Allea

thirty-two

"..As we all know, bigger projects require significant requirements, all present here are the best amongst the best, and I hope to find the one suitable for us, we shall proceed now."

It always amuses me how well the people of the business world know to manipulate the words, or more like wishfully think that they are masters of playing with words. Following the words of Carlocle's Brand's CEO: who's a healthy man in his late forties, the first short-listed company started its presentation. 

Carlocle was founded by the current CEO's grandfather, after enduring years of hard work, they achieved the position they were in. One could guess through the way the CEO interacts that how much he puts value on inner-cooperative relationships, he doesn't want to offend any one of the three corporations' representatives present in this conference room especially the one he kept glancing at and mainly directed his words to.

As I focused on hearing the ongoing demonstration, from time to time, I could feel the eyes of the people present in the room blink toward the man seated on the opposite side of the long table. Ben was on my right, rigid in his seat, while Olivia was on my left, and for the first time, I'm sensing some edgy fidgetiness in her stance, as unlike Ben and like others, her eyes too kept flickering toward Aris Salvadge's side.

His presence here made me wonder for a second —when I saw him walked inside the conference room, following were two men and a girl. As long as I can recall, Aris Salvadge was never the man to show himself in any of the conferences or meetings, it was always his men who represented him and his work. For almost two years, I stalked him, putting my everything, I knew a lot of useless things like this about this man, but never something worth benefitting. If I bother myself with an assumption then; maybe, as this was his first project after stepping into the corporate world, considering it essential, that's why he was here.

Not once I looked at him after he came, following the professional greeting, as I was seated so only nodded toward him with the enunciation of his name, which he returned with also a light nod, no words said or exchanges as none was needed.

"...here I would like to conclude the Vicx Corp. ideas for the project."

As the words reached my ears, I too, along with others, raised my hands for applause, which quietly resonated throughout the room. For the next presentation, a man seated beside Aris Salvadge stood and walked toward the podium. From the moment he started, to the moment his words ended, there was complete quietness in the room. 

I could even hear a few sighs from the representatives of Vicx Corp. as they continued to hear the approaches of Slavadge Corporation, and considered themselves out of the race. And I could also feel some gazes moving toward me, curious to see the look of strain and defeat on me —this caused a little smile to bloom on my lips and habitually my fingers -of the right hand which was rested on the table- started tapping quietly.


As the second presenter concluded his words, the applause that followed was louder and amongst all the Carlocle's CEO has the loudest augmentation, although he didn't say anything, through his actions it wasn't onerous even for the fool to guess that his intentions were clear: no one can be better than Salvadge Corporations' insight.

Carlocl'e corporation has countless Michelin star restaurants/hotels through numerous countries, but these restaurants are limited to people of a particular status, that's why for the new project they wanted something that an average/common human could afford while experiencing the Michelin conditions. The substantial difficulty comes in here, how could one depreciate the price to ten dollars while presenting something of a hundred dollar, this increases the ratio of cost on project and lessen profits to zero or prominent loss. 

That's why Carlocle's were so keen for a suitable corporation, that could tackle such difficulty without any loss to their name's integrity and quality  —and that's also where Salvadge Corporation gained the advantage in their presentation and impressed him.

Although I was aware of the outlook and the working mechanism of the cafes, the strategic approach of Salvadge Corp. was not something I knew, until now. Deducting the conclusion, my thoughts went over it briefly: If the cafe wants to sell the product for at the price of twenty dollars, with an average cost of fifty dollars on it, in other words, excluding the 20% cut of price in a total of 50% it gives us the extra unit cost of 30% without even cutting any profit from the price which further loses the chance of profit to zero or even significant loss. Yet, this 30% also provides the benefit of quality over others in the market. So, to cover this 30% unit cost (keeping in mind also the price, to cut through price and earn profit for the company while also keeping the profit of quality it provides) the Salvadge Corporation introduced the marginal cost of 15% to 20%, backed by their refined statements and the data.