With Bess gone from his bed, Benni devotes himself to pulling various parties together to moving in a positive direction for parallel business development. He must win over Ralph who is holding a back-stabbing knife with Benni's name on it. Will Bess return to Benni's bed, or will he find someone else – the swine! Will she find someone else? This story appears to be going nowhere, but beware of illusions!
TWENTYONE
Benni duitifully had been making contributions to the working party's Plan of Action for Cit Business District development, working to Ralph Zachary's preferred line of approach.
At the outset Benni had indicated that he was do some independent research relating to MainStreet's future viability as part of a paper towards completion of his degree.
"That's little more than garbage to the real world of business, Benni, but you go along with it and present it to our meeting when you're ready," smiled Ralph. "We promise to look at it, won't we boys?"
"I think we should look seriously at Benni's report," said Mick, the CEO.
"Yeah, will do that Mick – and that's a promise," said Ralph, aware that Mick was emerging as the real business brain of the Bus-Pro.
That time had now arrived, the final meeting of the working party; its report would be presented to the full executive on Friday.
"This is fantastic, Benni," said Mick who was attached to the working party ex-officio.
"It's absolutely suicidal," snorted Ralph, but he was in a minority; one other opposition view was, "This is too radical – it'll get us all booted out of office."
"Read from page 21," said Benni calmly. "It's the real nub with you guys: money."
"Ohmigod, Benni," said Mick, speed-reading but with analytical finesse. How sure are you of these figures and projections?"
"I had working beside me an expert in this field, who wishes to remain anonymous for professional reasons."
"So we've got no way of verifying these contentions and conclusions."
"Hah, bloody rubbish," said Ralph. "We're wasting our time."
"I don't think so," said Mick. "Look at page 29. The graphs clearly show leakage of MainStreet retailing to the mall has slowed remarkably during the past five years – that mall growth has originated from much farther a field."
"Yes," echoed Ritchie Smart. "I'd go along with that. Look at page 31 – the case study of the turnaround of Bert Wheeler's business as a result of restructuring and more aggressive marketing and compare that with the case study of the McKenzie girls' business decline towards oblivion,"
Ritchie, head of the city's biggest law firm, added: "I know some of the recommendations outlined in the preamble are radical, but if we're looking at upping the ante we must look at taking radical steps.
"The final recommendation is that Bus-Pro brings in an acknowledged expert in the revitalization of city business districts and that consultancy has the responsibility to facilitate bilateral talks involving mall management and the Bus-Pro executive. In my view it's now or never.
"What Benni says is the possibility of an outfit wanting to establish a whole new super city centre poses a real threat – but if we are integrated and thriving they won't want to risk competing with us, and possibly losing."
"A super city centre threat – where do I find that?" asked Ralph, turning white. He was directed to the appropriate pages.
An hour later a few edited pages from Ralph's Plan of Action were inserted into Benni's paper and it was agreed that the consolidated report be presented to the executive as the 'MainStreet Restructuring Report'.
It was suggested that Benni present the report as 95% of it was his.
"Ladies and gentlemen, who am I? This needs to be a Working Party report presented by Ralph; otherwise it will have no credibility."
Ralph beamed when that suggestion passed as a motion; he nodded at Benni and called for acclamation for the great job Benni had performed for Bus-Pro.
At the executive meeting the same warnings that the recommendations were too radical were presented and it was decided to hold the matter over for discussion at a special meeting the following week.
Benni went into a huddle at drinks time with the president and CEO. They both patted him on the back as he left the room in a hurry.
"Hi, beautiful butterfly, how's the Corvette."
"Oh Benni!" cried Alexis, as she emerged from the car showing a good amount of streamlined leg. "You're on enemy ground you know."
She kissed him, like a friend, but in her excitement went crotch-to-crotch.
Benni pushed a copy of the report under her arm.
"Rush that to Owen Childs, business news editor of
The Daily Sun.
I need the report leaked, and he's waiting for it. If you take it to him I honestly can tell my accusers at Bus-Con that my confidential consultant has leaked it. Owen Childs guarantees press confidentiality and I won't reveal your identity under any circumstances. Our president has authorized me to arrange the leak but only if you do it. Trust me, it's okay."
"Right, I'm off to
The Sun
. I gather by the excited look on your face they've close to adopting your report?"
"Our joint report," he grinned. Benni watched in admiration as Alexis burned rubber, looking as if she and the car were one.
That evening Bess Pfeiffer was having dinner with her parents, feeling very lonely.
"How's Benni going?" she asked her father.
