Paolo hadn’t been surprised when Jinnie had told him she was undertaking a mission on behalf of the Italian government. He simply nodded and said he was only surprised it hadn’t been sooner, adding that discussions between Italy and the U.K. had been happening for some time and he had been sworn to secrecy. He did say, if anything, the position with German agents was worse than the meeting had indicated. He was sure that once they had acquired Italian papers, they were not only infiltrating into Russia but France, Poland and even Britain.
Over the past couple of months, he had been tracing immigrants to Italy who had gained residency papers and had consequently moved to the U.K. So far he had handed details of six people over to MI5 and they had subsequently arrested them all and several other people they appeared to be working with. Jinnie said she hadn’t seen it on the news and Paolo explained that was deliberate as they didn’t want to alert anyone else to the arrests.
The situation on the Russo-German front was deteriorating and there had been several exchanges of artillery fire in the past couple of days as reported on the news. The official government line was neutrality, but the people sympathised with Russia who were trying to recover territory lost to the Germans back in the 1940s. We had not been in dispute with the Russians, but were technically still at war with the Germans, never having signed a peace treaty only a series of ceasefires.
Jinnie wondered what would happen if those Eastern European and Baltic nations still occupied by Germany were to join in on the Russian side. Paolo said he thought it unlikely as the German rule there now was more solid in Eastern Europe than it had been in the likes of Western Europe and Scandinavia. When the Allies had fought to free the West, the Germans had been spread more thinly because they had always been bothered about the Russians at their back door. Western Europe and Scandinavia had large resistance movements whom the free British, the Commonwealth and US had supported. He had no knowledge of similar groups in the likes of Georgia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Hungary. The only places he knew of resistance movements were Germany itself, Finland and some of the Baltic countries, particularly Lithuania whose short border with Poland meant they were often helped by the Poles.
***
Jinnie had declared to the special SuperBurger board meeting that because of her being a director of both SuperBurger and DKL, which owned Wright Refurbishment, she was in a difficult position. So, she would sit in and listen to Belinda’s presentation that Tuesday morning, but she wouldn’t take part in discussions or vote on anything unless specifically asked to by the Chairman. Jinnie had often supported Belinda when giving presentations to prospective clients and knew that she had a formidable team behind her and had rarely had to speak on her behalf, only be there to show she had the weight of a bigger, wealthier parent company behind her. On this occasion that was hardly necessary as SuperBurger was one of the indirect parents.
Belinda was only too familiar with turning up to give a preliminary presentation to a procurement director and finding herself in front of the whole board, but in this case she had been forewarned by Jinnie and hadn’t come alone. She was supported by Andrew and Willow, and Jinnie was a little surprised to see Brian, until she remembered he was the Wright Refurbishment Finance Director. Andrew was introduced as the Design Director and Willow as the Chief Designer and Stylist. Also present was the Sales Director who Jinnie had seen and heard, but never met. She remembered Belinda saying how loud he was on the phone, but he was good at his job and was often the first point of contact a prospective client had with the company.
Having introduced her team, Belinda wasted no time in launching into her well-rehearsed presentation routine introducing the company which Jinnie noticed she adjusted slightly to suit who she was presenting to and what sort of work she was pitching for. In this case she emphasised the company’s expertise in fast food outlets and Belinda used her iPad to put up pictures (on the room’s giant screen) of the inside and outside of Sandwich shops and Aunty JoJo’s, together with one or two of the big companies they had fitted out or refurbished with emphasis on their restaurants and kitchens. Jinnie recognised the restaurant, kitchen and director’s dining room at Vauxhall Cross although it wasn’t identified while the giant pharmaceutical was. She wondered if anyone else would notice and ask where it was.
Next up was Brian who briefly outlined the company’s financial position, where he stressed they were profitable and had a good order book. They owned their own offices and a profitable subsidiary in Barbados whom they did all the design work for. He then had Belinda bring up a spreadsheet on the big screen that showed the last half’s published profit and loss account. Jinnie saw that the after-tax profit had been £3.78 million, half of which had been retained as reserves and the rest paid in dividends to DKL who included it in their dividends to their two owners. Brian pointed out a quarter of that sum went to SuperBurger.
