Market Forces

Chapter 12: SWOT versus SWAT

 

I got back to the London offices the following day. A comfortable flight had made it easier but I was still suffering from jet lag. Still I doubted that I was feeling as rough as the packages that had been in the hold.

 

Freddie gave me a call and suggested a meeting. He wanted an update on progress. I was happy that I had some ideas after my various trips. We agreed to meet in the board room the following afternoon.

 

Clegg arrived on time, looking in as good humour as he usually was. “Afternoon Larry. Good trip? Well I guess we’ll hear about that. Not a bad bunch out there. Hope they looked after you.”

 

“It was fine,” I said. “everyone was very helpful. I got some good ideas, I think.”

 

“OK,” said Clegg. “That’s what you’re here for. How do you want to do this?”

 

“I’d like to talk through my thoughts using a few tools that I find helpful, basically summarising what I’ve learned over the last few weeks.”

 

“You seemed to have learned how to enjoy yourself, young man, if what I hear of your trip is right. That’s all to the good. Don’t look so worried, I’m quite happy for you to take advantage of any opportunity – its part of the package as far as I’m concerned.”

 

I gave an embarrassed cough. “Well, thanks. Yes, there was some fun but I thought I’d try to focus on the things I’ve learned about the business. Then we can agree what we want to do about it.”

 

“Fine by me. You lead off.”

 

“One of the things I have done is a SWOT analysis,” I said turning to the flip chart that stood beside the board table.

 

“Special Weapons And Tactics?” asked Clegg looking puzzled.

 

“Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats,” I explained as I drew the board into four segments, S, W, O & T.

 

“Ah,” Clegg responded. “I see.”

 

“I’ll write up the things I think I’ve got from the meetings and visits of the past few weeks. If you want to pitch in with any thoughts as we go along, feel free to do so.”

 

“Ha! Going to have to work for my living am I? OK”

 

“I’ll start with the strengths. The research team is a definite plus.” I wrote ‘RESEARCH TEAM’ up on the board. “All the clients that I spoke to reckon that you’ve got one of the best research teams in the business. Plus your snatch teams think the research is pretty good too. They don’t get many surprises when they are on a job.”

 

“So how does that help us?”

 

“Well, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, let’s look at the other factors. Hacking – that’s something your team is pretty good at too.” I added that to the list. “Plenty of others have been making use of the Internet but your team seem to have got further on than most. In fact the whole IT side seems pretty strong to me.”

 

“I’d have thought the fact that we can deliver all over the world was a strength -, don’t you?” Clegg joined in.

 

“Well, certainly it’s something the organisation does and it’s perfectly good at. Virtually all of your competitors do it as well though, so I don’t think it can be considered a particular strength. I didn’t hear anyone saying you could do anything that others can’t. I think you can only really count the things that are different or better than competitors – otherwise you just end up being a ‘me too’ operation.”

 

“Hmm, yes. See what you mean. Never been my goal to be like the rest of the herd.”

 

“But one other feature that was mentioned was your knowledge of the UK as a source of product. All of your clients said that was a big feature and important to them as well. It seems there some markets where UK product is a plus and you’re definitely seen as the expert.”

 

“OK, that’s encouraging anyway. Any others?” I shook my head. Freddie looked concerned but pressed on. “How about weaknesses?”

 

“Well, something your clients talk about is a lack of choice – they feel once you get stuck into a commission there’s not much chance to influence what’s going on.”

 

“Well, that’s inevitable, isn’t it?. You can’t go changing operations in mid-stream.”

 

“Maybe not but your competitors give their clients the feeling that they have more flexibility.”

 

“Uh, huhh, OK,” said Clegg warily. “Mm, well we ought to be taking account of the competition.”

 

“Oh, yes. I think we can assume that if we’re doing things right they will respond in some way. For now though I’m mainly interested in doing things our customers want that the competition aren’t doing or that the competition is doing better than us. That’s why I thought about the auctions.”

 

“Hang on,” said Clegg. “We’ve got one of the best Auction Centres that I know. You can’t say that’s a weakness.”

