Chocolateen Part 2Chapter 4: Visiting New Zealand free porn video

Jim C, Sam, Frank, Kirk, and I discussed the trip to New Zealand on Monday. We defined the specific objectives of the trip and what information we expected to acquire during our stay. All five of us had valid passports and there was an agreement between the US and New Zealand governments that allowed us entry as short-term visitors without a visa. By Friday, we were ready to go.

We would be island hopping and our total flight time would be close to 16 hours, so our pilot, Bob Simon, and copilot, Jill Simon, would need a break enroute. In planning the trip, we let them setup the route. They wanted to layover in Hawaii on the outbound flight, and in Fiji on the return flight.

We arrived at the hanger that we leased at the Van Nuys Airport and our flight crew was ready to depart. As our plane started taxiing toward the runway, I heard Jim C ask Frank a question, and I cringed inside. I just knew that he was going to relate the trip from hell once again.

"Frank, I was thinking of buying a plane, but after I saw the costs, I decided it wasn't worth it. Why did you and Jim decide to buy your jet?"

Everything was quiet for a minute, and then I heard Frank begin his story of that hellacious trip.

"Jim, when the Chocolateen Corporation first expanded its sales to foreign markets, Jim and I had to make numerous business trips overseas. This of course meant that we racked up many frequent flyer miles. We talked about buying an aircraft for the corporation to use, but the cost to buy, operate, and maintain a plane seemed too high to us.

"One morning we left for a trip to London. The meeting was important for the corporation, so we had put an extensive amount of effort into our presentation. The drive to the airport went okay, and we got there with plenty of time to spare.

"The amount of presentation materials we had to take with us meant that we would have extra baggage charges, so we couldn't use curbside check-in. There must have been several flights leaving at about the same time for the check-in counter was backed up. The line was very long and the counter appeared undermanned. It took a long time to get to the counter and check-in our baggage. Then we had a long line at the TSA security checkpoint. Their metal detectors were down, so they had to use their hand scanners to check everyone in line. The terrorist alert level was also high, so that meant they were taking extra care in checking the passengers. To make matters worse, our gate was at the end of the concourse, and the walkway was cluttered with people and baggage.

"Our plane left late due to the slowdown getting through the security checkpoint, but we were on board when it finally left. The only problem was the woman sitting behind us had a baby traveling with her, and the baby had the colic. Twelve hours sitting in small seats with minimal legroom in front of a loud, fussy baby was not pleasant.

"We didn't know it before we left, and it probably wouldn't have mattered if we had, but the baggage handlers were disputing a labor issue. Their tactics were not the usual going out on strike or a work slowdown. What they did was misroute some of the bags that were going onto the planes. One of our presentation material bags went to France, while we went to England. Of course, as Murphy's Law predicts, the wayward bag was filled with the important portion of our presentation.

"We landed at Heathrow airport six hours before our meeting, and learned that we were missing a bag. The office handling lost luggage was swamped with people. It took over an hour before we could get to the head of the line to report and fill out the forms for our lost luggage. Once we filed our papers, we were told that the airline would forward our bag to our hotel.

"We breezed through customs with no problem other than the normal waiting in line for our bags to be inspected. Check-in at the hotel went smoothly, and according to plan, we still had time to cleanup before we had to leave for our meeting.

"Well the meeting was a semi-disaster. Without the critical presentation materials, our presentation was a shambles. Our potential customer was very understanding and tolerated our difficulties. We were embarrassed by the poor presentation, but we were able to impart the knowledge of our product and services to the customer. We were fortunate in that the following month, our customer signed a contract with us.

"To add insult to injury, we had a message on our room phone informing us our errant bag had been delivered just after we left for the meeting, and to contact the front desk and they would have it sent to our room.

"Over dinner that evening, Jim and I decided that for critical business travel, we would not place ourselves in the hands of the commercial airlines and airports again if we could possibly avoid it. For the next year, we contracted with a lease agency for all of our travel needs, which was mainly domestic travel. We found that the lease company maintained a limited number of aircraft on a full-time basis. More than half of their aircraft were leased from the aircraft's owners when the owner did not require the aircraft. We had several problems due to the lease agency not having enough aircraft to support their clientele's needs.

"What finally tipped the scale for buying an aircraft was the number of trips Jim and Kirk were making each year. I only made an occasional trip, but they were each averaging three trips a month. We did a cost comparison between air travel on commercial, leased, and privately owned aircraft. When we factored in our time, a leased aircraft was the best deal for us based on cost. An owned aircraft was second by a significant margin, and commercial travel was less than an owned aircraft based on our cost factors. However, when we considered that both of our families would go on a trip at the same time and the problems we occasionally had with the leased aircraft, we decided to buy our own aircraft. The only question was what to buy.

