel that way at all, and with each step of his case, he found himself growing more confident and forceful. He started by explaining the situation, that some clients of the smaller business variety were seemingly in danger of going into delinquency, but that while it might make sense to take a hardened collections stance on them, history had shown that many companies that fit this profile in the past usually made it through based on the merits of their business skill, and turned out to not only be able to pay their bills but continue to do business with their company long afterwards. He then explained how an analysis of the history of these companies showed that by having taken a lenient stance had actually encouraged them to be loyal to the company, to the tune of about a third of the company’s profits over the last ten years, and that their recommendations had often brought in other companies, matching the same growth in that market as the company had seen with the bigger accounts with the corporate clients. As he spoke, he felt a strange power over the room, and they were turning pages in the report when he told them to, and transparencies seemed to move off and onto the projector in a surreal paperwork ballet. Even the assistants were paying more attention to the report, trying to keep up with his case, than they were to him. He was just about to settle into his home stretch when a cough sounded out.
‘Uh, Harry, sorry to interrupt,’ Reg said, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Nunberg, and others here, apparently Harry isn’t up to speed with the large number of companies who’ve proven to be a liability in that same time period.’
‘Actually, I’m not there yet,’ Harry said, trying to maintain a smile. ‘I can address that concern in a minute.’
‘Thanks, but we’ve already heard the crux of your argument,’ Reg said. ‘Veronica, can you turn the lights on please?’
Veronica’s face grew pale as she looked at Harry. Her eyes were imploring. To her surprise, Harry waved his hand and said, ‘I’ll do it.’ He walked over to the wall and flicked the lights on.
At that moment, Reg leaned back and whispered something to his own secretary, who got up and began to circulate some new reports around the room. Reg then stood up from where he was sitting, and addressed the room. ‘Ladies and gentleman, it’s important to note that over the years, our company has done business with a large number of companies who’ve gone belly up, and who accumulated further charges well beyond the point our collections process should allow, to the tune of several million dollars, and this is money that could have been saved had it not been for the laziness of those in accounts management who let these things slip on for far too long. By my figures, and I think these will be more complete than those of Mr. Stevens,
we’ve lost 8 million dollars in our company’s history to these clients in bad debt, with a full 4.5 million in preventable losses were we to have taken a harder stance-‘
Harry felt a tiny explosion of excitement inside. ‘5.7 million,’ he said quickly.
‘One second, Harry, you’ll have a chance-‘ Reg began, before stalling. ‘What did you say?’
‘It’s actually 5.7 million,’ Harry said. ‘With total losses in just under 11 million.’
Reg snorted. ‘You’re, like, trying to make my case for me or something?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Harry said, ‘But those are the numbers.’
‘Well,’ Reg said. ‘Those aren’t my numbers, and I think I ought to know, because I’ve had the files at my desk for a while trying to figure out what madness you might be up to in your report.’
Harry felt Veronica jump in her seat at that moment, and she opened her mouth. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. Her eyes were suddenly angry. He smiled down at her. Either she was genuinely mad or she was a brilliant actress, but it made no difference. He didn’t need her.
‘With all due respect, Reg,’ Harry said, ‘Our company has, in its history, had twenty-two companies give up business with us, leaving unreconciled amounts that had to be written off as bad debt, some of it preventable. Twenty-two companies, 5.7 million.’
Reg opened his mouth, and looked down at his report. Suddenly, there was a bunch of paper shuffling around the room as executives compared the two reports. Heads went back and forth, and there was much murmering, as Harry looked down at Veronica and gave her a wink. She looked back at him, with a continued look of surprise on her face.
‘You know,’ Charles Nunberg chimed in, ‘You’ve only got nineteen companies listed, Reginald. Why is that?’
‘By my data, there only were nineteen companies, sir,’ Reg said. ‘We had all the files.’
Nunberg looked up, and then looked over in Harry’s direction with a thoughtful squint, and it was a second before Harry realized that it was Veronica he was looking at more than Harry. Finally, he looked back at Reg.
‘I don’t think you did,’ he said, ‘I don’t know if it was exactly the same number that Mr. Stevens here was saying – that’s why I pay you guys. But you left off McMaster & McMaster. That father and son con job cost us almost three million on its own. How could you not remember that?’
Reg’s eyes widened and his mouth closed right up. ‘I’m sure I had that one accounted for in here somewhere… Veronica? Why wasn’t that in the report?’
