Episode 104, originally published 20-Jul-98

This and That

Nick and Grace arrive in the Jabot Board Room to find a haphazard mix of Jabot and Newman Enterprises senior employees waiting anxiously for something to happen: Ashley, Jack, Victoria, Neil, Victor, and Ryan are all in attendance. "Thank you all for coming," Nick says to them. "I'll be doing the presentation and Grace here will be helping me with the visual aids, but I want everyone to know that this was a joint effort. In fact, I'll probably be frequently calling on Grace to clarify issues that I'm uncertain about." Victoria chimes in right away. "What exactly is it you'll be presenting?" she asks. "Didn't you get the memo?" Grace asks. Victoria shakes her head. "Well," Nick explains, "as the Director of Product Development, I figured it was my duty to be working out the details of our next product and that's what I'm here to do. You see, it's nice that we had a successful roll-out of version one of the product, but pretty soon people will be wanting version two and I think we have to be ready." "And just how soon do you think that will be?" Victor asks. "Well, I was going to get that in my presentation," Nick says, "but why don't we just dive right in. Grace, can I have the first chart?" Grace hands Nick a chart that looks like this:

  +--------------+
  |              |
  |              |
  |              |
  |  X -----> Y  |
  |              |
  |              |
  |              |
  +--------------+

"Now," he continues, "Point X represents the first product roll-out. And Point Y represents the time we'll be needing a second generation product." "And the arrow indicates our need to get from point X to point Y," Grace adds proudly in a voice that suggests the arrow was her idea. "So you expect this second product rollout to occur when?" Victor asks again. Nick uses a pointer to point at the Y and says, "Just about here." "Uh, huh," Victor says. "What kind of numbers are we looking at?" Jack asks. Nick smiles as if he has anticipated this question and motions for Grace to hand him a new poster to be placed on his easel. It contains a bar graph:

  +--------------+
  |              |
  |           _  |
  |          [ ] |
  |       _  [ ] |
  |   _  [ ] [ ] |
  |  [ ] [ ] [ ] |
  | +----------+ |
  |   A   B   C  |
  |              |
  +--------------+

"We have several options," Nick says. "As you can see here." Jack scrutinizes the picture silently, but Ashley interjects now. "So let me see if I get this: you're basically saying we can go with any of options A or B or C?" she asks. Nick nods and says "Exactly." "And if we go with, say, option C--" Neil starts to say, but Grace finishes for him: "then the numbers are lots bigger! Exactly." "You guys are really quick on this," Nick says. Ryan, who has been silent until this point asks, "So you've run ALL the numbers? You're sure?" Nick puts up another graphic:

  +--------------+
  |              |
  |              |
  |              |
  |   0 1 2 3 4  |
  |   5 7 8 9    |
  |    ^         |
  |    6         |
  |              |
  +--------------+

"I think you'll have to agree we've been pretty thorough. If you see any numbers we've forgotten, please be sure to send me some sort of memo after the meeting," Nick urges them.

"But what about the Asian market?" Victor asks, as if trying to trip them up. Nick explains, "we've run all the Asian numbers there as well." "And?" Victor asks. "Well, just look at the size of the numbers," Grace says as she sets up the next poster. "That's right," Nick says, pointing to the new graph. "The Asian numbers were so big we had to get this oversized poster to put them on!"

  +------------------------+
  |                        |
  |  ====================  |
  |            <><><><><>  |
  |  <><><><><>            |
  |  ====================  |
  |    <><><><>  <><><><>  |
  |  <>  <><><><>  <><><>  |
  |  <><>  <><><><>  <><>  |
  |  <><><>  <><><><>  <>  |
  |  <><><><>  <><><><>    |
  |  ====================  |
  |                        |
  +------------------------+

There is a silence as everyone pretends to understand how an abacus works. Finally, Nick looks to Victor. "Well, what do you say? Is it full steam ahead?" Victor nods. "M'boy, you have really outdone yourself this time. Rarely have I seen a presentation so carefully thought out. You have my full approval."

          ********************
          HALF TIME COMMERCIAL
          ********************

Later in the day, Victoria and Neil are at Gina's for lunch. Gina walks up and looks expectantly at the pair of them. "What can I get you to drink?" she asks. Neil looks to Victoria and says, "You know, it's been a long day. I think we'll have a bottle of your best--" but he stops himself just in time. Then, throwing Victoria a knowing look, he says, "--sparkling water with lime." "Really?" Gina asks with surprise. Both nod and Gina walks off.

As she passes a nearby empty table, though, Gina stops and grabs a glass and a spoon. Dinging the glass with the spoon, Gina says, "Hey, everybody, I have an announcement to make." The noise in the room comes to a hush and she goes on with her announcement. "Congratulations are in order. Victoria Newman is expecting a baby!" The others in the room all applaud politely and a few women even get up from their table, going to Victoria's table to personally wish her good luck. Victoria just sits there stunned and says nothing but looks angrier and angrier. Finally Neil says, "Come on, Victoria, out with it." She looks at him puzzled. "Out with what?" "What you're thinking about," he says. She continues looking puzzled and he prods her further. "You're obviously mad about something." "I'm mad at Ashley," she says. "With Ashley? Why?" Neil asks. "Because she obviously leaked the news of my pregnancy--she must have." "Ashley?" Neil says. "Of course `Ashley'," Victoria says. "No one else knew but you and me. It had to be her."

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 105!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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