"Jim and I set four requirements before we presented the idea to our wives. The plane had to be large enough to accommodate both of our families with some allowance for expansion plus guests and their families. We wanted to be able to travel non-stop to any place in the country that we may want to do business or that we may wish to visit; however, we were amenable to a refueling stop for overseas travel, if needed. We decided it needed a bedroom area, an office area, and lounge. We also said no economy seats for passengers for if we had to sit in a plane for 12 hours or more, we wanted to do so in comfort.

"The fun part of the decision came when we proposed the idea to our wives. I think I'll skip that part of the story. Let's just say that some of our wives agreed that buying a plane was a good idea and the others didn't. We ended up with a negotiated settlement. All of our wives agreed with us that for convenience, it made sense to own a plane. They hated commercial flights and the TSA rules, especially the ones that prohibited bottles of juice and formula for the kids. Jim and I agreed that we rarely flew overseas, so a short-range aircraft would be acceptable as long as it could go coast-to-coast non-stop.

"We looked around and found this Airbus A319. It listed at $92 million new, and we bought a used plane for $23 million that was already setup in a VIP configuration. Jim, Kirk, and I like it, but our wives say it is not family friendly. When they say that, we tell them that family friendly is a larger more expensive plane. Lately they have been asking what more expensive means and how much larger.

When Frank finally ran down, he and Jim C got into a discussion of why Jim needed an airplane. The two of them pulled out their laptops and headed for the office area. I decided to take a nap. As I relaxed, I could hear them discussing the merits of small versus large aircraft, cabin height and width, and operating costs.

Our Flight Attendant Carol Ashworth woke me up half an hour out of Hawaii to let me know that we would be landing shortly so I could visit the bathroom before we touched down. It was early morning, and Oahu was warm and humid. We had decided on a 24-hour layover, so while Bob, Jill, and Carol were seeing to the plane, the rest of us headed to the hotel and checked us in at the front desk. There were eight of us so we had reserved two 2-bedroom suites; Bob, Jill, and Carol were a threesome, so they only needed one large bed. Once Bob, Jill, and Carol arrived and everyone had a chance to cleanup, we went downstairs for lunch.

The Chocolateen Corporation had a distribution center in Honolulu, so Frank, Kirk, and I were going to pay them a visit. Jim C and Sam decided to spend some time shopping for souvenirs and gifts, while Bob, Jill, and Carol were going to relax on the beach.

Our Honolulu subsidiary was one of our smaller subsidiaries, but once we relocated, it would become a central transshipping point for distribution of our products in the US. Chocolateen II would be shipped by ocean freight to Honolulu and forwarded to our distribution centers in the US by airfreight. Some of Jim C's inventions would be distributed in a similar manner, but the majority of our solar vehicles would go through San Diego.

The Honolulu Chocolateen Distribution Center was not a large operation for it only distributed Chocolateen to the Hawaiian Island Chain. The manager, Evan Strophe, was an energetic salesman, and we were very pleased with the distribution network that he had established.

The three of us entered the front door and we were met by a pleasant, friendly receptionist. Frank said, "Good afternoon. We are here to speak with Mr. Evan Strophe. Is he available?"

"Yes, he's in. Who should I say is calling?"

"Tell him that Frank Tolliver, Jim Schneider, and Kirk Jonas would like to speak with him this afternoon."

The receptionist pushed a couple of buttons and said, "Mr. Strophe, there are three gentlemen here to see you but they don't have an appointment. Their names are Frank Tolliver, Jim Schneider, and Kirk Jonas ... Yes sir, I will.

"Gentlemen, Mr. Strophe said for you to take a seat and he will be right out."

It took Evan a few minutes before he appeared. "Sorry Frank, I was in a meeting with my warehouse manager when Toni let me know you were here."

Frank said, "That's not a problem Evan. We are on a business trip and have a 24-hour layover. Jim and I wanted to talk with you and we made a last minute decision to speak with you today if you have time available."

"Today will be fine Frank. My warehouse manager was the only one on my schedule for this afternoon, and it is a routine matter, so we can finish our conversation tomorrow.

"Let's go down to the conference room where we can have some privacy. Toni, please come with us so our guests can give you their drink orders."

Once we were seated, Toni took our drink orders and went to the break room to get our drinks. She returned a few minutes later, and as she left Evan said, "Thank you Toni."

I spoke up, "Toni seems very good. She is not the receptionist I remember from my last visit. Has she been here long?"