Veronica’s eyes widened in shock. ‘I wasn’t in charge of selecting the files, sir.’
‘Um… never mind about her,’ Mr. Nunberg said. ‘Something tells me Harry wasn’t quite finished in his report, which he appears to have spent a lot of time researching.’ He looked up at Harry. ‘It does seem to make your case harder to make, Mr. Stevens, though, if it is almost 6 million in preventable debt we’re talking about here. That’s a lot of money. Still, I think you already have an answer for that, and I’m interested to hear it.’
‘Uh, thanks,’ Harry said, feeling a little exhiliration as he watched most of the people set aside Reg’s report and return to studying his own. ‘And you’re right, Mr. Nunberg, I do have an answer.’
‘Please, Harry, it’s Charlie,’ Mr. Nunberg said, smiling. There was a pause as both looked over at Reg, who was still standing.”Reginald, you can sit down now,’ Mr. Nunberg smiled. Reg nodded and complied, and Harry saw that at that moment the chairman, maintaining his smile, gave one of his assistants a little nudge with his elbow, and the assistant nodded and made a note.
‘Thanks,’ Harry said. ‘Um, yeah, I agree, on the surface it doesn’t look good for a permissive collections policy to have cost us 5.7 million in extra bad debt. But if you turn to the last page…’ Immediately there was the rustling of paper throughout the room as Harry cleared his throat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Veronica look down at that same page in the report, and then look up at him, with a smile of what Harry almost wanted to call admiration. ‘…on that last page you should see a breakdown. On one side is a total of all the losses incurred, not just in bad debt, but total debt to these twenty-two companies. On the other side is the total amount of profits received by the fifty profiled companies after they had succeeded in paying off their overdue accounts. Now, that fifty doesn’t include about twenty I left off the list because they were of the large business variety and had all sorts of insurance and credit in place to settle up their accounts. I included only that fifty because I wanted to show that the risk we took with them, in not going hard on them for being overdue, actually worked out like an investment for us. Now, of the 11 million total in losses, much of that came from companies like McMaster & McMaster and WestTel, with only 5.2 coming from companies that were mid-sized or smaller. Against the 5.2 in losses, there’s over 12.4 in profits, just from that category, for a differential of about 7.2 million.’ That got some murmurs around the room, and Harry felt a thrill watching as Nunberg’s mouth twisted as the chairman studied the figure and nodded. ‘And that’s only showing the immediate benefits with these companies. There’s a really bright kid in IT called Roger…’ – No reason not to spread the karma, Harry thought, smiling inwardly – ‘…and I had him take a quick analysis of the referral system we had put in place from the get-go, and it turns out that of those fifty companies, over half showed up as referred-bys in over sixty new clients in the small- to middle-business portion of our clientelle. The, uh, 8 million, that number at the bottom of the report, represents the profits we’ve made through them.’
There were a few more noises of approval around the room.
‘And what’s this last figure?’ Mr. Nunberg asked, waving at a sidebar on the last page.
‘Well, our collections policy is to terminate accounts that go delinquent, even though we don’t often really do it,’ Harry said. ‘I just threw that in there so you could see how much going after them as delinquent accounts would have gotten us, versus how much more giving them some leeway actually has gotten us. I wanted to show it this way because those companies are the same sort of companies we’re considering going after today. Historically, they’ve actually helped cover the losses from the bigger ones.’
‘I see. Yeah, we certainly did alright there, didn’t we…? Back to the 7 million and the… uh… other 8 million… Why didn’t you add the two together, Harry?’ Mr. Nunberg called out. ’15 million is a pretty impressive number. You could have made your case on that alone.’
‘It seemed presumptuous, sir,’ Harry said, scratching behind his ear. ‘In the end, these are just numbers. It could have turned out a lot differently, and there’s no concrete proof it’s causal. None of this really guarantees a winning formula.’
‘But it does suggest one,’ Mr. Nunberg said, ‘or you wouldn’t be here giving this presentation.’
Harry nodded. ‘Well, strategy’s not really my specialty, but if I had to give an opinion, I’d say that being a little lenient on the small to mid-sized business has paid off. Like I said before, even with the 11 million in bad debt, less than half comes from companies in that small- to mid-sized category.’
