Phil’s schemes November 21, 1985
American capitalism like
politics is a vicious road; to have a heart often means heart failure.
The underlying
structure isn’t just about making money; it is also a violent penetration of
power that generally isn’t spoken openly about. And few people really
understand it until they get run over by it.
Whereas politics
claims “winner takes all,” terms like “sink or swim,” “Everyman for himself,”
or “Dog eat dog,” reflect the constant struggle that goes on in an attempt to
get or protect power.
With Phil, his road to
power came as a stroke of luck. He was the trusted employee of a Pepsi
distribution company. He was one of
those indispensable underlings on the rise with an eye out for an extra buck,
but an upwardly mobile soul with no place he could go in a small company that
could not pay him what he thought he deserved.
There was a roof over
his ambition he could not break through.
Then, the owner of the
company made a mistake, some legality that forced him to rebid for his own
contracts with Pepsi.
Phil, being the
trusted employee that he was, knew all his boss’s secrets, and submitted a bid
he knew would be lower than the one his boss bid.
By the time it all
came out about who did what, Phil owned the contract and was on his way to his
first million.
His second stroke of
luck came with the Willowbrook Dunkin, where another upwardly mobile money
monster miscalculated his own empire and had to sell to avoid disaster (enemies
plotting against him permanently dented his imperial goals.)
Phil was there to cash
in, buying the donut shop an unreasonably low price.
But it was Phil’s next
brilliantly nasty move that put him in league with the J.P. Morgan and the
Hearsts.
But it took him two
and a half years to set the stage, penny pinching and careful manipulating the
personnel to show a good profit. He sold
the store in the middle of the Christmas season when the profit margin was at
its peak. He got a premium price.
His lawyers worked out
the deal with Phil himself offering to finance the sale for the new owner,
using the equipment as collateral.
The day after the sale
closed, he and his cousin, Tommy, because a campaign of sabotage, telling the
best help about the pay scales, telling customers scare stories to chase them
away, trying to talk me and the day baker into leaving.
Because we held out,
Phil did not get control of the store back for nearly a year and a half – but he
still made a killing, and by that time had expanded his empire to include two
new stores.
In the midst of this,
the small people got hurt, the ones who clung to these jobs because they had
rent to pay and families to raise, the people books on management say are
unimportant, but who make the business run, people who often go from job to
job, filling in the gaps with unemployment.
Powershifts leave many
of these people in their wake, a change of ownership usually means a change of
personnel. Those too loyal to the old boss either get terminated or they resign
since the new owner has his pick of his personal toadies, and never quite
trusts those toadies who grooved up to the previous boss.
The kiss asses are
often resented by the others, who take advantage of their sudden loss of
status, abusing them until they leave.
But even the new
toadies sometimes lose status, such as John M, who has come to question Phil’s
motives, and just how much his loyalty to Phil is worth.
The question is: has
Phil gone too far this time, overextending himself with his schemes and will he
finally fall into ruin before he can rise to the level of a Vanderbilt or a
Rockefeller?
Only time will tell.
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