Mum, Dad, and I rode together in one of the limos. We arrived at our office building right on time at nine o’clock.
The agenda allowed an hour each for Jackson Personal Products, Jackson Home Products, and the Entertainment Division. Jackson Transportation had a three-hour session in the afternoon.
First up was Personal Products presented by Don Pearson. This was Don’s first business update since he was brought on board with profit sharing. The meeting room was set up with a sideboard containing coffee, tea, orange juice, bagels, and donuts.
Considering I had just had a full breakfast I did manage juice, coffee, a bagel with cream cheese, and a crème filled donut. Maybe I wasn’t as nervous as I thought. Now the moment had arrived I was ready as I could be.
Don was upbeat in his presentation. New markets had been opened in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, and Chile. That was South America. In Africa, hairdryer sales were great in South Africa. Market penetration was starting in Egypt and Southern Rhodesia. For some reason, we couldn’t get a foothold in Liberia.
Don told us they were having problems finding anyone willing to talk to them in Liberia. I suggested they talk to the Managing Director of the Firestone Plantation. While not able to give them answers, he would be able to tell them who could.
He said he had no idea who that was and wouldn’t know how to contact them. I told him that I knew Mr. Art Dawson the Managing Director and would call him for advice and arrange contacts for Don and his people. There, I could do something worthwhile for my people. I had the plantation number from the time I had played golf there.
Australia and the New Zealand markets had taken off. Europe was spotty. For some reason, the Mediterranean countries were slow adopters while the Scandinavians couldn’t buy enough dryers and curling irons.
The R&D department had just been opened with the first personnel brought on board. I was asked if I could be available for a ribbon cutting on the new building sometime in October. I told him that I could fly back from England but it would have to be a quick in and out as it would in the middle of classes.
When I said classes that took him back for a moment. He had apparently forgotten that I was still in school.
The bottom line on the Division was that it was going to earn over ten million dollars in profit this year. As Don had profit-sharing you could tell he was a happy camper. At a quick break, he told me going out on his own was the best thing his parents could have forced him to do. He also let me know he thought he was the luckiest man alive to end up in his job. I told him that I was the luckiest man alive by being surrounded by people like him. Hey, ten million makes everyone happy.
After Personal Products, it was Jackson Home Product’s turn. This was Mark Downing and his new wife Sharon. They were professional in their demeanor but you could see they were still in the honeymoon stage.
They relayed that the Division was in the process of buying out a competitor for quick expansion. It was more for the production facility and its infrastructure than the product base. I liked this one because the workforce would be kept on.
Last year they had made a profit of three million dollars. This year it was on pace to make four million. I bet Mark’s sister rued the day she insisted on him buying her out.
Sharon also let us know that her venture with Anna Romanov was going very well. Their using other stars to redo residences was a big hit and there was talk of making a television show of the work being done.
They called this reality TV but as she described how it would be edited I thought of it as fake reality. Talk about a contradiction. Anna or Sharon would be present at the end when the finished work was shown, this would be the reveal. I blushed at my own thoughts.
The last before lunch, we heard about Jackson Entertainment Division. The accounting group gave us dry numbers from movies and music. This included money due from the failed surfer movie, and estimated revenues from, ‘Over the Ohio’. OTO, as we started calling it was doing fantastic. It was setting US box office records and was primed to do the same when released overseas.
On the movie front, it looked like fifty million dollars. What blew my mind was my music from all songs was projected at $500,000 dollars. What was wrong with these people’s ears?
Sharon Wallace and Mr. Baxter were there to bring perspective to the dollars. It was all good from their point of view. Sharon wanted to know if I would be going overseas in the near future, as she would love to have me do an opening tour of the capital cities of Europe.
I told her I had no plans to be in Europe in the near future. That is for different values of the near future. If she meant this afternoon, defiantly not, leaving tomorrow, yes. She had to be clearer on her questions, I even felt a twinge at giving that answer, mind you, it was only a twinge.
I glanced at Mum and Dad but they kept straight faces.
We had lunch brought in. It was only Mum, Dad, and me. I told them I hated to give that answer to Sharon, but I knew how she was. Dad