 

“Well, I agree the Centre itself is impressive. The problem is that there aren’t enough buyers and because there aren’t enough buyers you’re not getting as good a price as you could. If you could get a bigger audience you could find prices going up. Or if you could make things so that you really exploit the specialised talents of the stock. Take the chap who runs the business jet I flew back on. He got two fully trained cabin crew at one of our auctions for about what he’d have expected to pay for any two pieces in their mid-twenties. He got a real bargain. I think you end up under valuing the stock.”

 

“I see what you mean. Certainly prices have seem depressed but I’d put that down to a more general market trend.”

 

“There’s no evidence to support that. In fact from my discussions some of your customers are paying higher prices from your competitors, not lower.”

 

“Ha! Not my idea of the best way to do business.”

 

“I think it stems from a number of problems. Customers just don’t think you’re interested in what they want, just in what you have to sell, so they come to see what you have to offer as an opportunity for a bargain, nothing more.” I wrote ‘Don’t handle MY problems’ up under weaknesses.”

 

“All right.”

 

“And the other thing is the stock that you carry.” I added ‘STOCK’ that to the list.

 

“Can’t sell what you haven’t got,” said Freddie, furrowing his brow.

 

“A common view but not always true. Sometimes you can sell what you know you can get. I think what I mean is that there doesn’t seem to be any control over what stock you bring in or when. It seems like the snatch teams just pour stock in at one end and the Sales Centre has to find ways to shift it.”

 

“Hmm, I’m not sure that’s completely fair but there may be something in what you say. Certainly we had to clear a lot last year.”

 

“OK. Well, the strengths and weaknesses all tend to be about what your business does. The opportunities and threats are all about external factors. I’m not sure I’ve really got to grips with this yet but here’s a couple of thoughts. There’s a growing number of women buyers in the market – that’s got to be an opportunity and I’m not sure that anyone’s really catering specifically for them. Then there’s the younger buyers too. Again there are signs that the average age of buyers is coming down – a few people have said that. Again, I don’t see anyone shaping up to that.”

 

“Interesting, interesting. Well, if we’re looking for threats, there’s always the forces of law and order.”

 

“Well, yes, but again that’s pretty much the same for everyone isn’t it? I guess if you have more problems because you’re based here in the UK we could consider it a weakness but otherwise it’s just what this market is all about, isn’t it?   

 

OK, yes, I see what you mean. It’s probably the same for all of us. It’s no worse here than in the States or most of the other EU countries. Maybe a bit better at the moment with most of them off worrying about counter-terrorism rather than us.”

 

I ran through a few more thoughts but I could see Clegg’s attention was wandering. Time to cut to the chase, I thought.

 

“So here’s what I think we should do,” I said. Clegg sat up. “Have you heard of the ‘4P’s’?”

 

He shook his head.

 

“It’s a way we talk about the mix of factors you need in a marketing approach: product, price, place and promotion.”

 

“OK, I get it,” said Clegg.

 

“Well here are my thoughts.” I turned over a clean sheet on the flip pad and wrote:

 

            Product – UK females that meet specific customer requirements.

 

            Price – premium priced for a premium service

 

            Place – Eastern Europe, Middle East, Far East

 

            Promotion – account managed approach supported by video / web

                         + explore opportunities in new markets (women / younger buyers)  

 

Clegg looked at it. “Go on,” he said, carefully.

 

“My view is that the future of Clegg Enterprises lies with higher value niche opportunities rather than the mass markets. I recognise some of these, especially the US, seem attractive and appear to be the areas of largest growth today but all my research indicates that these buyers will move to becoming more discriminating over time. The skills of the business in research and specialist acquisition of stock will match the emerging demands of the market for particular items. I’d recommend that Clegg Enterprises defocuses on the current auction approach and instead looks towards an approach in which buyers are encouraged to specify their requirements directly and indeed get fully engaged in the selection and acquisition process. Over time we would aim to migrate more of the current clientele to buying in the way that the most profitable customers do.”

 

“OK, I can see the sense of that. I guess the big questions are how do we do it and how do we fund it?”

 

“Let’s talk about how we should do it first. I’ve got some ideas that should prove simple to put into practice for starters. Firstly I’d like to start an account management approach with some of the current clients. Assigning a particular contact to them to be responsible for knowing their requirements and working with them on how we can meet them. I mean, for example, when I was out on the island, it was clear that Steve Glennis has a number of projects in mind that we could help him with, he hadn’t thought about talking to us. If someone had been talking to him, understanding his projects, we’d have been able to make suggestions and with the research skills we’d have been able to find just what he wanted.”