Andrew replaced Brian and started off describing how he and Willow had approached the design task. They had visited the Crawley SuperBurger which the DKL Procurement Director had told them was a typical branch. Andrew said living in Crawley he was familiar with the branch but rarely used it these days as it was dark and dreary, and the food had deteriorated badly. Jinnie watched Sir Percy, wondering how he would react to that revelation. He was nodding along in agreement.
Andrew said he and Willow had decided that the place needed to brighter, more colourful and more modern. Willow wanted the colour scheme to be red and yellow, but he had pointed out that those colours were already used by their biggest rival. Instead, they had settled on red and white. With that, Andrew nodded to Belinda and on the screen appeared the current interior of the Crawley outlet in a photo taken from immediately inside the entrance. Jinnie’s first reaction was it was dark and boring; from the corner of her eye she saw Sir Percy shudder and he interrupted Andrew to ask his Sales Director, “Is this really typical?” “Yes,” came the reply, “it is decorated to our national design standard.” Sir Percy shook his head and muttered, “How did we ever take our eye off the ball so badly.”
Andrew nodded to Belinda again and the view transformed into a rendered image of bright, clean, modern space, where the tables and chairs were red, the walls were white, and the floor was red and white vinyl floor tiles. The difference was amazing and Jinnie couldn’t stop herself exclaiming a loud, “Wow”. Sir Percy smiled at her and said, “Wow indeed, I like it.” Andrew continued saying, “All we have basically done is renew the furniture, the flooring, paint the walls and add some additional down-lighters to brighten the place up. Andrew continued, “Next, Willow went to work adding a bit of styling, not a huge amount but enough to add a bit of interest.”
Willow took over saying, “We have gone with a maps theme. On the walls are framed general interest maps. For this demonstration we have gone with several like the British motorway network, the London Underground, the Manchester trams, and the ferries to the Scottish islands.” As she spoke each one appeared on the screen. She continued, “But depending on where the branch is, you intend to localise the maps; the local bus routes, train routes, or walking routes. But my favourite is the tabletops, they are maps of the streets around branches. With the number of branches you have, we can easily have different maps on every table in a branch.”
“Now, on each table you might have seen the condiments tray,” Willow continued.
“A moulded plastic tray with salt, pepper, vinegar, sugar, milk, wooden stirrers and paper serviettes. Now before you ask where the ketchup, brown sauce and mustard is, let me tell you I absolutely hate your plastic squeezable tomatoes and brown sauce dispensers. The nozzles quickly get caked in dried sauce and are disgusting. If you are eating in, we suggest that when the waiter or waitress brings your food, they bring little ramekins of tomato sauce, brown sauce or mayonnaise, freshly drawn from big pump action dispensers. For takeaway you continue to offer sachets of sauce.”
Willow said, “One final thing before I hand back to Belinda, we have changed the corporate font for a new much more modern one. This might not be to your taste, but it is a standard font widely available on PCs and tablets, so it won’t cost you a fortune having a custom font designed.” Once again, she nodded to Belinda and the screen displayed a view of the outside of the branch with a new SuperBurger shop sign photoshopped in the suggested font. Jinnie, who really liked what she was seeing, looked around the room and everywhere she saw happy, smiling faces.
Belinda was quickly back on her feet saying, “I expect you are all asking how much this is going to cost and how long will it take. Well, the answers for Crawley are about £36,000 all in, and about three days to do the work. As Willow explained the change of font hardly influences the cost as it is freely available. I understand you are changing the menu, and it will have to be reprinted anyway. We have not included that in our costing, but we have included the new signage. However, we would anticipate that if we can bulk order the furniture, the flooring, light fittings and maps, the cost could be reduced. Now has anyone got any questions?”
The Marketing Director asked if it was possible to visit some of their work. Belinda said she was happy to take them to any of the outlets they had done, but she would have to get the approval of the owners, the Trattoria Trevi Group. Sir Percy looked purposefully at Jinnie and asked, “Is that possible?” Jinnie replied, “Of course, Sir Percy. I’m quite happy for a party to visit any of our Fastfood division outlets.” Sir Percy said, “Thank you, but seeing that director’s dining room, I would really like to see that.” “Now that is a bit of a problem,” replied Belinda. “It is a government department and although I have their permission to show the photos, I am not allowed to identify the building or concern for security reasons. So, I’m afraid I have to say no to that request without even asking them for permission.”
