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.....(About March 8, 1995 -- TRK) While waiting for M O'B to end talking with the owner of a company who supplies some of the products TRK then resells (and who was paying a "courtesy call" which obliged PH to go and pick up in Dublin), PH and I had a 15 minutes chat that covered a lot of interesting stuff. |
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He talked about changes in the business and his differences with "the owner in New York". He thinks that V is of the very old school. He made a lot of money for himself 30 years ago and doesn't see any reason to change his ways. He also does not countenance any opposition, and PH doesn't try anymore to talk to him about making changes since he gets so angry. He didn't quite say that he then proceeds to do it his way, but I suspect this is what happens, at least as far as he can control it. He gave as an example, V's decision to continue to manufacture a white-out liquid that is both obsolete and has always been second best as far as consumers were concerned. Conversely, V. has not tried to get in the business to make ink jet cartridges for the new printers, even though this is clearly the wave of the future. |
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We talked about their delay in computerization. Again VB has not been pushing it, and people like PK here are so
used to handwriting that they are not eager. Nothing has
been developed in New York, so they will have to design everything
from scratch. That would take too much work, so they are
only beginning with the stock of original products. He added
about PK that he is happiest controlling stock, and probably
finds personnel supervision onerous. |
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We talked briefly about the deal with PaperClips. He agreed
that they are treating TRK somewhat like a wholesaler, which
he thinks has to do with the fact that they are completely
geared to opening the stores and could not possibly get involved
in organizing the purchasing of what they will then retail.
He is not sure if TRK will be able to keep it in the long
run given that PaperClips might decide to go directly to the
manufacturers. Happily for TRK, the manufacturers are so
inept at filling orders that PaperClips needs to use an outfit
like TRK to act as a buffer. |
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We also talked about the employees and the problems that
can arise, particularly when the work force was larger.
He talked about people "with a chip on their shoulders" not
wanting to take direction from supervisors and such. He
talked about the hiring of relatives which they are happy
to do though it can lead to problems if the relative does
not work out satisfactorily. The first hired is likely to
side with his relative and may not accept that there is a
real problem: "they come to talk to you, and they are so
worked up that you can't talk to them rationally... I have
had to threaten some with dismissal, even though the problem
was not with them but with their sister or nephew." He also
talked about the pairing, though he wanted to talk about
the reverse: women who absolutely will not work with each
other. Mostly it has to do with developing dislikes, though
he gave me a long story about a case when two women refused
to sit side by side. They had been polite as long as they
were separated. It came out that their grand-fathers had
had a fight around some boundary issue between their fields,
and the grand-daughters had to continue the fact: "isn't
that Irish for you!"
{It was most interesting to get the negative of the very cleaned-up version that I got from talking to people on the floor; and the impression of a smoothly working machine which I got simply watching. Disputes probably proceed on a much longer basis, so that it would pure chance to be present at the moment of the explosion.} |
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