The "Plan with Branches"

(From the competitive playbooks of Genghis Khan and Napoleon)

“The nature of strategy consists of always having, even with a weaker army (company), more forces at the point of attack than the enemy.” -Napoleon Bonaparte

I had an interesting conversation last week with a European CEO of a mid-cap manufacturing company. He had been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal wherein he described a convoluted recovery scheme that the editorial tone suggested was both brash and nouveau. But I thought I recognized it for what it was: brilliant and quite old. Since he reads this column I called and asked him if my hunch was right and he laughed and reported that, indeed, it was. What follows is the military history. It’s not hard to see the application to modern business as a way to provoke your competition into making foolish, exploitable moves. It’s all about control.

The tactic’s first recorded use was by Genghis Khan and his Mongol general Subedei Bahadur in 1241. Like Genghis Kahn, Subedei was a brilliant and innovative strategist. He sent four distinct troop columns into Europe. One headed directly for Poland and Germany which attracted all the European military forces in that direction. This is exactly what Subedei wanted. The other three columns entered Hungary in an indistinct fashion attacking various targets all while focusing on keeping the Austrian forces from combining with the Hungarian. That was the actual agenda—keep the enemy forces apart. When the time was right the three Mongol columns then magically combined into one large force and shattered the unsupported Hungarian forces.

It was brilliant back then. And remains so. The key in all competition (war, business, etc.) is to avoid, or mitigate, your competition’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses.* The Mongol Subedei could quickly combine forces to focus on exploitable weakness in a way a large, unwieldy force couldn’t. War is largely about real estate so this is a great advantage. By having multiple forces the Mongol could control the movements of his enemy by forcing them to spread out to defend multiple targets. This numerically weakened the individual targets’ defenses making it easier (read: less costly) to attack them. Prevent your numerically superior competition from concentrating its forces against you. Then divide and conquer them. I covered this in the piece about Southwest Airlines elsewhere in this collection.

If you are skillful enough you can force your opponent to protect itself so thinly that they abandon their position in order to survive elsewhere. This is war in the best Sun Tzu tradition of winning with little or no fighting. This tactic could, for example, lead to a favorable corporate merger when previously none was possible.

Napoleon advanced the tactic using what has been called the “weighted net.” Napoleon would send out numerous columns where, like a waving net, they would focus on various threats and speedily envelope the useful or dangerous ones. Then move on. This confused his enemies who would try to coalesce for an offensive attack on something that looked weak, but would suddenly find Napoleon’s forces massing more efficiently elsewhere, and then attacking with superior strength, before the enemy could effectively combine. In effect Napoleon would direct his forces to act like an octopus with waving arms. When one arm sensed something of value the other arms would suddenly be brought into play to deal with the opportunity. When finished they would separate to look for new opportunities. Elegant, effective stuff.

So, what’s the point? The point is that even a large, well-financed competitor can’t optimally protect all of its markets, all of the time. By dividing your forces you can confuse your target and cause them to think your approach is coming from a different direction with a different intent, hiding your actual objective. Done correctly this can cause your (hopefully) unenlightened competition to expend resources to protect the incorrect target (think product or service), weakening support for your actual objective. This opens the door for you. Never forget that frontal attacks against hardened targets are seldom successful and always expensive.

Think about it…

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Notes: This is a variation of the feint, which is discussed elsewhere. It’s another method of controlling your enemy/competition through an elaborate form of deception. Never forget that, used intelligently, deception makes war (competition) less costly and reduces risk. All the Great generals have known this.

The phrase “plan with branches” was coined in the late eighteenth century by French strategist Pierre de Bourcet.

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*This is why you have to spend part of every day asking yourself, “Has our competition’s strengths changed and are there any new weaknesses we can now exploit?” Your stakeholders EXPECT you to think this way. You’re paid to do it.

