A bullet for chef

I am on a 16 hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong on UA 865. Overnight there were numerous emails from United regarding a two hour flight delay but eventually they found a functioning airplane and we departed on time at 1:15 pm on March 25. Today is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Work, work, work. I will stay in Hong Kong on Monday night and take a bus to mainland China on Tuesday to meet with our new distributor. This distributor is importing our wooden deck restoration product Restore. Unfortunately, their 4,000 gallon shipping container of Restore is in Chinese customs jail because the formaldehyde level tested above some arbitrary minimal level created to block imports. The Chinese love to export but imports not so much. Our tests in the US confirm that formaldehyde is only present in trace levels. I will visit the Chinese customs office and beg for mercy.

It was a good Memorial Day weekend while it lasted. On Friday we cruised to Winthrop Harbor on our 45′ motor yacht Changing Latitudes and dined at Tropics which is about as good of a Tiki bar as you can find on Lake Michigan. We motored at 8 kts which is somewhat fuel efficient at 2 mpg. At 25 kts we get .6 mpg. After all, life is the journey. We tied up at the 300 foot long fishing dock and headed to Tropics. Unfortunately there is a marina called Skipped Buds between the dock and Tropics and the marina gate was locked. It was a several block walk to get around the marina. Fortunately, there was a marina worker within earshot and we begged him to open the gate and he obliged. Tropics is full of Winthrop Harbor boaters. The majority look like power boaters. There are very distinct costumes worn by power boaters Vs sail boaters? Since we are more recently sail boaters we are cross overs because we arrived on a power boat but still wear the costume of sail boaters. This is similar to walking into a biker bar where all the 9 – 5 business executives are dressed in black leathers and have dew rags on their heads and try to look sinister. Power boaters refer to sailors as rag baggers and sail boaters affectionately refer to power boaters as stink potters. All of our sailing friends now refer to us “going over to the dark side.” When it was time to depart Tropics the owner had the key to the marina gate and let us out. I must say the owner of the Tropics has one of the most obscene happy hours I have ever experienced. Second only to Sloppy Joe’s in Key West. The owner of Tropics challenges the crowd to drinking shots for guessing music trivia questions. The night we were there he had at least 12 shots before we departed and the night was young. Also reminded me of a John Morgan happy hour at Puffer Bellies in Hyannis on Cape Cod.

When we get back to the 300 foot long fishing pier there are two boats tied up. There is our 45′ motor yacht and a 16 foot outboard tied up two feet behind us. The dock is massive and these guys are right on us. Our boat is at the west end so we can’t go forward. No worries, with the help of our trusty bow thruster I got her out smartly.

I have a partner in the power boat, Captain Dale. On each voyage we trade off on who will back the boat out of the slip and who will dock it. This way we both get experience maneuvering the boat. On this trip it was my turn to park the boat in the slip. This was the first time we brought the boat back in the dark. It was pitch black. The windshield was fogged up from having 8 people on the upper deck on a cool night. I could see the mooring pole between the slips but not the floating dock below me on the starboard side. There’s was a slight NE breeze pushing me around. I made numerous attempts but had to back off each time. Finally Captain Dale shinned a flashlight on the dock. A miracle, I could see where I was going and I docked the boat immediately without a scratch. Lesson learned – light up the dock to aid the helmsman.

On Saturday, Priscilla and I were on the boat cocktailing when a Cruisers 50 pulls up and someone is calling out to us. It is boat broker Chris who sold us our Cruisers 45 and helped us bring her back from Lake Ontario last October. He is onboard with another happy family that I had met in January. They came to our boat in heated storage to view a Cruisers motor yacht. A nice couple with two early teen daughters. I gave them a tour and a sales pitch to buy the biggest boat they will ever want. Looks like they did with a 50 footer. They docked next to us and we toured their boat and we ended up on our boat for gin and tonics. Chris’s fiancé Kirstyn arrived at the Yacht Club so Chris took our Avon inflatable with the 40 HP to pick her up. Eventually we all headed to the yacht club for dinner. There was live music and a bit of dancing. The next time I dance it will be at my daughters wedding on June 14th.

Now on to the story in the title of this blog – A bullet for Chef. Many years ago, perhaps 4O or so a movie came out called Apocalypse Now. It is a fictional journey of a patrol boat motoring up river in Cambodia during the Vietnam war. Captain Willard was on a mission to terminate the command of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz with extreme prejudice. Kurtz is a renegade who has created his own army and has allegedly assassinated some South Vietnamese politicians to get relief from the NVA. This movie was a Christmas favorite at our house for many years.

My staff took an interest in “The Movie” and we all assumed personifications from the actors. I was Colonel Bill Kilgore the Commander of the helicopter air Calvary 1st and 9th. We gave Charlie a few surprises in our day. They knew I’d never get a scratch. I sign the majority of my emails as Col. Our head of Technical Service is Captain Willard, my salesman in Hong Kong is Clean, Mr Clean from some south Bronx sewer. The light and the space of Vietnam put the zap on his head. My former salesman for the Middle East and Africa was Lance B. Johnson, LBJ, the gunner on the forward 50’s. Lance has since gotten off the boat. My Managing Director in Australia wanted the handle Big Duke Six, but that created a revolt among the troops because that is the radio call name for Col Kilgore so he became Bloke. Carl, my managing director in Japan became Chef. Chef was a saucier from New Orleans. He specialized in making French sauces. Chef also had the encounter with the tiger and is quoted with saying “never get off the boat.”

Chef has been with RO Japan for 9 years. He is a native Australian that took a fancy to Japanese women and decided his odds of marrying one was better in Japan. He moved to Japan 30 years ago, learned the language, married and has a 16 year old daughter. As the MD of RO Japan he was unable to overcome numerous obstacles such as a major earthquake and tsunami, recession, currency devaluation among others. I was able to support him for five years by having all my other groups over achieve and cover for the ROJ shortfall. However, it was determined that his methods were unsound. In fact top management didn’t see any method at all. He was given an ultimatum in June to at least break even on profit or perish. Well, despite his Herculean effort ROJ did not break even. I was sent on a mission and when it was over I never wanted another. I was an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill. In the end I had to terminate Chef’s command with extreme prejudice. I called him at 7:45 pm on Sunday Tokyo time. This was 5:45 am Chicago time. I wanted him to enjoy the weekend with his family before I broke the news to him. When he answered his phone he was driving in his car with his 16 year old daughter Jenny. I asked him when he would be alone to talk and he said in 10 minutes. I called him at 6:00 am Chicago time as advised him of his fate. I then sent him an email with the details of his severance package. In Japan, it is nearly impossible to fire an employee unless there is gross misconduct. Japan has a business philosophy of full employment. The legal way to terminate an employee is for them to resign. In order to get Chef to resign we needed to offer him a generous severance package which we did. This will provide income for many months until he finds a new job. Just last week Chef advised me that the sales manager for our largest distributor was retiring. Perhaps he can apply for that position. I hope he lands well and soon. I will be in Japan on Wednesday to begin the transition to the new managing director Hideaki Itoh. Itoh-san has worked for RO Japan for 12 years as sales manager. He will take over as interim MD on June 2. If he performs well as a leader and drives the business to be successful he will become the permanent Managing Director.

Next stop Hong Kong.

Col

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