"No Jim. Toni is with a temp agency, and she has only been with us for a month. Kay got married and she is on maternity leave for another two months. Toni has fit in very nicely, and I wish I could keep her, but I think and hope Kay is going to come back."

I looked at Evan, and said, "Evan, what do you know about the plans Frank and I announced about a new corporation?"

"There are a few rumors on the company grapevine, but other than that all I know is what I read in the newspapers."

"Alright, Frank and I decided to expand the corporation's line of products. We are on our way to New Zealand to see if it is a suitable location for the new corporation. If we setup our manufacturing center there, we expect that Honolulu will be the distribution hub for the United States, at least for most of our products.

"Once we start manufacturing the new product lines, we will need people here to handle product sales and distribution. We are thinking of transferring Mike Halper here to be the US Distribution Manager. We would like for you to be the General Manager for our US operation. There is no big rush right now, so take your time and think it over. It will take us several years before the first product hits the market place and that will be a revolutionary electric vehicle, but its initial configuration will be right-hand drive. We will initially market the car in New Zealand, but as with all new products, we expect we will encounter a number of problems. Once the problems have been worked out, we will branch out to Australia, and if the market warrants, we will convert the vehicle to left-hand drive and we will initially market it in the Hawaiian Islands.

"Do you have any interest in the position Evan?"

"Yes I am interested Jim, but I have a few questions. If I am to handle the sales here in the Islands, who will be handling sales in the continental US?"

"Evan, what we are planning is for you to relinquish your position as sales manager of the islands and become our General Manager for all of the US. What that means is the Distribution Manager and all of the US Sales Regions will report to you. For you to understand our future plans there is one critical piece of information I need to give you and this must remain a secret for now. Once our operation in New Zealand is stable, we will relocate the Chocolateen production plant and the company's Headquarters to New Zealand.

"At the moment, we are planning for the Chocolateen sales, production, and distribution operations to continue without change. Once we begin production of Chocolateen in New Zealand, Honolulu will become the distribution hub for the islands and the continental US. The structure of the sales regions and groups will remain as they are, but instead of reporting directly to Headquarters, they will report to you. Between now and the time we make the turnover, you need to locate and train a replacement Sales/Distribution Manager for the islands. As our General Manager, you are going to be too busy overseeing all of the sales regions and the Distribution Manager.

"You need to keep in mind that the electric car is just the first of many new products that we will manufacture. We want our automotive line to be well established in New Zealand and Australia, before we begin manufacturing cars for the US market. Therefore, some of our follow-on products will probably be marketed in the US before we start our automotive line here. As our new products are introduced to the islands and continental US, we will have you recommend if we should have our existing Regional Managers expand their staffs or establish separate sales groups.

"We are not sure how we want to handle the sale of our electric vehicles. We expect to do a great deal of business in New Zealand and Australia. At the moment, we are leaning toward corporate owned dealerships for those locations. However, for the US market, we are thinking of independently owned dealerships."

"Jim, how many product lines are you and Frank planning on introducing?"

"We aren't sure for the electric motor, power cell, and solar panel that the car uses can be adapted and used with every product that currently uses a gasoline or diesel engine. In addition to those products, there are at least a dozen spinoff products and some of those are currently in the R&D stage. There will also be a revolutionary computer that runs a new operating system, and the operating system will be able to run the current Windows, Apple, and Unix programs."

"Jim, I trust you and Frank to do what you say you will do. What you are describing sounds like a quantum leap in technology. If that is true, then the Chocolateen Corporation is going to make a major splash in several marketplaces. It sounds as if I should be doing something now to prepare for the expanded work load, but I'm not sure what needs to be done first and how much lead time I will need to establish the necessary organization and facilities."

"For the moment Evan, just keep on doing what you have been doing. Frank and I need to put together an expansion plan for the corporation. Once that is done, Frank and I will sit down with you and go over it. As I said, you have plenty of time to think about things. However, it wouldn't hurt for you to start thinking of and doing some preliminary planning for what you might need for 12 diverse product lines in terms of an organization and facilities. Keep Toni on as a temp for now, if she is acceptable to you.

"If you had a choice between Kay and Toni, who would you prefer to have working with you?

"Kay! Toni is very good, but I suppose you could say Kay and I are on the same wavelength."

"I am favorably impressed with Toni, Evan. When Kay is ready to return, you keep Kay as your assistant. If Toni is still an outstanding worker and you are happy with her, then we can use her. The woman who is currently assisting Mike Halper is pregnant and around five months along. She has notified him that she will be taking terminal maternity leave, so he will need a new assistant. I'm thinking that if she is willing, we can move Toni out to Van Nuys and have Mike teach her the distribution side of things, and then have her move back here when we transfer Mike here. Of course this is speculative for we need to talk with Mike and explain our plans."

