Last night I fell asleep to National Geographic and had very Indiana Jones style dreams. It was nice and I woke up feeling ready for adventure.Let’s start today’s adventure with a writing prompt. Timers at the ready? Excellent. The off we go.
Yeah, this wasn’t one of my better ones. I felt like I was spinning my mental wheels through most of it. But I suppose my brain does feel a bit clearer. And I do like the idea of one person who knows all the gossip in a story. That is the one thing I might take away from this one. That’s something at least.
Wednesday, January 13th: We do not have those sorts of resources.
“We do not have those sorts of resources,” Mike said. He rubbed his hand tiredly across his face. The comment didn’t actually stop the debate.
“I still say that it is our best option. If we are to survive as a company it needs to be done. We have to move with the times, Update and become trending. We need to revamp our entire marketing system.”
Carter finally had to pause for a breath. David took over.
“Marketing can wait, that is just words slapped together with a few pictures and posted on line, any teenager can do that. What we need is more research. We need to see what our competitors are doing and beat them to market.”
Mike fought down a sigh and realized no one was listening. It wasn’t a matter of money, but of power. Carter and Dave had been fighting over who was in charge since he had known them. David favored corporate espionage and undercutting their opponents selling at as cheap a price as possible to undercut the market. Carter thought that a splashy media presence and the approval of a few choice celebrities would be exactly the way to go. The fact that what they made wasn’t glitzy, glamorous hip or trendy didn’t faze Carter any more than the fact that they were currently the only producer phased David and his corporate piracy schemes. The fact of the matter was that they had no real competitors and he couldn’t think of a single celebrity who would be willing to talk them up, especially with what they could afford to pay.
The profit margins were what they had always been. They made a good product, sold it where it was needed. People didn’t wake up wondering what Douglas internationals new spring line was like. They made the parts no one ever saw but needed to replace when things broke. In fact their items weren’t purchased by the everyday consumer at all. They were purchased by tradesmen and contractors, manufacturers and wholesalers that sold to tradesmen contractors and manufacturers. All of those people knew the company and its quality. They also knew there was no real competition. There was no need for either of the schemes they planned, but as it was a joint partnership, each of their votes counting in equal measure, he had to be seen to be listening to the, The fact that the pointless argument had devolved into a grudge match where he was expected to make the final decision and side with one of them was sadly not an unusual state of affairs. Lately it had been occurring more and more frequently. For the first time, he looked past his own annoyance and wondered why. Had something happened that he missed. He looked at his two business partners and saw two sets of eyes glittering with anger and determination. This couldn’t be over marketing strategies, could it? He shook his head but neither of them noticed as they each tried to out talk the other. Neither of them was that personally invested in the company, not enough for this level of anger.
‘Sarah,’ he thought. ‘She’ll know. Sarah had an uncanny way of finding out rumor and separating the truth from the embellishments. After this meeting he would seek her out. ‘If I survive this meeting.’
Ten til Midnight 