‘That was my other point!’ Reg said energetically, jumping in. ‘You’ve got to look at the ratio to see a higher percentage of-‘
‘Thanks, thanks,’ Mr. Nunberg said, waving his hand dismissively. ‘I think that ratio is something that Harry can work on analyzing for us at another meeting. To be truthful, though, this company’s bread and butter has always been its wide portfolio, and I dread the thought of having to give up on the little guy just because of some ratio.’ He stood up. ‘Harry Stevens… nice work. I think the presentation didn’t exactly go according to plan, but yo
u’ve convinced me. I’ll be arranging a meeting between you and our senior strategists and accountants just to verify these numbers, but that shouldn’t be more than a formality.’ With that, he stood up and gave a couple of claps, following which there was a smattering of subdued but appreciative applause as the rest of the executives stood up as well to make way for the exits.
As Harry began to arrange his stuff, acknowleging compliments from those executives who passed by him and shook his hand or patted him on the shoulder, Veronica waited patiently before a pause, before leaning into him and saying, ‘Thanks for keeping me quiet in there.’
‘Why?’ Harry asked.
‘I didn’t want to lose it. It would have probably cost me my job, but I would have done it.’
‘Right,’ Harry said. ‘No problem.’ There was something about what had just happened that still didn’t settle the underlying feeling of distrust that was there, but he smiled anyway. She grinned back, and pursed her lips in a naughty grin.
‘I’ll see you later,’ she said.
‘Sure,’ he said, and he watched her as she walked off.
As the rest of the executives walked off, including Reg with his tail between his legs, Mr. Nunberg came up to him to shake his hand. ‘Nice work, nice work,’ he said. Harry smiled back, feeling tremendously gratified. ‘Go on ahead,’ Mr. Nunberg said to his two assistants, who nodded, smiled at Harry and then walked out the door, leaving Harry and the chairman alone together. ‘Harry, I want to apologize for what happened with Reg just now. I actually knew that he was going to have something ready for you.’
‘You did?!’ Harry said, almost forgetting himself.
‘Yes,’ Mr. Nunberg said. ‘But I had a look at your file before the meeting today and I saw how you’d been stepping up your workload recently, and looking at the quality of some of your reports in the last few months, and it got me intrigued. I wanted to see how you’d handle it.’
‘Oh,’ Harry said. ‘I see.’
‘There’s a position opening up,’ the chairman said, smiling. ‘We’re looking to branch out and set up some new offices in a different city, and we’re going to be shuffling people around. We’ll need someone to help out, doing research for the strategists here as some of our personnel get moved over there. Now, mind you, there’s no guarantee, but I’d like to have you interviewed, if you’d be up for it.’
‘Uh… sure,’ Harry said. ‘That’d be great. I’d like that very much.’
‘It’d mean a bigger office, of course, and you’ll have a small staff working for you. Your choice if you want to keep your secretary or not, we’ve got some more experienced ones available.’
‘I, um, I don’t know what to say…’ Harry said.
‘Say you’ll think about it,’ Mr. Nunberg said, holding his hand out again with a smile.
‘Yeah, I’ll do that,’ Harry said, shaking his hand firmly. Mr. Nunberg nodded and was about to leave, when Harry stopped him. ‘Um, sir, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you know Reg was up to something? You seemed surprised by what happened.’
‘Oh, your secretary told me,’ he said. ‘Charming woman, very protective of you.’
‘Veronica?’ Harry asked, his heart stopping. Suddenly, he felt a shiver in him, as all the distrust he’d been repressing suddenly disappeared, and an electric feeling filled his body. ‘She told you?’
‘Well, not in so many words,’ he said. ‘She was just dropping some memo off, and we got into smalltalk. She was pretty discreet, but she’d said she was uncomfortable with some of the things Reg had been asking of her. It all just sort of added up.’
‘Oh God…’ Harry said.
‘Yes,’ the chairman said, as he exited the room, leaving Harry alone. ‘Like I said, you’d have your choice of a bunch of great people to make up your staff, but I’d hold onto her if I were you.’
‘Yeah,’ Harry said. ‘Yeah, I might do that…’ He suddenly was inspired to look down the hall, and he saw that in front of the elevators, Veronica and Reg were standing there in what looked to be a heated discussion, before Veronica leaned back and slapped Reg right across the face, bounding off to the stairs. He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to be next to her, immediately wanting to get on his knees and apologize to her for all the suspicion he felt, to apologize for the anger that was in him even though it must have been equally hard for her, to have struggled to maintain loyalty to him while having her moves manipulated by Reg.
Clover
- 21.04.2021
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