"That sounds like a good idea Jim. Do you want to talk with Toni now?"

"No, let's wait and see how she works out between now and the time Kay is ready to return. It will give Kirk plenty of time to have our HR people do a background check on her and to checkout her references."

"Jim," Frank said, "I think we should meet with Evan and Mike here in Honolulu the week before Kay returns. We can go over our expansion plan and Mike can get a feel for how he and Toni would get along with her as his assistant."

"I'm curious about something," Evan said. "You talked about a new corporation and product line. From a marketing point of view, what are you going to call the corporation?"

Frank, Kirk, and I looked at each other in surprise. We had gotten this far and we hadn't even given a corporation name any consideration. "Well, we've been so busy with other matters Evan that we haven't given any consideration to a name," I said as Frank, Kirk, and I started chuckling at our oversight.

Bob, Carol, and Jill decided on a movie followed by a late dinner. The rest of us were enjoying our meal in the hotel dining room. We explained that we had confidential business to discuss so the maître d' accommodated us by seating us in a quiet unused portion of dining room.

Once we had given our order to our waitress, Frank said, "Our meeting with Evan went well today. We came away with two things of importance that we need to discuss. The first is that we need to establish a realistic schedule for establishing the corporations, constructing our facilities, and beginning production of the products. The second thing was to find a name for our corporations."

Jim C said, "I have talked about the corporation name with my family, and we like Conrad Research and Development. What have you been thinking of for your corporation?"

"That's the problem," Frank said. "We have been so busy on other things, we haven't discussed it yet. About the only thing we are in agreement about is that it needs to be friendly, short, and snappy; something the public can easily identify with that can be used for product branding of all the products."

Sam said, "I agree with you about the corporation name. As far as the schedule goes, I think we should work on it during the flight tomorrow. What project management software do you use?"

I replied, "The Corporation has standardized on Microsoft's Project. What do you use?"

"Actually," Jim C said, "we haven't needed project management software until recently. We tried a couple of the demo packages but weren't happy with the results. We can setup a schedule using your Project software, and you can show us how it works. If it is better than what we have seen so far, we will get a group license for ourselves."

Bob and Jill had planned an early morning departure, so we all headed to our rooms for a good night's sleep.

We made it down to the restaurant for breakfast by 5:30 AM. As we entered the dining area, we ran into Bob, Jill, and Carol who were leaving for the airport. Bob said, "We are going to head out to the airport now. We need to finish prepping the plane and file a flight plan so we can leave when you arrive."

"Alright, we should be there in a little over an hour," Frank said.

We got to the airport by 7:00 AM and Bob told us we would be ready to go as soon as our party and their luggage were onboard. Jill and Carol made sure that our luggage was stowed and secured, while Bob made the final preflight checks. By 7:20 AM, Bob received taxi instructions from the control tower, and we got in line for takeoff.

We reached our cruising altitude and the instruments indicated no air turbulence, so Bob passed the word that we could move about the compartment. Jim C, Sam, and I headed to the office area.

Once the computer booted, I started the Microsoft Project program. Turning to Jim C, I said, "It seems to me that your mission and its four tasks are similar to our setting up and running our corporations, at least in terms of planning.

"Since setting up our two businesses appears to be drivers for your mission's four tasks, I suggest that we create a Master Schedule and define six main tasks. The first task will be your setting up your corporation. The second task will be Frank and I setting up our corporation. The final four tasks will be your four mission tasks. Once that is done, we can start defining each task's milestones and elements. We can then define the durations, order, and other characteristics of the elements. How does that sound?"

Jim C said, "That sounds okay to me, but I will need to see it in order to understand what you are telling me."

"Okay. Let's create the task, 'Establish Conrad Research and Development', and then we will define a series of milestones related to that task and the task elements related to each milestone."

Four hours later, we had finished creating a preliminary definition for our first two major tasks, their milestones and major task elements, and we had linked the milestones and task elements to create a timeline for establishing our two corporations. Of course most of the task elements would have to be redefined in greater detail as sub-elements and the task lengths and cost data allocated to each element would have to be adjusted once more information was available.

"I can see why you chose this program as your company standard," Jim C said. "With the completion of one task element determining the start of another, I can easily see how changes in a portion of the schedule will affect the completion date and cost factors of the overall schedule."

Sam looked at me and said, "You and your families will be working on Jim's second mission task. I want to try defining that task using your program, so I can learn how to create the task's timeline and cost data."