“What a pity,” said Sir Percy. “I really would like something like that here.” “I’d be delighted to quote you for such a room,” replied Belinda. “We are always happy to give quotes for work whether it is your offices, boardroom, staff canteen or toilets. We have done several local offices which I could approach on your behalf to demonstrate our capabilities. I could give you a list for you to select from.” Sir Percy said, “Yes, I would like to see what you have done locally. Now Jinnie, where are the nearest fast-food outlets? Jinnie thought for a moment before saying, “We have Sandwich shops in Croydon, Brighton and Windsor. As for Aunty JoJo’s the nearest to here is probably Brixton, then it’s the other side of the Thames. We have an outlet under construction in Brighton but it won’t be finished for a couple of weeks. If you would like to see offices that have been done by Belinda’s team, I can offer you a visit to the DKL headquarters on Manor Royal. Although we don’t have a staff canteen, we do have substantial offices, boardroom, meeting rooms, toilets, and a computer room. You could even visit your own Dark Kitchen on the site, which Wright Refurbishment designed and built.”
“I wonder if we could see the Croydon outlet and personally I would like to see the Brighton branch even if it is not finished.” Looking at his other board members Sir Percy continued, “What about a visit to Brixton and a look around the DKL offices? I have never seen one of your Dark Kitchens. Thank you Mrs Wright for an excellent presentation, I would like to say I have been hugely impressed in what you and your team have produced in such a short while. I would like to see the quality of your company’s work before meeting with you again. Can I phone you after we have seen those outlets and we can agree another meeting?”
***
With the Wright Refurbishment team gone, Sir Percy addressed the board saying, “I really didn’t know our branches looked so bloody awful. Couple that to our poor food offering and I am not in the least surprised sales have been falling. Why has it taken a new director to point out what should have been obvious? I know I can be a bit of an old bear at times but Jinnie hasn’t been afraid to stand up to me and to show us where we have been going wrong, now do we need to shake up the management as well as everything else?”
Jinnie was the only one to speak up saying, “I have always tried to give managers the chance to manage. Of course, I have driven decisions through the board but I like to give young managers a chance. For example, the Managing Director of the Fastfood division greatly impressed me when I sat in on her interview to work in our first sandwich shop. Within a short time she was shop manager, then area manager, then a director and now Managing Director. She is currently seconded to a new multiple-million pound overseas project. I can point to several other junior managers who weren’t afraid to step up and make important decisions when I was recently unconscious in hospital. I have my eye on them for promotion when the opportunity arises.”
Sir Percy looked at his top team and said, “I think I need you guys to step back a bit and stop micromanaging the business. I want a list of high flyers from the functional directors, not your favourites, but those worth keeping an eye on for possible senior management positions. I think Jinnie and myself might cast an eye over the names as neither of us have a department to run, and won’t know people, so we don’t have favourites to promote.”
Sir Percy continued, “Now the business in hand, I don’t know what you thought about the presentation we have just seen, but I was highly impressed. To meet what was really a ridiculously short deadline and come up with something as good as that was truly impressive. If the site visits are half as good as the presentations then I think we should give them the contract for our 12 test outlets. Have the other 11 been settled on yet?” The Managing Director said, “I think so, we have a short list of 15 and I know which three I want to trim from the list. I just need to agree it with Marketing. We should be able to settle it today.”
“Okay,” said Sir Percy, “I want the list of test outlets on my desk tomorrow morning together with their sales numbers and details of the outlets. Now Jinnie, when can we see these outlets of yours?” “I have one small problem, Sir Percy,” replied Jinnie. “It will have to be this week. As a military reservist, I have been activated for a three-day training course starting on Monday and I am led to believe I could be sent on a follow-on overseas exercise which might last a while.” “That’s damn inconvenient,” said Sir Percy. “Can we object and get it cancelled?” Before Jinnie could answer the HR Director spoke up saying, “Not a chance Sir Percy, if someone is a reservist they can be called up for training or service at any time and we cannot do a thing about it. Since the War of Liberation, in peacetime NCOs and under can be activated for up to two weeks per year and officers for up to a month per year. Our records show Dame Jinnie holds the rank of Major in the Reserves, so could be missing for up to a month.” “Bugger,” said Sir Percy.