The Key Trait of a True Corporate Warrior

Plus, if and when it’s ok for a CEO to lie

Part I

A discussion on an Atlantic Flight

It was a busy summer filling several finance and ops positions along the East Coast and in Europe. On a trip home to Chicago from candidate interviews in Zurich and Brussels I couldn’t help but notice the distinguished passenger beside me (Kiton suit, low key Audemars Piguet watch, posture, etc.). Trying not to stare, I finally recognized him as a heavy speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos last winter. A while after takeoff he looked over at my printed legal pad which has Business is Warfare printed across the top in bold letters. He casually asked me about it and I mentioned I do this occasional newsletter. He then said he was, in fact, a longtime reader (e.g. back to 2002!). He said its usefulness was ”inconsistent” but on occasion liked sending it along to his staff as well as his son who, he added in a quiet, disappointed tone, “utterly lacks the required edge to change things.” He stared past me out the window as he said it. His tired expression said he had concluded the family greatness was going to end with himself. The son wasn’t interested in carrying the torch and, in fact, would only drop it repeatedly if he tried. I guess that makes most dads sad. He settled back into his seat and read the FT.

After about an hour of silence and a couple more drinks he looked over and held up his left forefinger. “Tell me the one trait that you look hardest for.”

“In what?” I asked looking up from my pad.

“In one of your ‘corporate warriors’. What’s the proof at the core? When I invest in companies I look for a lot of things but focus on the real cash flows. What do you look for?”

This had become so intuitive for me I had to think about how to put it. He stepped in, “Ok, start with the lowest common denominator.”

“Well, that’s simple. Expertise.”

“That’s too simplistic.”

“But the client needs it,” I said. “How else does the employee pay his way?”

“To do what?”

“Drive value to the business’ ownership,” I answered.

“You think all it takes is expertise? That’s nothing. Every executive has that, otherwise they shouldn’t even have the job.”

“But it happens. It happens all the time.”

“Of course. And when no one does something about it companies wither. What else?”

“Relevant experience.”

He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What else?”

“Ok. Demonstrated loyalty.”

He smiled. “I somehow knew that would be on your list.”

“Why?”

“You really do have a sort of platoon mentality, don’t you.” he said. “So loyalty would be important to you. But let me ask you this, loyalty to whom? The idea? The team? The boss? Themselves? Society?”

Suddenly I needed something really stiff to drink. I was outgunned and I knew it. He knew it too. He was my Professor Kingsfield all over again. I didn’t know whether to fold and go back to work on my speech or to maneuver. I paused then came back with: “All those but mostly to the stakeholders.”

Wherever he was driving this caused a bend in his road. “The stakeholders?” he asked.

“If the employee takes a paycheck, of course. That’s who they work for. Everything has to eventually point to maximizing the owners’ enrichment.”

“But what do the equity holders know?”

“Who cares? That’s not the point,” I answered flatly.

“What about honor?”

“Well, it’s always better to behave so you don’t have to apologize.”

“Apologize?” he asked.

“It’s part of any job, especially a senior one, to have t make tough choices. Honor dictates you make them for the right reasons. I think it’s part of loyalty.”

“Don’t you find that these days loyalty has become too portable?” he asked.

“Perhaps. But as long as somebody is taking a paycheck they have to earn it. And a good executive, corporate warrior or otherwise, will persevere until the moment they move on. That too is part of honor, at least as I see it.”

“Interesting. But you still haven’t told me what’s in the center of this ‘loyal, honorable expert warrior with useful experience.’ These are just ornaments on the tree. What’s the trunk made of?”

“Simple. They have to be driven to win. Otherwise, there’s no real movement, just vibration.”

He thought about this for several seconds then smiled and reached into his coat. He pulled out a business card and reached over, setting it on my pad. “I guess that just about says it.”

I examined the engraved card then looked over at him. “Thank you. Now, tell me about your son.”

Part II

About an hour later we were in the thick of another discussion. It had spun out of the notion of honor and the lengths to which senior managers should go to win for their equity holders and how much emphasis should be placed on social good. We had entered into the sticky subject of management lying.

“No, a CEO should never lie,” he said flatly. “That’s taking it too far. Look at Enron,” the famous manager said.

I set my drink down and looked over. “Nice, but unfortunately business has gotten to the point that natural selection favors the deceitful.”

