The Acquisition

By John Westley

Pathological narcissist Harvey Davison, Managing Director of Melbourne-based ASX-listed facilities management company Action Services; and his ruthless agenda-driven chairman of the board, Kim Rigby-Mortimer, are on an expansionary drive and have competitor Responsive Maintenance Services – owned and operated by hardworking couple Roger and Kristine Small – in their sights as a prime acquisition target.

When initial negotiations come to nothing, a devious plan is hatched to pressure the Smalls into returning to the negotiating table.

A lowly paid maintenance worker is coerced into attempting to create a wave of adverse publicity that will cripple the Smalls’ business and force its sale.

It is left to Murray Johnston, Chief Operating Officer and loyal Action Services employee, to come to the rescue and clean up the mess, exposing the underbelly of unconscionable boardroom behaviour and the push for growth at all costs at the expense of a tired, overburdened and often bewildered workforce.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley
• Release date: Aug 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463338674

John Westley

John Westley has 20 years’ experience as a professional writer and senior manager across a wide range of industry sectors in Australia, including private, education and not-for-profit companies. Prior to this, he spent seven years in Linköping, Sweden, working as an English teacher. John and his Swedish wife, Susanne, have four children and live in Mt Eliza on the picturesque Mornington Peninsula, 50km south of Melbourne, Australia. He has a Bachelor of Adult Learning and Development and a Diploma in Freelance Journalism.

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About the author

John Westley has 20 years’ experience as a professional writer and senior manager across a wide range of industry sectors in Australia, including private, education and not-for-profit companies. Prior to this, he spent seven years in Linköping, Sweden, working as an English teacher.

John and his Swedish wife, Susanne, have four children and live in Mt Eliza on the picturesque Mornington Peninsula, 50km south of Melbourne, Australia.

He has a Bachelor of Adult Learning and Development and a Diploma in Freelance Journalism.

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Dedication

For my father, a man of infinite resource and sagacity, who took crap from no one.

The most prolific reader I ever met.

Gone now, but the memories will last forever.

With love.

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The Acquisition

Published by Austin Macauley at Smashwords

Copyright.2018 John Westley

The right of John Westley

to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

A CIP catalogue record for The Acquisition

available from the British Library.

www.austinmacauley.com

RedArrow Books is an imprint of

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

First Published in 2018

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd™

CGC-33-01, 25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf, London E14 5LQ

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"I meant no harm. I most truly did not.

But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.

I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.

I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads

Of the Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth

To the South! To the east! To the West! To the North!

I went right on biggering…selling more Thneeds.

And I biggered my money, which everyone needs."

Dr. Seuss 1904 – 1991

The Lorax

© 1971

"Love seeketh only Self to please,

To bind another to Its delight,

Joys in another’s loss of ease,

And builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite."

William Blake 1757 – 1827

The Clod and the Pebble

1794

He who laughs last, laughs longest.

Unknown

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This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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Action Services Ltd Organisational Structure

Responsive Maintenance Services Pty Ltd

Organisational Structure

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Chapter 1

A Blessed Man

Staring at his reflection in the mirror, he pinched himself on the cheek as he did every morning, for he was a blessed man and he knew it.

Many men found shaving a laborious chore that may once have seemed glamorous and grown up in the misguided days of adolescence, but was now one more pain-in-the-arse job that had to be dealt with on a daily basis.

Not Harvey R. Davison, however. He relished the opportunity to examine his facial features in intimate detail and reach his reoccurring 24-hour conclusion that he was indeed a well-preserved and handsome specimen.

It was his hair he liked best, mainly because there was lots of it and at 51, he had seemingly escaped the scourge of baldness that had afflicted so many of the team that surrounded him, which was in greater proportion to that of the general population because he wanted it that way. All things being equal, Davison appointed bald or thinning-haired executives and senior managers over those with full heads of hair because it made his impressive mane seem all the more striking by comparison.