 

“So instead of waiting for him to turn up at an auction,” Clegg began.

 

“Which he may or may not do,” I said. “And in fact he hadn’t for over a year until last month.”

 

“… instead of that, we work with him on specific acquisition projects.”

 

“We follow that up with an approach that lets clients review and comment on our plans - we could use some sort of secure web technology; share the surveillance stuff with clients; get them to comment on the girls before we pick them up. The idea should be that we move to more acquisitions for specific projects and fewer speculative collections. If we make things specific enough for people they’ll pay a lot more, we’ll be able to command a premium price because we’ll be getting the customer just exactly what they want.”  

 

“Well, it’s funny you should say that I mean that’s how I started out. I mean apart from my own little hobby activities, the first professional job I did was for a guy who was infatuated with a girl. He tried to date her and she laughed him off. I told him I could get him what he wanted and I did. He came up with a big wad of cash, very grateful he was. That was the seed funding for Clegg Enterprises.” He went on, “But your ideas are going to need cash too. So how do you propose funding it?”

 

“You’re going to think this a bit radical,” I said.

 

“I like radical if it solves the problem,” Clegg responded.

 

“OK,” I took a deep breath. “Close the Sales Centre.”

 

Clegg spluttered, “But that cost us a fortune to set up!  I thought you marketing guys were all about better selling.”

 

“Nah – marketing’s about getting people to buy. I bet it did cost you a fortune to set up. And it’s costing you a fortune to run. It’s expensive and you don’t actually need it. It isn’t much used apart from the auction suite. It’s much better to go to the customers. If you need them to come to you, use the London Club.

 

“But what about the warehousing facilities and re-sales and the auctions?”

 

“There’s probably enough space at the Prep Centre. If we’re doing more collection against specific requirements then we should need less warehousing anyway – not point in keeping stock if we don’t need to. I think you can use the Internet more for auctions of any commodity stuff, we’ll still get ‘opportunities’ presenting themselves and I don’t propose we should turn them down. But when you do use an auction you need to get to a wider customer base – it’s all got a bit cosy at present and you don’t get the prices you should because there just aren’t enough bidders involved.” 

 

Clegg looked thoughtful and then seemed to come to a conclusion. “All right let’s go with this,” he said. “You try your account management approach with one or two clients and see if that works. Go make a video about what we are up to – I like that idea - but don’t spend too much money on it. And you can get Technical to do a feasibility study on the Internet service. How does that sound?”

 

“Fine, that’ll let us make a start. And the Sales Centre?”

 

“I’ll think about it. We’ll talk about it again after you’ve done this first bit. I’ll set you up with a couple of clients to go talk about their requirements.”

 

“OK,” I said. “Fine by me. Just make sure that Research are teed up to play their part.”

 

“Don’t worry, Larry, you’ll get all the help you need. Oh and you’d better go have a chat with Harry, I can imagine that field operations are going to be working harder.”

 

Harry proved difficult to track down but eventually I got him to answer his mobile. “Can we chat,” I said.

 

“Sure,” said Harry but I’m a bit up to my ears in it right now. I’ve got an operation in hand but if you want to come up here I’d be OK with that.”

 

“OK,” I said. “Where’s ‘here’ then?” He gave me an address in a small town about 20 miles away from the Prep Centre. I took the train from Euston. It wasn’t much later arriving than I’d expected and a short walk from the station found me outside a door sandwiched between a greengrocers and a pet shop. There was only one bell. I pushed it.

 

Harry’s voice crackled through a small brass grill, “Yup?”

 

“It’s Larry,” I said.

 

“Come on up,” he replied, the lock buzzed and I pushed the door open. A narrow staircase led upwards. At the top of the stairs was a glass panelled door that opened into a scruffy reception area. Behind the empty reception desk was a door into an inner office. Harry put his head around the door and waved me in. “Larry,” he said, “excellent. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

 

Sat in the chair beside a large desk was a cheerful looking, red haired girl. She got to her feet as soon as I got into the room. ”Hello,” she said, enthusiastically, “I’m Sarah.”