“And you help.”

I frowned. “I resent that. You make it sound like I push for deceit for deceit’s sake. That’s not true. That would be stupid and shortsighted.”

“Sure you do. I’ve probably suffered through every column you’ve written for 5 years. Most of them center around some creative form of deception in the ‘corporate battlefield’ as you unflaggingly put it.”

“And that’s wrong? How can that be wrong? Don’t equity holders have a right to expect their CEOs and managers to do what’s necessary to create sustainable increases in equity holder value? Note the emphasis on ‘sustainable’.”

“Of course. But I don’t believe that has to include institutionalized lying,” he said, then paused to sip his scotch.

I leaned back into my seat. This wasn’t going well. I looked over, “Ok, what about a ‘noble lie’? A lie told as a substitute for violence and to prevent harm. Would you lie to a mugger to protect your son from a beating? Is that lie ok?”

“Of course, because you’ve done a good thing and there are no social consequences,” he answered confidently.

“Well, in a strict sense, yes there are. Just ask the potential beater—you efficiently modified his ability to make an accurate decision by lying to him. Therein lays the power of deceit. It alters perceived reality so different decisions are made. Informed decisions, but with bad information. So don’t tell me you haven’t damaged social trust because you have. But in those circumstances it’s ok. Right?”

I glanced into his hooded eyes as he watched and listened. It was one of those moments when you realize most people in a conversation just wait for you to stop making noise so they can say something. But that wasn’t the case here. I was confident in what I was saying but the intensity of his listening was both welcome and yet unnerving. Plus, there seemed to be something else going on. A kind of weird weight hung in the cabin air between us.

I continued, “Well, then. So it’s ok to lie as long as you’re defending something from harm. You’ve used a lie to coerce and modify behavior, so it’s no different than a club; they’re both coercive weapons. And weapons make people do things they don’t want to do.”

There was another long, heavy pause between us.

He finally said, “You’re going to sit there and seriously tell me it’s ok for a corporate officer to lie? You preach about the sustainability of profits, but you can’t reliably sustain profits that are based on lies because lies themselves are unsustainable.”

"No, I’m saying it depends. Lying isn’t just a tool for managers that lack the skill to come up with a truthful alternative. Those lies are unsupportable. But there are times when deception should be given technical consideration just as you would any potentially useful tool.”

“Such as?”

“How about lying in war?” I asked.

“That’s different. That isn’t the world most people live in. In war things are different.”

“How about corporate war?”

“Oh, here we go,” he said with a depreciating tone.

“That’s right. Here we go,” I said, getting a little hot, but wary of jumping on my usual soapbox. “Does your competition lie about you, even in small ways, to get your customers?”

“Of course.”

"And taking your customers hurts you?”

“Typically, of course.”

"Ok, let’s look at this,” I said sharpening focus. “Your competition deploys deceit as a tool to hurt you. That’s a pretty good definition of an enemy. And enemies, in my galaxy anyway, lose the right to be treated fairly.”

“So in this sacred galaxy of yours you get to treat ‘bad people’ badly?”

“I get to treat them as they treat me. I was raised on the Golden Rule and experience has taught me it’s a pretty good one.”

“So once you have somehow divined someone is an enemy, then your moral compass loosens up a bit. Your acceptable tool-set becomes a bit ‘broader’”.

“Exactly,” I said, hoping we were done.

He sat there for almost a minute before he spoke. “Your playbook has always intrigued me. On the surface it appears rational, then when you look closer it gets a bit twisted. Then it begins to make sense again. Unfortunately I’m not sure that’s where it ends.”

I couldn’t tell if he was giving me a compliment. Probably not. I stared out the window at the cloudless ocean of blue and waited. I wanted to be out there somewhere flying my plane.

He went on, “As you view it, in times of competitor induced corporate war wouldn’t a good CEO, a good corporate general, endeavor to make the competition, the enemy, seem even worse than they actually are in order to justify treating them even worse? By your rules, even though that is escalated deceit, that would be characteristic of a better CEO than one that wouldn’t do it. Right?”