Jinnie said, “I don’t think it will be that bad. But just to be on the safe side, I am not making any appointments for a month starting on Monday. However, I have a suggestion as we are all here how about we pop over to Manor Royal right now? Give me a few minutes to check that the boardroom is free, my PA has got the coffee machine fired up and reception has the visitors’ passes ready.”
***
Jinnie led a convoy of SuperBurger directors’ cars into the DKL car park and pointed them to the ‘Visitor’ spaces. Ro had obviously warned reception they were coming as the carpark barrier didn’t automatically close after she entered but stayed open until the sixth and final car had passed through. Jinnie had given Jennifer the HR Director a lift as she wanted to chat with her privately. Jinnie felt Jennifer was a true compatriot on the board and on the journey had been sounding her out about an idea she had. The Caribbean empire was growing fast and when Jinnie had been looking at the money they had been laying out for contracted out HR services had been shocked. She had been considering whether it was difficult to set up an HR department from scratch. The TT department had been set up by Alberto and the DKL department seemed to have been based on the SuperBurger one and she had little to do with the department, or the new director, after the initial one had gone.
Jennifer had asked a number of pertinent questions some of which Jinnie could answer and some she could not, mainly regarding Bajan employment law. Jinnie explained that it wasn’t just Barbados where they had employees in several companies, but they also had subsidiaries in Trinidad, Granada, and St Lucia and that they expected soon to have a substantial number of employees in Antigua and Jamaica. Jennifer said she was no expert on Caribbean nation’s HR regulations but the approach she would suggest would be a central HR department based in, say, Barbados. Then to add local setups in each of the other countries with a local head of HR who knew the local rules and to use an enterprise computer system to link them all with a central records section in Head Office.
As they were driving into the DKL carpark Jinnie was telling Jennifer that Trattoria Trevi already operated an Enterprise system SAP. Walking to the reception Jinnie explained that they had the HR module in use in the Potters Bar HQ although it was run through SAP servers wherever they might be located over high-speed satellite internet. “My,” said Jennifer, “that is advance stuff, it makes the SuperBurger system look positively archaic.”
Ro met them at reception and Jinnie introduced her, as her ‘Right-hand man’. While the passes were being issued, Jinnie carefully watched Sir Percy taking in the modern glass entrance, the light wood reception desk and the smart receptionist in what looked like uniforms but Jinnie knew were M&S ladies’ suits. Jinnie was sure he was comparing it to his dull, boring and old-fashioned reception. She thought he hasn’t seen anything yet. The group were led through to the double-glazed all-glass boardroom where tea, coffee and biscuits were awaiting them. Jinnie was still keeping an eye on Sir Percy who was missing nothing. He asked Jinnie, “Do you have a projector for presentations?” “Yes,” replied Jinnie pressing a button on the remote that she picked up from a holder by the door. As a digital projector descended from the ceiling, Jinnie said, “It’s not much used these days,” and pressed one of the disks in the middle of the Boardroom table causing a tower to pop up revealing various sockets, power outlets, as well as HDMI, USB and Flash sockets. Jinnie went on, “We usually link directly to a multimedia wall.” With that, she opened the double door in the StorageWall at the end of the table and revealed a huge TV screen. She said, “That can operate as a TV or a computer screen, we can drop a projector screen in front of it and, as you can see, there is a whiteboard on the back of one door and a flip chart on the other.”
The SuperBurger IT Director said to no one in particular, “That’s what we need,” as they wandered off on the ‘grand tour’ as Ro called it. Jinnie led the party around and Ro brought up the rear keeping the stragglers in order. On the ground floor they saw the six meeting rooms each with a multimedia screen, the well-equipped medical room, the visitor toilets with automated flush and blade hand dryers and the break room with its vending machines, boiling water dispensers, American fridges, industrial microwaves and multiple tables and chairs. They then went up to the first floor and through the break-out area with its colourful sofas and armchairs. Jinnie explained that the area was usually used by people seeing casual visitors like salesmen. They then walked through into the main open plan office area with glass partitions and bench desking. Jinnie explained there was a raised floor, and power and data ran under the floor and from under floor connection boxes up into the cable trays built into the bench desking.