He nurtured and spoiled his favourite feature, visiting his up-market barber on Flinders Lane every third Thursday of every month to have the rinse carefully applied to dye the greys, maintaining a perfect head of thick caramel-brown hair that beautifully complemented his deeply-tanned complexion.

He turned from the mirror after liberally splashing his face with expensive Giorgio Armani Prive Rouge Malachite aftershave and walked out of the exquisite ensuite and into the luxuriously appointed master bedroom of his luxuriously appointed Toorak home. His wife Madeline still lay sleeping, her lumpy frame heaving with each noisy intake of breath beneath the covers. She was an ugly woman which was the unanimous verdict of all those who met her. Even her closest friends could only muster but she’s a lovely person in defence of her appearance between constant envious thoughts that flashed through their minds: Just what did he see in her and she’s a lucky woman to have captured Harvey.

That she was a very unattractive woman, Harvey did not mind at all – in fact he liked it. What was the point of a beautiful wife who would be constantly pursued by other men and care more for her own looks than she did for his? This way he had a forever grateful and captive audience who doted on his every whim and her ugliness made him shine just that bit more brightly.

In any case, he fancied himself far more than he could fancy any other human being, so it was a moot point whether Madeline would be any more desirable to him if she were as beautiful as Angelina Jolie or Scarlett Johansson, or just as plain and doughy as she was. But he was not oblivious to the constant murmurings from her jealous friends or the reaction from colleagues and business associates on meeting his ugly wife for the first time, which was one of surprise that quickly turned to speculation that he must have a hot-babe mistress tucked away in some penthouse apartment he visited regularly for delicious sex. He made no attempt to dispel these rumours because it supported his own sense of himself as an incredibly clever, successful businessman who was devilishly handsome and possessed the libido of a stud stallion.

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He tapped his wife on the shoulder and spoke quietly, Maddy, time to wake up. It’s 6.15 and I’m just about to send through the emails.

Maddy’s puffy eyelids fluttered open and she squinted as she tried to focus on the man of her dreams and then her face lit up as it did every morning. He could have had anyone for his wife, but he’d chosen her.

Oh Harvey, you should have woken me earlier, I’ll turn the computer on and get your breakfast ready, she said in her croaky wake-up voice and immediately began casting off the doona and scrambling out of bed with all the femininity of a prime mover exiting a road tunnel.

Bring breakfast into the study, please, Maddy, the computer’s already fired up, Harvey replied as he strode purposefully from the bedroom with the importance of his MD status etched all over his handsome face.

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Harvey Robert Davison was Managing Director of Action Services Limited, a successful and highly profitable Melbourne-based facilities management and asset maintenance company employing over 2,400 people with an annual turnover of $1.2B, of which $1.8M was paid to him as a yearly salary package, plus bonus if he achieved his Key Performance Indicators. That he was not worth a tenth of this amount and was woefully incompetent, was a continual source of embarrassment to his senior executive team and utterly bewildered business associates and the company’s bankers and accountants alike. Middle managers stared at each other with looks of incredulity at his frequent baffling remarks and off-the-cuff strategy-on-the-run statements that appeared to defy all relevance and reason.

Two areas he did garner support from, however, were the lowly paid labourers and maintenance workers because he did love to be out and about on site in his high-visibility safety vest, looking resplendently connected to his workforce and checking out the various mechanical and electronic devices they used which fascinated him. The workers interpreted this as a show of support for their efforts, but in fact he cared less for them than their big powerful machines and whiz-bang computer gadgetry.

The second area of support, however, was the most important and the most powerful, coming from the Chairman of the Board, Kim Rigby-Mortimer, who was known unaffectionately as Rigour-Mortis by Action Services staff; one for his spindly, skeletal-like physique and sallow complexion, and secondly, to cross him meant occupational death.

