I wrote these words over a year ago as part of a longer piece which was an analyis of the then situation with the two main parties both of who had succumbed to populist forces, but looking at the stories about Johnson’s cronies betting against the economy today I think this story perfectly illustrates #disastercapitalism.
I woke up this morning with my mind on an old customer whose story I would like to share. I don’t wish to name names, so, as it amuses me, I will call them Dave, Ed & Nick LLP. They were a customer for the best part of a decade. I personally looked after their account and every other day would be talking to their excellent general manager John who ran the show for the owners, taking his orders, sorting out his problems, make sure his supplies and equipment arrived when he wanted them where he wanted them, keeping him happy. A wonderful chap, an expert (yes, I know expertise is so last year), keeping his employer’s ship on a steady course for many years. John knew what he was doing. Sometimes he dropped a clanger or would make totally unreasonable demands and I would be swearing and muttering to myself around the office as I tried to figure out a solution that would get him out of a fix. I always did and often it cost us money and he wasn’t always as grateful as I would have liked, but he always paid the bills and gave a fair price. Our working relationship was both excellent and mutually beneficial.
Then out of the blue the Dave, Ed & Nick LLP partners all wanted to retire and sell up. John decided to go to pastures new and his assistant, Ben was put in his place. We were assured there would be no change, we would have the exact same benefits and relationship with the new permutation of the company. Of course, the inevitable unravelling started quickly. The calls from Ben were full of unspoken anxiety and stress, you could almost feel him shrinking in the middle of the circle of wagons as he came under siege. Their accounts department dragged their feet, Ben’s budget was squeezed, customers started to leave them in droves. I would have to stop supplies until invoices were paid, never happened before. It turned out that the new owners were not interested in job creation, or investing for growth, they were not interested in the existing staff or the long history of the company. They had used lies to keep staff on board. The prize in their sights was the prime property the company owned which was right in the middle of an area of intense redevelopment for buy to let luxury apartments. Without telling anybody who would be affected they were running the company down for the cashflow whilst they got a developer on board, which they did. Within a year the company which had operated for 30 years was dead, no profit, no customers, redundancy notices handed out. The plaque on the swish new apartments should read RIP Dave, Ed & Nick LLP you served us well but well, we couldn’t be bothered with all that work malarkey and besides we made more money this way.
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