Jinnie indicated the row of glass offices for the directors and her office in the corner. Sir Percy turned to Jinnie and asked, “Why is it so quiet in here? I can see people talking to each other but I can’t hear them.” Jinnie explained, “Initially it was a bit noisy in here with so many people and ringing phone. We installed sound absorbing panels, white noise generators and turned down the phone ringers but added flashing lights like hotel bedrooms.” Ro led them to the door though the fire wall into the Dark Kitchens and explained that, as it was a food preparation area, to enter proper they would have to don white coats, white boots and hats. Which were all available on racks just inside of the door.
The SuperBurger IT Director asked if it was possible for him to see the computer room and Jinnie said, “I don’t see why not,” and led back to Jed’s office where she introduced him. Jinnie headed back to the kitchen and donned her personal whites. Ro had already led them along the walkway on the edge of the mezzanine to kitchen three, the SuperBurger kitchen and handed the party over to the SuperBurger kitchen manager. As the party walked in, the last was Jennifer who paused as she passed Jinnie and said, “You know what we were talking about in the car? If you do decide to go down that route, let me know, I would be interested in joining such a forward looking enterprise.”
Jinnie and Ro accompanied the party back to reception and as they handed back their temporary passes Sir Percy said to Jinnie, “I have really enjoyed this afternoon, and I think I, and I hope the rest of the board, have learned a lot. Firstly, the standard of finish in the offices and kitchens is outstanding. I can see why you rely on Belinda. Your PA tells me that this whole building used to be used to prepare airline meals and this set up was completely designed and built by Wright Refurbishment.” “That’s correct,” said Jinnie, “and it was done on program and to budget. The only problem we encountered was getting the power supply sorted and that was nothing to do with Belinda, it was the electrical supply company having to upgrade a transformer!”
“I’m inclined to place the order based on what I have just seen,” said Sir Percy. “But now as I have asked for visits to some outlets, I suppose we better go through with them. After seeing your offices today, I wonder if we should think about doing up our offices, I think I will bring it up at the next board meeting.” “The offices could certainly do with it,” replied Jinnie. “But can we afford to do up the outlets and the offices at the same time? I know we have a big cash pile but is it that big? I doubt I’ll be at the next board meeting, but if I am I will be arguing proceeding with caution. My approach would be to place the Crawley order and a Letter of Intent on the rest of the 12. Let Belinda measure up and get a firm quote then place the order for the next 11. I would bring in local papers, radio and maybe even TV saying this is a pilot for a new SuperBurger, new brighter branch and menu.”
“I’m sure you will know if it’s a success before the next batch are finished,” continued Jinnie. “Do the same with each of the eleven – local media advertising. In the meantime, have Belinda quote you in batches, personally I’d do it in regions say 50 at a time. While one batch is being done, Belinda can be preparing the bid for the next batch, not every branch is going to cost the same. Some will be bigger, and some smaller, some will have more tables, some less. I bet some have customer toilets that will need modernising. There will be little tweaks on every outlet.”
Jinnie added, “As soon as you let the contract on the first big batch, put out a press release, talk to the national and local media, ‘we are rolling out a new look and a new menu’. Roll out the new menu to all branches before you complete the first batch. If you can get the media to pick up the story of the relaunch, it’s free advertising. I wouldn’t spend any money on advertising until you have got a hundred or more done. Then it’s national press, radio, and TV. ‘Have you tried the new SuperBurger menu yet? It’s in your local restaurant today. With new, improved burgers, wraps and a super new blend of coffee. If our parallel refurbishment program has not reached you yet, then it will do soon, as we are progressively rolling it out to every single branch’.”
“Why hasn’t any of my directors suggest this to me?” asked Sir Percy. “I have,” said Jinnie, “but I suspect it may be because you have a bit of a reputation and your PA ferociously protects you from visitors. Add to that the fact that some of your directors are just not very good. At the next board meeting, why don’t you ask for suggestions on how to proceed? Don’t tell them about my ideas, see who makes suggestions, I guarantee you someone will want to sit on the cash pile or pay it out in big bonuses. Some will sit back and let others come up with ideas, but some will have good ideas. They may be similar to mine, they may be worse, they may be better, so I suggest if I am not there you put forward my ideas. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but they are a possibility. The board will have to make up its mind on how to proceed, probably a combination of my and others’ ideas.”
In Chapter 25 – Warminster
© WorthingGooner 2024