"That's fine with me Sam. However, we aren't aware of any planning for how to go about completing the task."

Jim C said, "This is probably a good opportunity for me to talk with Frank and you about the task. I suggest that we rejoin Frank and Kirk and discuss the general approach the Council has suggested to me."

I should note that Kirk was such an integral part of everything Frank and I did that we approached Jim C with the idea of adding Kirk to the Task Cell. It took a while for him to sound Kirk out on his beliefs, but he eventually agreed to our suggestion. Kirk was a bit surprised by what Frank and I had gotten ourselves into, but he adapted quickly.

For the remainder of our flight time to Fiji, the five of us discussed the task, and in rough form, we planned the approach we would use to create the 'Invasion of Privacy for Profit' legislation. Some of what we talked about doing seemed wrong to me.

The idea of Frank and me allowing the media to make our personal lives public knowledge bothered both of us. Jim C told us it would be necessary for we would be spearheading the movement to create the legislation. By being able to point out how the media had wronged us, we would be able to sway public opinion in favor of the legislation. We didn't like it but we had to agree that it would be an effective selling point in our campaign. We would have to discuss this with our wives.

The part Frank and I found to be the most disturbing was Jim C buying a newspaper and using it as an investigative tool to invade the privacy of the local politicians and celebrities, and to make the negative aspects of their personal lives public knowledge. Jim C argued that using the tactics we were trying to stop was the only way he could think of to pressure the politicians and celebrities into supporting the legislation. Once his paper targeted someone, they would have a personal agenda for supporting our legislation. The remaining politicians would be made aware that they would be targeted in the future. Since almost everyone in that type of work had something to hide, we would get a lot of support to have the legislation enacted before the newspaper did an exposé of them.

The other side of Jim C's argument was that Task 1 required us to destabilize the governments so we could take control. While Frank, me, and our families were focused on Task 2, he would be beginning Task 1, which was the consolidation of all governments into a single government. Since the New Zealand government would be our first acquisition, besmirching the good names of the key politicians would support his effort and generate supporters for the legislation we wanted to see enacted. If we succeeded in getting the legislation passed, then the newspaper would still be able to target the politicians' public lives. According to Jim C's calculations, he was going to own an international chain of newspapers by the time we finished Task 2. Frank and I did not like the idea of doing exposes on people's personal lives; however, we had no problem with exposing any inappropriate activity that they may be involved with in their public lives. If New Zealand politicians were anything like their American cousins, Jim C may not need to intrude on their personal lives to discredit them.

During the flight from Fiji to Auckland, Sam defined Task 1 and Task 2's preliminary milestones and task elements. We knew that these two tasks would be dependent on the money Jim C's family and our family earned from the sale of his creations. So in defining the creation of the corporations, we had created task elements for the creation, production, and sale of Jim C's products. When Sam linked the creation of our two corporations and the subsequent cash flow from the product sales to Task 1 and Task 2, the overall schedule started to take shape.

When we reviewed the resulting Gantt chart and cost projections, Frank said, "It looks nice on paper, but we need to remember that we are missing many task elements and the assumptions we made regarding each element's characteristics are probably wrong.

"From what I can recall of setting up our manufacturing plant and distribution system for Chocolateen, our timeline seems to be too short and the setup costs are too low. We need to go over the task elements with a fine toothed comb to find all of our oversights and erroneous assumptions. It is difficult to make an accurate assessment of Completion Time and Cost-to-Complete for a major segment of work. Once we add our missing task elements and break our major task elements into subtasks, many of these errors will be corrected."

Jim C nodded his head in agreement with Frank and said, "You are right Frank. This program does paint a pretty picture, but it is only as accurate as the data we enter. I like the way the program shows us the big picture. I can also see how our future planning efforts will be supported by the projections the program will provide us.

Before shutting down the workstation's desktop computer, I copied the schedule's data file to my USB flash drive and uploaded it to my laptop computer. We needed to be very careful; the contents of that file could cause us many problems in the wrong hands. We were aware of that fact while creating the schedule and its task descriptions. We were very circumspect in how we defined the tasks, milestones, and task elements. All mention of overthrowing governments was defined using euphemisms that referred to a commercial takeover of our competitors. Anyone looking at our schedule would assume that we had some very grandiose ideas regarding a financial empire.

We knew we needed to establish computer security policies that would prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands. The file I had on the USB drive was relatively well sanitized by our use of euphemisms. However, if this file were to be obtained by an analyst who compared it to our future actions, a government could decipher the codes we used in referring to governments and their overthrow.