Cash Is King

CHAPTER 4Logistics

“How was your fancy dinner?” Bob asked Yusef as he walked into the conference room next to his office.

Yusef replied, “Nadine loved it. Her friends have been egging her on for months to go there. But you know me, I'm quite happy with a simple burger and some fries. I don't need fancy.”

“Is that right? You see yourself as a real man of the people? Just an ordinary Joe? … Say, how's that 40‐foot sailboat of yours? Mister ‘man of the people’?” Bob was wound up and ready to go. Yusef just smiled and ignored the taunts from his boss.

“Gentlemen, good morning. I hope I've not been keeping you.”

“Not at all, Mr. Harris. Yusef was just telling me about how in touch he is with the common man.”

Owens is a first‐name basis company. Everyone calls Bob Moore, Bob. Well, everyone except Yusef, who calls him Boss. There is, however, Mr. Ted Harris who is universally addressed as Mr. Harris. Bob would never think of greeting him as simply Jamal. Mr. Harris has been at Owens for 100 years—or so the folklore goes. He was there when Bob started, and he was Yusef's first manager. The folks in HR probably know how old he is, but no one would dare ask Mr. Harris his age.

He has held many different jobs at Owens, and for the last year or so Yusef has asked Mr. Harris to help him sort out what has become an increasingly complex logistics process. He joined Yusef and Bob that morning to explore how this issue affects inventory and therefore cash flow.

Broadly speaking there are three ...