It took a few seconds to get my arms around this. “Yes, because short wars are better than long ones. That’s a Sun Tzuism that’s pretty hard to argue with. Once you’ve been pulled into the ring, hit harder and end it quickly. That’s a CEO’s job as a leader and caretaker of his employees.”

“But Tal, what about if a competitor hasn’t shown themselves to be an enemy—they are playing by the rules. However, your CEO’s experience dictates that it’s just a ruse and they will become an enemy eventually. Your playbook seems to suggest it’s ok to treat them like they MAY behave?”

“You’re talking about preemptive behavior?” I asked.

He nodded.

I smiled, “No, I think that’s called prudent paranoia. In any case an entity has to behave in a way that is unambiguously hostile to be labeled an enemy. That said, it’s only intelligent to ‘hope for the best while planning for the worst’. Your equity holders expect that of you. And any good manager expects that from their crew. That’s just good management. It’s what they get paid to do.”

“Ok, Tal, here’s my take. The fact is most corporate deceit goes on internally within the [org] chart. The challenge is that lying is so expedient. And everybody wants more of what they want. The real issues are the trailing effects. You can never tell one lie because more are needed to shore up the one you told.”

“I know. My father once told me lies, like money, compound. Just not in a good way,” I said.

“I have found that managers that always tell the truth move up quicker and get more done simply because the truth is free standing; the truth doesn’t require maintenance. Truthful managers simply have more time to think about improving themselves and the business. Unfortunately the rewards to a lie are typically immediate and obvious.”

I thought about this a moment. “Of course. That’s why people do it in the first place. People only lie for the reward. If there were no reward of some sort we wouldn’t do it. Simple economics. Too bad the rewards for honesty are, by comparison, so diffuse. And diffuse rewards are often invisible to very bottom-line oriented management.”

“No surprise,” he said. “A solid bottom line is, after all, measured in dollars, not the philosophical warmth of having integrity. Sure, it counts, but it’s hard to quantify. Numbers are easy.”

“Exactly. And that’s a problem. It is, however, the way it is,” I said.

“Tal, the key for your so-called corporate warrior, the CEO slash general, is to incent honesty and thoroughness. He or she has to create a culture of creative, thorough thinking, where alternatives to deceit are rewarded. You can almost always find a truthful alternative. I learned a long time ago any rung on the org chart almost always emulates the rows above them. The youngsters copying the parents—so the parents have to be getting it right. Lazy workers lie, or at least they lie more and they have to be weeded out. And if an externally directed deception has to happen, really has to happen, and by that I mean there’s no truthful alternative, then do it well. I liked your bit on FUD [Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt], by the way. That was useful.”

I thought about this a moment. “Wait a minute. Just a few minutes ago you were saying a manager should never lie.”

He smiled. “I know. Sorry about that.”

“You mean you…lied?”

“Yes. But a ‘noble lie’,” he said relaxing into his chair. “I was protecting myself from a boring flight.”

I reclined my seat and stared up at the ceiling. This wasn’t over.

FUD Update

A vivid example of how FUD works

Victim: Apple's iPod Nano

Last November I did a Corpwar issue on FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) as a competitive weapon. Basically I described how it works and why it's such an effective tool for giving your competitors a very bad day. It's cheap and simple. For better or worse there's no question FUD is one of the attack dogs of the modern corporate battlefield. A true corporate warfare terror weapon. And corporate warriors need to know how to use it.

An interesting thing happened after we sent that FUD issue out. We immediately received several calls asking if we would help engineer FUD "campaigns" (an LOL euphemism for "attacks") against the callers’ competitors. Since the calls came from longtime readers I took the requests seriously but declined. I declined not because I have anything against the tool but because I knew, in at least two cases, the idea was to use heavy FUD against other Corpwar readers, one of which is also a search client of mine and I'm extremely protective of my clients. So, after a couple of technical conversations, we took a firm pass. Unfortunately, I think one of those conversations was later put to effective use...

Let's flash forward to early last week.

