Saving The Mission, page 2
part #1 of The Race to Space Series
He watched Ruth walk away with a swagger in her step, her mid heels clicking on the hard floor as she went. Yes, she certainly was his best asset. Ed looked around his small office and pondered, “how can we change the public perception of this mission? The need to make them feel it is important, which is increasingly difficult in the current climate given that people are more concerned about their next paycheck rather than a flight into space they will never afford.” Ed went to pick up his phone then saw it in pieces and groaned. He instead sat down at his desk, picked up his tablet from his desk and commanded: “call Gail.” He then heard the high pitched shrill of his Head of Public Relations.
“Good evening Mr Dayton. What can I do for you?”
Ed thought about how much he despised this woman. She was like buying car insurance. You know you needed it but wondered why you bothered. “Gail, you are my PR woman are you not?”
The shrill reply came “Yes Mr Dayton.”
“Good. Assemble me a collection of the latest FriendFinder comments about me and Dayton Space”
He heard the gasp and stuttered words “are, are you sure Mr Dayton? The press haven’t exactly been, well, you know.”
Ed thought about questioning her about her role in the negative press but right now he had bigger fish to fry, “Just do it. Send them to me directly in the next two hours. Hang up.”
Ed thought about what a waste of money Gail was. She was meant to be head of PR and yet couldn’t get an ounce of good publicity about him or Dayton Space. Ed made a mental note to fire her after she came back with all the messages about him he fully expected.
At that moment Ruth walked into his office. “Ed, this isn’t a good start. The board are already meeting in London now.”
Ed stood up so his chair squeaked on the hard floor and shouted, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
Ruth for the first time looked flustered. Ed decided it didn’t suit her. “They didn’t tell me.”
Ed knew that could only mean one of two things, they were either pulling the plug already or Ed was in trouble. Neither were acceptable and he sure as hell was going to tell them as such. “Get me a plane to leave from here to London in an hour.”
Ruth stuttered “I will try Ed but they need to get the plane here and sort it with air traffic control. I’m not sure it can be...”
He interrupted her before she could finish the sentence. Ed hated no other word more in the English language than “can’t”. He shouted, “just sort it Ruth, we are in a hanger in an airbase for Christ sake.”
As Ruth shuffled off, no longer possessing the confident swagger from earlier, he prepared himself for battle. He looked at his tablet and prepared his presentation. People had tried to do this to Ed before and he had come through. Ed thought, “those corporate idiots don’t have a clue what is about to hit them.”
3.
An hour later and one of the Dayton Airways planes was outside the hanger. The plane was completely white apart from the blue Dayton Airways sign on the side, in a similar design to his rocket. It may have looked like a small plane on the outside but inside it looked like a lounge you would find in a posh hotel. Each of the 12 seats was spaced apart and each had a television screen and workspace. There was also a large bar in the middle with all of the drinks you could possibly desire. This was a plan Ed had designed specifically for short-haul business travellers. Ed smiled at the irony, business being on a slow down meant that they had a plane readily available. Ruth had managed to arrange to land at London City airport which in the circumstances was a minor miracle. He boarded the plane with Ruth at his side and they set off just over an hour after their conversation. They sat in silence as Ed furiously tapped on his tablet preparing his speech to the board. Ed was enraged thinking, “how dare they do this to him? If it wasn’t for him they would have been without a job after the financial crash.” Right then Ed knew what it felt like to manage a football team after winning a league title and then getting fired next season. Ed knew that wherever you have a board you have inpatient and incompetent arseholes.
After half an hour in silence, Ruth said, “The rumblings I got, which I only got because I am friendly with Jim - the Director of Finance - by the way, are that they are pulling the plug on the rocket and are going to look to rebrand on space-related experiences.”
Ed looked at her stunned “What does that even mean?”
Ruth replied, “they are looking into getting cheaper experiences for more working-class people to experience NASA training regimes and virtual reality experiences to make you feel like you’re in space.”
