Page 4 of Protecting Love

1

GOT MY SHINE BACK

Four Years Later

“Is this everyone who is coming?” Paris Westerly asked when only five people entered the conference room.

She’d been working on this project for just over three months.

Normally strategic planning and overhauling a business could take double that if not a full year, but with their consulting firm new, their client list wasn’t that steep and she’d been able to dedicate a lot more man hours to this.

Which was good since MHT wanted it done in a shorter time or would have taken their business elsewhere.

Westerly Consulting didn’t want to lose it so she had been cramming daylight time, and mostly nighttime hours, to get it done.

And in that time, she’d worked with at least a dozen people closely, yet only five were in the room.

“Yes,” Michael Mahoney said. He was the president and CEO. “Just senior management.”

The CFO, HR Director, CIO, and COO were also here.

The big hitters.

“Then we can begin,” she said as she passed out the binders she’d had in a pile in front of her. “All of this will be sent electronically when I’m back to my office, but I find it easier to go through it like this.”

Maybe it was old school, but she liked her pie charts and not everyone enjoyed flicking through screens on a computer, nor brought laptops with them to meetings.

“How many options are we being given?” Henry asked. The CFO had more questions than most, and at times was not as forthcoming or as timely with the information, but she understood that. He was responsible for the money and this company was being bled dry. Maybe he worried he’d overwhelm her with unneeded information.

“Three,” she said. “And of course, you’re free to not go with any of them.”

“We spent enough money on your services,” Todd, the CIO, said. “Money that could have gone to technology to replace some of the staff like I’ve been saying for years.”

She kept her smile firmly in place. She always did.

Half the time, it was just in her nature. Easier for her clients to relate to her.

She wasn’t here to hurt them, but to help.

It was just too bad that what she did was almost always painful in the end to those who hired her.

Honestly, strategic consultants were normally hired when a company was in trouble, not before.

Very few were proactive, and if they were, it was still painful to more people than less.

“And one of those options includes technology getting more funding and what the cost savings would be in the long run to have services automated.”

Even if the general public detested dealing with quick chatbots or robotic messages on calls.

“Good,” Todd said. “You know that will be my vote.”

And because Michael and Todd were cousins and owned the company with Henry, those three would most likely stick together.

They’d had their bases covered, three of the five controlling technology, money, and complete oversight.

The COO was probably going to have to just go along for the ride, the HR Director being the bad person delivering news to the employees.

She almost felt bad for Debra.