I got a call from a reader that's a senior executive in the computer and music industry. He remembered the FUD piece and asked me if I would take a look at what's happening to Apple's brand new iPod Nano. The iPod Nano is a nifty little music player that basically blows away everything else in its category. In general, iPods have a market share of between 40%-70% depending upon who you ask. The Nano is designed to extend that dominance down into the lower end of the market where a variety of smaller, non-disk drive players are scrapping violently for sales. Naturally a new, and essentially perfect product (the Nano), put out by the industry Death Star, is very, very bad news to the scrappers desperately chiseling away for share in the category.

So, what does a real Corporate Warrior do? Simple: you FUD the new product. If all else fails, think like a guerilla fighter. Guerilla warfare, by its amorphous and cost-effective nature, is extremely hard for the incumbent to effectively battle against.

A rumor suddenly started circulating a couple of weeks ago that the iPod Nano has a particularly scratchable screen and that they could even shatter. The rumor quickly spread that the scratching issue was so bad that if you left the Nano in your pocket (where music players frequently live) the screen could quickly become marred to the point you could barely read the underlying text rendering it almost unusable. Supposedly this would happen even if the pocket was empty other than the Nano. (I could never figure this out.) I asked the fellow how the polymer in the Nano's screen differed from other iPods (none of which have a scratching issue) and he laughed, vaguely amazed: "It's the same stuff!" He added there was a minor supplier issue with some breaking screens but that was being fixed immediately and they were repairing the Nanos that had broken. It was the rumor of the screens being so easily scratched that was the expensive issue. Some potential buyers were reacting as expected—holding off. (The typical potential customer reaction to well-crafted FUD is to execute an immediate full stop).

His question was simple: Did I know anything about who might be spreading the rumors (e.g. the FUD)? Well, in fact, maybe. But what's the difference? The attacker didn't even have to explicitly lie. It IS possible to scratch the Nano's screen (of course you can scratch a diamond too). The damage is done. FUD can be modeled via a contagion model because it spreads like a biological agent moving through a living population. The more closed-in the population the faster the contagion moves. And few things move like good FUD since it doesn't require "old fashioned" physical distribution (air, touch, etc.) especially when it breaks out into the press and social media spaces where it can become an epidemic of disinformation in a couple of hours. These days FUD can travel at almost the speed of light because that's how fast data can move along optical fiber. Think about it. It's scary. But it's also an opportunity for the true corporate warrior that needs to make, or protect sales, to survive. Few things can slow a competitor down, or even stop them altogether, like well-crafted FUD. Period. It’s Very Nasty Stuff. It’s electronic anthrax.

So here it is just a few weeks in and the iPod Nano is felt by many to be somehow "delicate" (this is what it all factors down to). And that's pretty terrible for a portable music player. Although Apple's recent stock performance was blamed on the downgrading by Merrill some blamed it on the perception that the new product has problems and this might somehow prove Apple was pushing new products to market too quickly, e.g. the perceived problems with the Nano's screen somehow demonstrating Apple was becoming reckless.

The funny thing (well, sort of funny) is the caller naturally thought that it might be one of Apple's big competitors that had initiated the FUD. Not necessarily. Knowing how flexible FUD can be in the hands of a clever corporate warrior, my response was simple: "Or, look for somebody very small. Somebody new that needs revenues badly and that can make them by mitigating a supposed flaw in the Nano's construction. Look around. They will be advertising, or somehow in the press or on social media, for solving the problem." "You mean like a [music player] case maker or screen protector manufacturer?" "Exactly," I answered. I further described that a lot of people will buy the high utility Nano even if they think it has problems and, predictably, they will attempt to mitigate the problem via an accessory (a very American response, especially for the younger demographic). It's the people on the fence that will be swayed by the FUD not to buy (many people are eager to find reasons not to spend money and they are happy to wait for the social proof provided by early adopters and, even then, may have actionable doubts). And there are more than a few of them. (Note: I'm not one of them. I bought a Nano for my plane, then one for each family member. It's immensely excellent and none of my hyperactive clan have yet to see any screen marring whatsoever.) But causing potential buyers to delay may just be a collateral effect. The real FUD benefactor here is the accessory maker who now has an accessory that's perceived of as a necessity. Very clever. Very good FUD unless you're an Apple equity holder waiting for reality to overcome the FUD. (This often happens but it can be a very expensive wait, which is also, of course, an access window for still others that can even position against the “flaw”.)