Ed laughed sarcastically “That sums Jim up all over, all for cost-cutting and cutting corners. Does he really think a space program where you get to sit in a pod for two hours will make news headlines? People can do that on their game consoles now in their own home, why the hell would they pay money for it? An absolute joke.”
Ruth nodded “They are scared, Ed. They are worried about the company's reputation as a whole. Your reputation. They are trying to salvage what they have.”
Ed laughed “the only people they care about Ruth are themselves. Tell me Ruth, why didn’t they invite you?”
Ruth shifted in her seat and looked out of the plane at the London skyline below “They think I am too close to you and I’m biased.” An awkward silence descended upon them and Ed returned to preparing his presentation.
They landed in London City airport at around 7:30pm. After going through Passport Control they got a cab across the city to Canary Wharf, the home of Dayton Tower as it was informally known. The rent was extortionate, but it sure had the best location overlooking the bank of the River Thames. As they approached Canary Wharf, Ed could see the “Dayton Industries” sign in big letters on the side. The building wasn’t the tallest but it looked hugely impressive. It was shaped to represent the letter D. The base of the building was quite wide and it got narrower, curving at the top. The building was fully glassed all around to allow maximum visibility. Every time he saw that sign he felt immensely proud and powerful, this was his space of London and only his. Ed would not allow those idiots inside to take that away from him. They pulled up outside Dayton Tower and walked through to the main reception. Instantly the girl behind reception, who could not have been more than twenty years of age, put her phone down and stuttered.
“Good, good evening Mr Dayton Sir. They, we, weren’t expecting you so late.”
Ed walked across to the main reception desk and looked her in the eyes and drew a sharp intake of breath. “If you want to keep your job, seeing how this is still my company, where are they and how long have they been here?” He gave a steely glare and visibly saw her wither under the pressure.
The receptionist weighed up her options for a second and came to the right decision. “They are on the twentieth floor in the boardroom and they have been here since, well I guess it would have to be, 3pm.” Ed stormed off towards the lift and Ruth behind him thanked the receptionist for her help. She was Director of Human Resources after all, she can sort out his mess. They got the lift together and ascended to floor twenty.
Dayton Tower was like a glass prism, all the offices had full glass windows to let in plenty of light. It also allowed the staff to look out which, particularly for the space side of things, was important to Ed. He wanted his staff to look up into space, to imagine that what they were doing was helping drive civilisation forward, making a difference to people's lives. The office was very modern and every member of staff had their own tablet so they could work from anywhere, and importantly to Ed, at any time. He put them in control, they worked from the office or at home, took breaks when they needed to, as long as they did their nine hours a day it didn’t matter. However, if their performance wasn’t great they would be out of the door. Thus, giving Dayton Industries the impression of being the ideal company to work for but yet in its own way brutal. We gave you all the tools, you just didn’t use them.
The lift arrived to a soft halt at floor twenty. They left the lift together and approached the Boardroom. He could hear the chatting inside and wondered if they had been warned about his imminent arrival. He burst through the doors.
Jim turned to the door, looked at them both and said “Ahh, Ed glad you could make it. We were just discussing a few things. Oh and I see you brought Ruth. Hello, Ruth.” Jim turned to Ruth and glared. It was a look that said you’ve got me in deep trouble, that is the last time I will speak to you. Jim was in his mid-fifties, with grey hair and a wide girth which gave the impression of it hanging over the table.
Ed stood at the head of the table where his usual seat was left unoccupied. He stood behind the large glass table and surveyed his board. Ed had insisted on a glass table so that he could see if someone was nervously shuffling their feet. Dayton Space’s board consisted of ten people in total with an equal number of men and women, all with no clue how to seemingly run a company. Ed stood behind his desk with his hands on his chair and looked at them all individually. “So, what have I missed?”
A man in his late thirties and who was of Muslim origin, who Ed knew as Khalid Ahmed, Director of Marketing, said, “We were just discussing the viability of Dayton Space, the public perception isn’t great and we need to rebuild the company's reputation.”