 

“Hi,” I said giving Harry a quizzical look, unclear if she was part of Clegg Enterprises or not.

 

“Sarah’s my new PA,” Harry said. “Or at least she will be if she decides to accept the offer.”

 

“Don’t be silly,” she said, “of course I’ll accept. It all sounds very exciting, import, export, all that. Much better than the dull old car dealers.”

 

“Sarah is currently working in the motor trade,” said Harry.

 

“Well I can see that might be less exciting,” I said guardedly. “Was your last job very dull?”

 

“Awful,” she said. “And the boss couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Furtive groping, if you know what I mean.” She gave a conspiratorial wink.

 

“I can’t see you having that problem with Harry,” I said. “There’s nothing furtive about him.”

 

“Do you want a coffee?” Harry offered, interrupting the banter. I nodded. He pulled a note from his wallet and tossed it to Sarah. “Can you pop across the road and pick us up a couple of cappuccinos, Sarah? And grab one for yourself if you’re stopping.”

 

“Sure thing, boss,” Sarah said with a grin. “Coffees coming up.” With that she bounced passed me and down the stairs.

 

“Does she know what we do?” I asked as the door slammed behind her.

 

“No, not at all.”

 

“Won’t that make things, err, rather difficult?”

 

“Not with what I’ve got planned. I wasn’t thinking of employing her as such, just sort of acquiring her.”

 

“Ah, silly of me,” I said. “And is this soon?”

 

“Well, yes, right about now actually. If you hang on a minute I’ll have got it all sorted out.”

 

Sarah reappeared with the coffees. “Here they are, I hope they are all right,” she said. She shrugged off her jacket and I could see why Harry was keen on having her around. I guessed she was in her early twenties, twenty two or three maybe. Her shoulder length, red, wavy hair was striking in itself and the dark green top she wore clung agreeably to her figure. She didn’t have big tits but they were neat, well formed and pert and the fact that she had a trim figure made them look bigger than they really were. Her dark skirt was probably a bit tight and a bit short really but I wasn’t complaining. Her pale complexion and freckled face made me think that the hair inside her knickers would match that on her head. “Here you are boys,” she said, setting the coffees down between us.

 

“Thanks Sarah, that’s great. Now can you organise something for me, please?”

 

“That’s why I’m here,” she reached for a note pad, “fire away.”

 

“All right, can you call this number 07788 656556. The gentleman concerned is expecting to have confirmation that a shipment will be ready today? If you can just call him and tell him that it will be ready as agreed. Oh, and I need to meet him. Can you suggest that he and I get together this evening at the Red Bull on the Warwick Road say, oh half past seven. Then I need you to pick up a few things for me, nothing to do with work I’m afraid, personal stuff, I hope you don’t mind?”

 

“Of course not. That’s all part of the job.”

 

“Well it’s just that I’ve got some stuff I need to package up and put into storage. Can you pop into the DIY Centre and get 50 feet of three quarter inch rope, a couple of rolls of duct tape and some Hessian sacks. If you can get that it’ll make things a lot easier.”

 

Sarah jotted the details down on her pad. “No problem at all, boss,” she said brightly. “Shall I bring this stuff in tomorrow?”

 

“Yes, ah, no. Look tell you what, why don’t you bring it out to the Red Bull, and I can introduce you to this chap. You’ll need to meet him sometime. I might even buy you a drink.”

 

“Goodness, can I trust my new boss, I ask myself?” Sarah giggled.

 

“Very wise, very wise,” said Harry with mock seriousness.

 

Sarah giggled again. “Still this is great,” she said. “My last boss really kept me chained to my desk.”

 

“And I’ll do the same if you aren’t working well,” said Harry with a grin. “In fact maybe we’ll use heavier chains if you’re not doing so well, lighter ones for better performance.”

 

“Oh, you are funny,” Sarah said, grinning, as she picked up her coffee. “I’d better get back to work.” She went back out to the reception office.

 

I briefed Harry on the outcome of my discussions with Clegg. I left out my thoughts on the Sales Centre. Harry seemed to like the approach and said he’d be happy to support any of the acquisitions that might fall out of it. His only comment was that Brian wasn’t going to be pleased if it meant less going through the Sales Centre. We’d been talking for about half an hour when Sarah knocked on the office door.