The underlying lesson here is it didn't take much effort on the front end to create the Fear, Uncertainly and Doubt. And it was created fast (in fact, REALLY FAST) and cheaply.

Think about this the next time you're taking on somebody much bigger, or you're really big yourself and feeling complacent and untouchable.

Seriously, think about it…

More lessons from the Corporate Battlefield with Client X

AKA: Recovering the Spear Tip

[Note: This adventure/lesson happened in January 2009 before I came out to California from Chicago for the winter. It has taken this long to get it cleared with the client. When I passed it by him he made some minor changes and cuts. The reasons are obvious.]

One day early last week my phone rang. It was still dark outside. I looked at the time on the phone. It was 5:00 AM. I recognized the hiss of an in-flight phone. “Hello?”

“What are you doing for the next few hours?” The voice was assured and backed with a smile. I recognized it instantly as many in his industry might.

“I'm meeting you in The Loop to discuss those candidates and the book. Why?”

“Slight change of plans. Meet me at the airport in Wheeling at about 6:30. We'll be back by noon or so. We can work on the plane.”

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. Part of me said I was too old for this and another part was certainly intrigued. “Ok. I'm in. Where are we going?”

“Southeast.”

“Ah, why?”

“Because yesterday afternoon somebody became the most important person in my company and it wasn't me!”

This was interesting because I was on the phone with the high profile CEO of a Fortune company. “And who would that be?”

“A guy on one of our loading docks.”

"A guy on one of your loading docks became the most important person in your company?” I asked.

“Yeah. Great, isn't it! Just like that. He became The Spear. I need to go down and thank him in person. I'll have the co-pilot pick us up some mac griddles across from the airport. There’s nothing on here except Starbuck’s and some sugar packets. See you at the south end.” And with that the phone went dead. As I got dressed and headed to my car I wondered what a “mac griddle” was.

Ninety minutes later I was climbing into a small, idling jet north of Chicago. One of the pilots pulled the steps up behind me and sealed the door. My host, we'll call him Jack (not his real name), was sitting there in sneakers, jeans and a golf jacket. He was watching a PowerPoint show on a bulkhead mounted LCD screen. He handed me a greasy hamburger-like thing and pointed to an adjacent seat. A few minutes later we were in a very steep climb heading out over Lake Michigan.

After some small talk and the luridly fattening repast I nodded toward the screen while sipping the fresh coffee the co-pilot had handed me. Jack was on his third PowerPoint show. Using a hand remote he flicked through the slides with strobe-like speed. Yet every few slides he would back-up, reread the slide, then march forward. It was clear he was absorbing the content.

He looked over at me while pointing the controller toward the screen. “This is such BS. It’s crazy how many guys think they can effectively manage this way.”

“What way is that?” I asked.

“By hiding.”

“Hiding? In what sense?”

“You know. Trying to manage people while hiding behind a desk. Behind report-tos. Behind these damn things,” he said waving again at the PowerPoint show. “The best lesson I’ve ever learned about leadership is that true leadership requires LEADING for God’s sake. And a lot of that is face to face where somebody’s expression can say something that may never come out of their mouth.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like you’re full of sh*t!”

“But those are the ones you really want,” I said. “The ones that say it, but perhaps with less eloquence. Truth to power, and all.”

“But they're rare. Too rare,” he said.

“You told me at the Christmas party that ‘a manager occasionally has to be seen to be heard,’ remember that?” I asked.

“Sure. And that the good ones, like your Good generals, manage from the front. Not always. But often. And that’s kind of what we’re doing today. I’m going out to the front to earn my paycheck and take care of my equity holders.”

He switched the monitor over to CNN and said, “Ok, who do you have for me?” and we started going over what we were scheduled to cover later that morning downtown.