Harvey composed all of what he liked to call his ‘Daily Instructional’ and his ‘Group Briefing’ emails, or ‘DI’s’ and ‘GB’s’, as he referred to them, between 4.00pm and 5.00pm in the afternoons in his office, which he would save as drafts and then shoot out at 6.30am the following morning from home, giving his workforce the mistaken impression he was in the office and on-the-job, bright and early.

His first G.B. of the day was to all staff regarding the new company car policy which was designed to reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint and lower its fuel and leasing costs by removing the option for staff to have a selection from a variety of family-sized six-cylinder cars and limit the choice of brand to bog-standard four-cylinder Toyotas. Like most other initiatives at Action Services however, whether good or bad, it was not his own.

The Chairman, Rigby-Mortimer, had commented on arrival into the staff car park in his chauffeur-driven Mercedes that there seemed far too generous a choice of vehicles on offer for salaried staff and although Executives were of course excused from any austerity measures to be introduced and could keep their Audi/BMW equivalents, a staff downgrade would save a few dollars in what was after all, the post GFC era. And ’the comment’ from the Chairman was all that was needed for Harvey to jump to attention and action the thinly disguised command.

Action Services was just about as insulated a company from the vagaries of the current marketplace environment as there was going around, with shored up guaranteed-to-pay government clients and major secure commercial contracts, but hell they might as well take advantage at an opportune time to leverage some extra savings from a bit of good old-fashioned belt-tightening and conveniently lay the blame at the foot of the evil and ubiquitous GFC. The fact that the Global Financial Crisis was long gone and had never presented any real threat to their earnings was immaterial.

With first G.B. of the day sent, expressing appropriate sentiments of regret to inform of necessary changes to the car policy, it was D.I. time and instructions were despatched soon after, to the Action Services Fleet Manager, Tony Burrochio.

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From: Harvey Davison

Sent: Monday, 27 October 2014 6:41 AM

To: Tony Burrochio [e-mail]

Subject: Vehicle Order

Morning Tony,

As per our discussion yesterday, place order with the dealer for 510-hp supercharged V-8 Range Rover Sports. Make it Santorini Black with the Cirrus/Ebony full leather interior and lacquer wood trim, sat-nav and surround camera system plus the parking and lane-departure assistants, the 1700-watt (not the 825) Meridian audio system and the full ski and tow pack.

Confirm arrival on the dock and let Maddy know. Will also want to buy out current Audi A-6 for eldest daughter so get me book price and see what we can write off.

Any problems, let me know.

Regards

Harvey R Davison

Managing Director | Action Services

Level 21, 101 Collins Street Melbourne, VIC, 3000

P 03 9260 3405 | F 03 9260 3400 | M 0418 572 275

http://www.actionservices.com

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Chapter 2

The Board

They filed into the Board Room, placing their orders for individualised and fancifully-named cups of coffee to the steely-eyed and bandy-legged Executive Assistant as they passed through the doorway. Except for the Deputy Chairman, his was a simple black coffee in china cup with accompanying saucer. The way it should always be served.

Six prima-donna alpha males and a token female, who knew the value of her tokenism, made up the Board of Action Services. Rigby-Mortimer headed up the Board of Directors with Jack McCafferty, a gruff ageing industrialist on the brink of retirement or death whichever came first, his deputy; Peter James, a slick Certified Practicing Accountant; Ron Jackson, a clever city solicitor, John Jenkovich ex-CEO of a multinational pharmaceutical company and career Director on half-a-dozen boards, and Dr Jennifer Eldridge, a shrewd ex-Rio Tinto risk management specialist who had gained her experience and etched a formidable reputation in the tough mining towns of West Australia’s Pilbara region, PNG and Brazil.

She was the smartest of the lot but content to play the symbolic female role, for the dollars were good and the workload minimal and she knew her fiduciary responsibilities well enough to pull the rest of them into line and make them see sense when she needed to. God knew she had banged her head against the glass ceiling often enough in the mining industry until she’d broken through, and she wasn’t about to bruise her cranium again with this conceited bunch. Been there, done that and now she would rather fight the fights and win what was worth winning on the boards, she worked pro-bono for, in the community sector that mattered most to her.