 

“I’ve spoken to the gentleman,” she said, “and that’s all fine he’ll see you at 7:30. And he says, thanks for arranging the shipment he’ll be able to pick it up as agreed. Now, do you mind if I get off? If I’m going to get those other things you wanted.”

 

“No, that’s fine. Are you sure you’ve got everything on that list?”

 

“Yes, here it is,” she took out the paper, “rope, tape, sacking. Nothing else?”

 

“No, I don’t think so, no that will be fine.” Harry smiled as Sarah turned to pick up her jacket and go. She stopped at the door to Harry’s office.

 

“Hey,” she said, “I’ve just thought – when Harry met Larry!”

 

“We’ve heard it,” I said. “Have a nice evening and don’t let this guy tie you up in knots. He’s a hard task master.”

 

Harry gave me a warning look but Sarah simply smiled. “Oh, I think I’ll be all right,” she said. “Bye for now.”

 

I waited until the office door closed before allowing myself a chuckle. “Fifty feet of rope and two reels of duct tape?” I laughed. “She’s really going to get it isn’t she?”

 

“I very much think so,” said Harry, “but you don’t grudge me a little amusement, I’m sure. Anyway, come out to the Red Bull, you can drive one of the cars back.”

 

We took some time discussing a few of the ideas that I would need Harry to pick up on for the plans I had agreed with Clegg. By the time we were through it was already gone seven and dark so we headed off to Harry’s car and drove out of town. The Warwick Road wasn’t the best part of the area and as we got to the pub I could see that it wasn’t open. I didn’t think it would be, the “For Sale” sign outside the front gave me a clue. As we pulled into the unlit, pot holed, car park I could see that Sarah was already there chatting animatedly to a man standing beside a white van. There was another girl with her. “Oh great,” said Harry, with heavy irony, “she’s brought a friend.” We pulled up between her car and the van. She waved as she saw us getting out.

 

“Yoo hoo,” she called and then added redundantly. “Over here!” We wandered across. “This is Julia,” said Sarah introducing her companion. I watched Harry giving her the once over, evidently approving the girls rather full figure and long blonde hair. He had a slightly puzzled look, I guessed he was trying to work how she could wear a skirt that was as short and tight as the one she had on and still manage to move.

 

“Hello, Julia,” he said, smiling.

 

“Jules,” she said, “call me Jules.”

 

“OK,” said Harry, “Jules it is.”

 

“We’ve already met your friend here. Your business associates seem such nice people. We were just discussing where we might go on to – I don’t think we’ll get a drink here. I know some good clubs.”

 

“Yes,” cut in Jules, “we were going on too a club anyway after this to celebrate Sarah’s new job, why don’t you all come?”

 

“Yes,” said Sarah. “We could all go have some fun. You boys look like you could use a night out – I’m a great dancer, you should see me.”

 

“Well,” said Harry, “I’m sure you’re right about not getting a drink here. I don’t reckon Larry here could keep up with you on the dance floor but I’m sure we’d all like to see you strut your stuff. Mind you it won’t do if you’re late in tomorrow.”

 

“Oh goodness, you can’t imagine I’d be late in on my first day,” said Sarah.

 

“You needn’t worry about Sarah,” said Jules, “she’s so eager to please she’d come hopping in with a broken leg if she thought not being there would upset anyone.”

 

“Oh, don’t exaggerate!” exclaimed Sarah. “But I will be there and on time.”

 

“I’ sure you will,” said Harry. “Oh, by the way, were you able to get those things?”

 

“He hasn’t got you shopping for him already, has he?” said Jules.

 

“Shh,” said Sarah. “I don’t mind. I like to help out.” She turned back to Harry. “Yes, no problem. The girl at the check out gave me ever such a funny look, though, I can’t imagine what she thought I wanted them for. They’re in the back of my car.” She passed her keys to Harry.

 

“I’ll get them,” he said and walked across to the car.

 

“What on earth did he have you get?” said Jules.

 

Harry got back from the car. “Just a few things from the DIY shop,” he said. ”Some rope, duct tape and sacking.”

 

“Ooh,” said Jules, “sounds kinky to me! Who were you planning a bondage session with?”