Two hours later the big white Suburban that had picked us up at the narrow strip pulled around the back of a low, non-descript complex that looked like a thousand others I'd seen. I noticed there were cross coverage CCT cameras everywhere. The rear gate’s security guard required a picture ID despite the fact we were in a company car driven by a company driver carrying the distinctive CEO. Under a crisp blue sky we were driven over beside the multi-bay loading dock. There were two men obviously waiting for us up on the platform.

Before we climbed out my host looked at me and smiled. “You know you wrote about this very thing in that e-rag you do.” He pointed through the SUV's side window to the two men “You see the guy on the right?” I focused on the burly black man. He was wearing the stout clothing of somebody that toiled physically for a living. He stood on the freight dock like he had owned it for many years. It was his office. On his face was a relaxed, confident smile as he chatted with the man beside him who had on a dress shirt and sedate tie. Jack said, “Yesterday afternoon that receiving agent was the most important man in the company. He became the tip of the spear.”

“And we’re here...why? To say thank you?” I asked thinking that was pretty cool but also calculating the cost of the jet fuel and identified McGriddles.

The boss smiled and laughed. “Of course. And naturally to take the spear back!"

And with that we got out and climbed up onto the dock. Jack was carrying a heavy paper bag I’d noticed on the plane.

After introductions Jack turned to the receiving agent, “So what happened, exactly?”

“Well, sir, it was just like any other delivery except for the numbers on the crate. They didn't match the manifest.”

“So, if you thought it wasn't for us why did you sign for it? I can't imagine that’s policy.”

"Because he,” he said motioning toward his supervisor “put up a sign in the break room that said ‘Think like an equity holder.’ I thought if I was an equity holder I'd want to know what was in a box that was accidentally delivered here rather than to our competition.”

Jack smiled and laughed quietly. He faced me as he held out his hands palms up as if presenting the receiving agent: “See Tal, right here, right now, the most important person in the entire company.” Jack then reached out and said “Thank you!” He warmly shook the agent’s enormous hand again. “Now where is it?”

The four of us walked into a locked room off to the side of the loading bays. The wooden crate, a heavy looking five foot cube on a synthetic pallet, looked like any other. There was no obvious way in. The top was fastened down by a dozen or so screws. The plain room was completely empty other than the box.

Resting his hands on it Jack looked at the two men and asked, "Nobody has touched this?” They both shook their heads. “Who else knows it’s here?”

The supervisor, who was a bit unnerved by the fact he was in the company of the CEO, answered the question, “Just the four of us, [the plant manager] that called your office, and the freight company that delivered it.”

“Ok, let’s keep it that way," Jack said. "And thanks, I'll take it from here.” The dock supervisor asked if Jack would need a screwdriver and Jack replied, with a smile, “No, of course not.” The door closed behind us. The room was dim and dusty. I wasn't feeling particularly comfortable.

“Now what?” I asked.

“I'm going to take the spear back. I'll meet you out on the dock,” he nodded toward the door.

That was certainly my cue and I walked back out into the fresh air and chatted blandly with the supervisor. The agent signed in a couple of deliveries as we watched. He moved with an easy, fluid expertise. A half hour later I saw Jack walking briskly towards us from around the far side of the building. He must have gone further inside onto the production floor and out the front through the front offices. I realized it was now impossible to tell how long he had been with the crate even if he'd had a way to open it.

Jack was smiling and spoke to the super. “Look, call the courier and tell them they have a misdelivery. Be sure they pick it up today.”

After thanking the receiving agent and supervisor again we climbed back into the SUV and headed for the small airport. Jack and I were both quiet. We both accepted the fact there was a big hairy rhinoceros in the corner we were choosing not to discuss. And that was ok with me. My services have always included a very high degree of discretion, so the silence was natural, even expected.

A few minutes later we pulled up to the waiting jet. As we walked towards it Jack turned around and took a few steps back towards a metal trash can by the gate. There was a heavy thud. I smiled. I guess I'll never know for certain what was in the bag but I'm pretty sure I know the sound of a tossed battery powered screw driver when I hear it.

Think about it…