Ed snapped “As Head of Marketing isn’t that your job Khalid? Aren’t you meant to develop strategies to make us look good or am I missing something?”
Khalid started to turn bright red and replied “Well yes, but there is nothing good to shout about. The Russians are winning and people don’t like the company, Ed. They don’t like how much money is going into this and how very little success has come out of it.” Khalid was very intelligent and had come to work for him after leaving another high-profile organisation in the same role. He had an excellent reputation for thinking outside the box and generating good public perception. Ed had enticed him to join his space programme but had been disappointed with Khalid’s progress.
Jim then stepped in to help out his colleague, “Ed you know that we were all for your space adventure and your vision, it has brought this company from strength to strength but since the test flight, well, failed, we have lost £10m a month, what with compensation and share prices plummeting...”
Ed snapped “Can I just stop you there. I just wanted to stop you. When I first gave you this vision it was never going to be a quick plan. If you had spoken to people a hundred years ago and said that we can talk to somebody across the world instantaneously without costing them a penny they would have called you mad. Or that you can have an apartment in your plane to fly you to the other side of the world while still being in bed watching TV, it would have been seen as crazy. That is the vision we had, that is what we built our company on, providing the impossible! We have made a company that provides for everyone, relaxed flights for the rich, cheap but memorable holidays for the poorer and incredible hotels for the middle class. We are the company for everyone, that is how we have been built and how we shall continue to thrive.
This space dream wasn’t just about the super-rich getting an experience no-one else could afford, it was about the poorer children looking up and believing that one day they could experience it too. Like those people who used to think being in an aeroplane was unaffordable or owning a car. We are about to start a new revolution. Can’t you feel the change in the air? If we don’t do it, Russia sure as hell will.”
Jim murmured “Yes but Ed the difference is their grand leader is subsidising it, whereas we are expected to fund this mission out of our back pockets.”
Ed replied “Exactly! Do you really think Russia will make it affordable for the masses? Or allow fellow Europeans in on how they did it or even allow us near the thing? Of course not! It will be “look at us aren’t we great, the rest of you suck” and what kind of message does that send to the rest of us? We need to send our own message “look at us, we are creating a future which will be amazing and, eventually in time, for us all.'' I know what you are all thinking, why should we fund the future? Well quite frankly because we can and our business future would forever be financially secure. We will always be competed with for air travel, experiences and fancy hotels. There will always be a new us waiting to undercut us and tempt our customers away. We need something different were we are unique. It is not enough to stay on the same line. We need to be different, to be relevant.”
The boardroom was completely silent in awe of Ed’s speech when Jim who was in his late fifties and clearly just wanted to make sure his pension was secure until he didn’t walk this earth anymore said “That is all well and good Ed, but we can’t go another month losing money like this. The only thing keeping us afloat is Tim and I got a call from Tim earlier saying he was pulling out.” Jim let that shockwave ring amongst the board.
Ed was furious. He watched as the room nervously looked at each other and then all stared at Ed. Tim had double-crossed him again. Well, Ruth was right, we can do this without him.
Khalid broke the silence as if to give his next point more gravitas, “if the press gets word of this we are finished. Sorry Ed, this is it.”
Ed was determined not to be outwitted and said “This is not it! Let him pull out, we have his money, we have the infrastructure we can do this without him. We just need the public on side. Which is the job you should be doing! If we have the public on side the project can’t be scrapped! They won’t let it!”
Jim sighed and shook his head as if to give the appearance to the rest of the board that Ed had lost his mind. “Ed you are too invested in this. You need to let it go.”
Ruth, having sat down in her usual seat next to Ed then interjected, “he is right Jim if we had the public on our side together with the press exposure we can generate enough money to keep going.”
Jim snapped “Well we all know what you are going to say Ruth don’t we. On that note, earlier today we motioned a vote of no confidence in the both of you and unfortunately, that passed. I’m sorry Ed and Ruth but we all feel the company will be better without you.”
