for Ro Chai, a senseless emotion, an un-tooled sherpa carrying the burdensome weight of insignificance on his shoulders. It is a friendship stronger and richer than religious faith yet uncompromisingly similar in its abstractness and its invalidated prophecy. The man called hope ensures that where that which falls, stays where it is, everlasting like a waterfall, sometimes near dry, barren or empty but ready to flow again, resolute and unwavering. It is the epiphany of resilience, the foundations of which remain steadfast.
On a good day, it is this slight optimism that returns the smile to the face, the joy in the voice and the spring in the step. It is what makes Ro's outer appearance warm and friendly, liked by his peers and valued by his bosses. He will need to be as the team commences to grow from 2 to 10 and further in the months ahead.
The aspired for contentment on these good days makes everything seem possible. Yet, Hope reinforces the solace of such a state, a mindset, where materiality is not the object of desire but the mind is at peace and the world seems simple, beautiful and wonderful. Complexity complicates and objects of desire wield an axe of distraction where ‘must do’ and ‘have to’ along with deadlines steal the mind from its open oasis to the closed in walls of fear of anxiety.
Ro’s mind refracts to the stale office interior and the old, albeit 3 years, laptop calling for his attention. He turns to look outside and glimpses the glistening sun in the openness of the bright blue sky. He unhinges the laptop from its lock, gathers his phone along with his small notepad and pen. Knowing that all his research and requisite documentation exist on the laptop hard drive, he has no immediate need for connection to the ethernet nor internet. It is mid-morning and the birds are calling for him to work outside. Ro knows just the place.
Mick’s café bar and bistro has been a haunt for Ro for several years now and he has got to know the proprietor and his wife. Mick and Barbara are in their mid-fifties. This café is their nest-egg which they plan to sell in the near future to fund their pension. They have built a solid franchise with cabaret style décor that sets it apart from the typical contemporary white tiled and wooden bench look of most cafes these days. Barbara had first envisaged an ‘Emerson & Green’ style rooftop bar and bistro. She had very fond memories of the popular place during their safari to the Serengeti many years ago finished with a relaxing few days in Zanzibar’s Spice Town. It had such a relaxed feel with Berber rugs and silk cushions everywhere. The four-poster bed style roof allowed respite from the harsh sun enabling longer duration viewing out to the beach and sea where dhows meandered back and forth across the bay. Unfortunately, the city council were not so open to Barbara’s idea and redevelopment of her rooftop so she switched to a Belle Epoque style café where lingering was not only allowed but encouraged. Coffees, pastries and short order eggs were the breakfast menu whilst homemade pizza, salads and pastas were the afternoon and early evening offer. The cosy bar listed local and international wines, with tap and bottled beers also on offer.
After a while, Mick was keen to try out his subtle coffee variations on Ro during the quieter mid-morning hours. Variations on sourced coffee beans, roasting styles, grinding and tamping methods gave Ro many types of coffee to provide opinion on. Ro soon learnt that the many permutations produced varying levels of quality coffee. This day was no different. As Ro walked in, a familiar couple exited via the sliding door. The lady, in her early forties, was voluptuous and sensual; confident enough to wear a mini-skirt with black patent leather high heels. Her red and white horizontal striped top was tight enough to exacerbate her medium sized breasts. Her skin was in immaculate condition with the only indication of age being around her eyes. The young gentleman in his early twenties showing very much a ‘He-Man’ type physique with bulging chest and super self-confidence to match was dressed down in his mauve shirt and plain dark pink tie with fitted trousers and black slip-ons. His slicked back hair was now dry from the office air conditioning and was starting to displace somewhat. Ro glanced at Mick, there was no need for words as the two smirked at each other, probably more in envy than humour at the exiting couple. They were regulars at Mick’s bar and were no doubt keeping their courting as private as possible. It’s unfortunate, however, how office people notice these things so early on in the piece.
Ro sat down to draft the Quarterly Board Report for his area of responsibility. Whilst another major bank, Wilson Jamieson, had taken over his vendor Atkins Robertson for over $400m, the Mason Thompson business was still performing adequately. The Wilson Jamieson broking division was now making over $150m profit annually and had a keen interest to protect its patch. It had decided that one way to do this was to buy Atkins Robertson, the second largest broker, to maintain effective control over the evolution of the industry. Atkins Robertson was an independent broker who provided wholesale broking services to banks wanting to offer broking services to their clients; often referred to as ‘whitelabel’. For the last ten years Mason Thompson was a major client. With all business and technology functions outsourced to Atkins Robertson, Mason Thompson had only reputational risk to consider with little or no capital investment required and very low ongoing capital expenditure. It was a lean and profitable business but one showing anaemic subscriber and client growth. Client service levels both phone and online had remained consistent post the acquisition and operational process times had kept relatively steady but still below industry benchmark levels. Knowing that they were on the cusp of a multi-million dollar takeover, the major individual shareholders of Atkins Robertson were keen to demonstrate very high profitability and thus kept operational expenditure very tight. The specifics of the outsourced deal meant that Mason Thompson had little wriggle room in terms of headcount in the office unless service levels deteriorated significantly. The Board Report would show a status quo being maintained.
Chapter 3 Rent before buy before build
It was the now familiar voice that Ro heard first. Validation came from responses coming from his second in charge, principal strategist and business case author, Clint Angel. Before Ro could turn around they were both standing right behind him. ‘Good morning, Ro. Do you have a few minutes?’, enquired Sam Bartoli. The floor of the office is all open plan. It enables more desks per floor (reducing the cost per desk ratio), encourages open conversations and lessens the hierarchical divide between managers and workers. All the different business units of the bank who utilise the head office building sit in an open plan environment, except for the office of the CEO. Small meeting rooms exist for private conversations such as the one they were about to have. The others on the six-desk pod glance up curious as to the content of the conversation. ‘We are putting together a business case for Franc and his executive team to outline the business opportunity, the competitive environment led by Wilson Jamieson and the impact of their takeover of our service provider, Atkins Robertson. We need to gather more data about our customers, how valuable they are, how much money we make from them, that sort of thing. Do you have any of that information?’, Sam inquired.
‘Of course.’, Ro replied, ‘Colleen gets a data dump on a monthly basis from Atkins Robertson and uses this to create her monthly management information report. We can either send you a copy or send you a link to the folder in the directory where it is stored.’
‘Great’ said Sam, relieved at the ease of getting what he needed.
‘I’ll send you a copy of the business case document I’m drafting to give you an idea of how we are intending to frame of the opportunity. Have a read and let me know any thoughts and any supporting points you may be able to provide’, added Clint.
‘Things are starting to move quickly’, said Sam, ‘now that Wilson Jamieson has taken over Atkins Roberson. Franc is not keen on our main bank competitor being the service provider of our stockbroking business. Oh, yeah, whilst we are on that, can you send me through any contract documentation of our arrangement with Atkins Robertson? We need to understand if there are any impediments and clauses arising if we notify our intention to terminate the contract.’
‘No problem’, mumbled Ro whilst making notes, ‘I’ll get that from Phil or Alison. Phil is a group commercial manager, he gets involved in contract management with me and Alison is our legal counsel business partner. There have been a few additional schedules added, some addendums and a few additional contracts for other services such as our adviser service we setup last year. We had a step-up in our commission rate because our revenue exceeded