 

“Well,” said Harry joining in with Julia’s giggles. “It was to have been Sarah but now I’ve got a choice.”

 

“Not me,” said Jules, “I make it a rule not to get tied up on a first date. Doesn’t give you a chance to get to know one another. Mind you if you’re persuasive enough there’s quite a lot I will do.”

 

“Oh, Julia!” Sarah complained. “Don’t talk like that, I’ve got to work with these guys, you know. What will Harry think?”

 

Sarah turned towards Harry’s friend, saying that Julia wasn’t really like this, usually. The two girls were still talking animatedly about the clubs they thought we all might visit as Harry nodded to his colleague.

 

It was almost like watching a ballet. Harry tossed a sack over the girls’ heads to his friend. Both girls watched,puzzled, as he caught it. Sarah had her back to Harry as he pulled his sack down over her head. Jules went to run to her aid as Harry’s friend did the self same thing to her. It was instructive to see two experts at work. As the sack came down each man grabbed his captive around the arms and then took a took a length of rope, knotting it across the girl’s mouth over the sack, pulling the Hessian into her mouth and gagging her.

 

The two girls, struggling and kicking now and yelping into their rope gags, were wrestled to the floor. Harry tossed one of the rolls of tape to the other man. He used it to strap Jules’s wrists while Harry was winding rope around Sarah’s waist and chest. Soon both girls were trussed up with sacking over their torsos and tape wrapped around them at the ankles and the knees. In a matter of seconds, Sarah and Jules were both laying on the floor of the white van, squirming and mmphing in protest. I had a good view of both girls’ legs - skirts that short aren’t really the best thing to get kidnapped in.

 

We slammed the door on the back of the van. Harry took his car, I took Sarah’s. We followed the van back to the Prep Centre. I watched as the doors of the van were opened. Both girls still had the sacks still tied over their heads, Sarah was sitting up, almost as if she was waiting to be helped out. Jules had been putting up more of a fight, with only her short skirt her wriggling on the floor of the van had left her with laddered and torn tights. She’d even managed to break the heel of one of her shoes - as she was pulled form the van she was hobbling on one high heel.

 

I took Sarah’s car around the back. The motor pool supervisor looked at it sniffily, declared it not worth changing the chassis and engine numbers on and put it on to the transporter that would take it over to the crusher later

 

When I saw Sarah again she was in one of the holding cells. Harry was already there. Sarah was sitting on a solid wooden chair in the middle of the cell. They’d taken the sacking off or her head and replaced the rope gag with a ball strapped tightly into her mouth. It didn’t stop her making a noise but it certainly made it difficult to understand what she was saying.

 

“GNNASKAART!” she grunted at me– which I took to be a commentary on my parentage. She was obviously pretty angry and they hadn’t really started on her yet. They’d put her in handcuffs which must have been better than the ropes around her wrists. She had shackles on her ankles and a short length of chain between them but as long as she wasn’t trying to walk around that wasn’t really a problem.

 

“ECCHT EE O, ECCHT EE O!!!” she groaned, shaking herself on the chair in some attempt to loosen the cuffs. The strap of her gag had gone over the top of her red hair, one lock of hair hung down loose across her face; shaking her head did nothing to stop it brushing across her nose. She gave a frustrated snort, as drips of drool fell from the corner of her mouth.

 

“What do you think, Larry?” Harry asked. They’d left her skirt, shoes and tights on but Harry had taken her green top off to get a better view. “I think what sold her to me was her legs but these tits are quite nice too, not big but nice. That and the fact that she’s obviously looked after herself; quite a fit looking girl really.”

 

“I think she’ll make a very decorative addition to your office. Unless you are planning to take her friend instead?”

 

Sarah glowered at me. “GAARHGH!!” she grunted.

 

“Sounds like something out of ‘My Fair Lady’,” I laughed.

 

“Fair indeed,” said Harry pulling a knife from his pocket. Sarah tried to shrink away staring in fright at the knife as he advanced towards her. He sliced though her bra straps and then through the strip of cloth between the cups, pulling the bra from her and letting her breasts fall free. Sarah wriggled and tried to pull away but then glowered at Harry as she saw the amusement her bobbling breasts caused.

 

My only disappointment was that I didn’t have time to see what happened next to Harry’s new recruits.