Ed glared at Jim, “I fully expected this to come. All I ask is that you give me one week. That is what Tim has agreed with me to turn this around. By the end of the week, I will secure the future of this company and in particular, I will ensure that we still have Tim to finance our mission. I’ll do you a deal. If at the end of next week I cannot secure Tim’s future for the project, or funding from an alternative backer then you can be free to pass your motion.”
Jim glanced around the board “OK Ed, we need to take a vote. Please step outside, you too Ruth.”
Ed looked at Ruth and they both walked out of the room. Ed put his finger to his lips to signal to Ruth not to discuss it as he was aware they would try and listen to their conversation. Ed knew he had done all he can, he had used all the charisma in his armoury to save the project and Ruth, he just hoped it was enough. After half an hour, they were called back through and sat down in their respective chairs.
Jim spoke and said “both of you take a seat. We have decided on a vote of six to two to give you to the end of the week. If by the end of the week, the space programme still looks flawed then you and Ruth will be dismissed in your Director posts and will no longer sit on this board, understood?”
Ed replied curtly “Understood. Right, now can we please work as a team to sort this? We need to get the public behind this project again. I asked Gail to provide me with some of the latest FriendFinder comments about us. Here are a few: “Why are you spending millions on a commercial flight to space for the super-rich when we can’t afford our food shopping.” “Dayton Space is just another program to make the rest of us envious of what we will never have.” and my personal favourite “If Ed Dayton is so concerned about going into space why doesn’t he fire himself there to stop wasting other people's lives?” We need to make this more relatable to get the public on side. Any suggestions?”
“How about a documentary about making the rocket?” Khalid suggested.
“Good idea Khalid” Ed replied “but that just says “look what we are spending money on.” I don’t think it achieves anything.”
“How about instead of all this crap, just a tour for potential investors? That is where the real money is going to come in!” Jim snapped, “stop this lunacy and focus on business!”
Ed replied “Oh and what share are we going to offer Jim? Tim already has a fifty percent stake!” Ed sighed and said, “Look, it’s been a long night. It is now 10pm, we are all tired and can’t think straight. We still have six days to come up with and execute a new plan. Let’s reconvene tomorrow at 10am in here sharp. Board dismissed.”
The board then left one by one, heads down and deflated. Ruth left last and mouthed a “well done” and then Ed was left on his own staring out of his boardroom glass window looking up at the sky wondering quite what he was going to do.
4.
After half an hour of sitting in the boardroom with his head in his hands, Ed decided to go home. He was the last in the building apart from the security. He called up his driver to pick him up and take him to his apartment in Knightsbridge. Ed usually chose to be driven around London to avoid the stress and avoid being recognised. As Ed walked out of the building, he got into the back seat of his silver Audi A7. Ed could have quite easily fallen asleep in the back of the car due to the exhaustion of the day. Ed arrived at his apartment building and the doorman let him in. He owned a luxurious top floor apartment in the large building, which had its own swimming pool, home cinema and gym. This wasn’t Ed’s favourite of the places he owned, but it was the most convenient. Ed got in and glanced at the door to the gym. He asked the doorman, who Ed knew from passing was called Rod or Ron or something similar if anyone was in the gym. The doorman wore a cheap but presentable suit. He confirmed that there was someone in the gym, he believed he was a banker. Ed sighed and went up the black spiral staircase to his apartment, thinking that he could not deal with any more pompous idiots from inner London today. He went up to his apartment and opened the door. The apartment was immaculate, Lanette had insisted on a cleaner and their cleaner was a damn good one. Lanette thought she was taking things but Ed never took much notice. The living room was merged with the kitchen and with its own TV screen big enough for a cinema. Ed looked at the artwork on the walls, there was a mixture of timeless art pieces which were post-modern in style and pictures of him with various famous Hollywood actors as well as awards he had been presented with. The apartment had a balcony that looked across the London skyline, which at night time was particularly impressive with all the city lights, like stars across the city.