Where to spend money for a new shelter for battered wives and abused children was a far more passionate debate to be involved in than what percentage profit return should be achieved for a commercial cleaning contract, or which Asian capital would be the next best venue for the upcoming year’s Board & Partners and Executive Team & Partners First-Class-tickets-all-round company strategic planning session, that tended to yield much in expensive meals and rhetoric, but required a lot of follow up sessions back on national territorial grounds when the partners were no longer around to actually accomplish anything.

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Each Board Member had their designated responsibilities and roles on various sub-committees ranging from the Finance & Audit, People & Culture, Risk & Safety, Quality & Environment and Mergers & Acquisitions. Directors’ fees were handsome and generously awarded, depending upon seniority of position, tenure and how many of the sub-committees they were a participating member of.

The lowest remunerated member of the Action Services Board received $95,000 per annum for a one-day-a-month meeting and perhaps a day’s preparation prior, plus quarterly sub-committee responsibilities. Not infrequent lunches at some of Melbourne’s top-notch restaurants and seats in the corporate boxes of the MCG and Centenary Stadium’s Talisman Club for the block buster football games of the season were just added bonuses that came with the territory.

In comparison, their people in the field, unilaterally referred to in all Annual Reports, Annual General Meeting speeches and marketing collateral as our greatest asset, could expect to collect $44K as an annual gross income if they were a maintenance delivery vehicle driver working a normal 38-hour week plus a couple of overtime shifts – when they could get them, and less if they laboured in the elements patching concrete and clearing drains, or serving up pies and chips at some of Melbourne’s top sporting and entertainment venues where the Action Board Members frequently attended free of any personal charge in the elite and expensive corporate boxes.

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The coffees arrived and after the usual derogatory comments about how unutterably crap it was from the café around the corner and could E.A. Angela Crompton, please, for the love of God, organise it from somewhere else next time around, Rigby-Mortimer declared the meeting open.

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ACTION SERVICES LIMITED

Level 21, 101 Collins Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

Monday October 27, 2014 Board Meeting 9.00am – 4.00pm

Directors in Attendance: Kim Rigby-Mortimer (Chairman), Jack McCafferty (Deputy Chairman), Jennifer Eldridge, Ron Jackson, John Jenkovich, Peter James and Harvey Davison (Managing Director).

Conflict of Interest / Pecuniary Interests to Declare:

Minutes of Board Meeting Monday September 29, 2014:

Ratification

Issues Actioned

Outstanding Issues

Reports:

Financials – Chief Financial Officer Edmund Montgomery

Occupational Health and Safety – Executive Manager Risk & Safety David Tallows

Acquisitions – Managing Director Harvey Davison

Sales & Tenders Pending – Executive Group Manager Sales & Marketing Larry Dennison

Human Resources – HR Executive Manager Rebecca Howley

Operations – Chief Operating Officer Murray Johnston

Strategy – Chairman Kim Rigby-Mortimer and Managing Director Harvey Davison

5._ General Business:

National Good Governance Conference (Board and Managing Director)

Australasian Safety Awards Conference (Executive and Senior Management)

Upcoming Corporate Events (All)

Next Meeting: Monday November 24, 2014

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October 27, 2014 Board Meeting

Financial Review as at 30 September

Chief Financial Officer, Edmund Montgomery, strode triumphantly across the Board Room and exited stage left after completing a masterful performance delivering the first quarter financials on the overhead data projector, his series of templated PowerPoint slides delighting most of his captivated audience, for the numbers were indeed beautiful.

The cleaning lady could have hit the buttons on the keyboard to transition the slides from one set of numbers to the next and not have detracted from the power of the presentation, such was the unequivocal strength of the company’s current financial position. Across the three divisions revenue up 18% on same time previous year and Year to Date (YTD) Profit, an impressive 26% up on budget; the financial year