October 13, 1993
Wednesday
11:00
We opened the office with a pomp worthy of the Pereslavl-Zalessky branch of the Louvre. Zhorik, I, Marina, Lena, Konstantin, Sergei and Pavel with Lyosha stood in a circle in the lobby. Zhorik uncorked a bottle of «Moët & Chandon» and poured it into plastic cups: «Break a leg!». Together we exhaled «To the devil!», took a sip and headed for my office.
Zhorik remembered he had important business and vanished. The rest of us made our way in, took seats, looked around.
Two T-shaped desks, a worn armchair, ten wooden chairs, a cabinet. All the furniture straight out of the Soviet era. The computer and phone – from the cooperative era. I quoted Zhora: «We’ll earn our comfort and swagger,» and opened the meeting.
First thing, I laid out who was taking which office. Read off the numbers, explained: they were chalked on the doors, no one would get lost. Advised everyone to settle in compactly. For instance, five offices were allotted to accounting, but it would be better for Marina to share one room with Lena, and we’d keep the rest closed until brighter times. Strict rules on office equipment. Eight computers plus a server. Set the task: figure out your workstation and let Sergei the computer guy know who was setting up in which office. Needed for running the local network. Should be working by the end of the week. We’d be sending messages to each other right on the screen!
I opened my planner, checked it against the tasks Zhora had dictated, and concluded I’d handled the computerization.
Moved on to accounting.
Reminded Marina about Saturday’s decision to take a creative approach to paperwork. No red tape! Confirmed that no payments were expected from «Proma Impex» this quarter. Trading would run through the limited partnership «Cooperative for Industrial Import and Export,» to be registered any day now. Moved on to organizing sales.
First. Pavel to draw up a comprehensive order for Gennady, don’t count on the «Gazon» truck. Better to arm yourself with a classifieds paper and rent a couple of KAMAZ trucks.
Second. Form the order volume with the understanding that the hangar we are getting as a warehouse must carry the entire Khryakino range. One pallet per item as a minimum.
Third. Set up a showroom in one of the rooms on the floor. From my experience selling on Kalyazinsky, I knew customers would buzz your ear off: «Can I take a look at this? Can I smell that? What’s this thing here?» No way to keep running back and forth to the hangar.
The fourth item was the question of pre-New-Year purchasing.
I asked Kostya to sort out the remaining stock in Khryakino and figure out how much more New Year’s booze to buy in.
That wrapped it up.
I snapped the planner shut, surveyed the room triumphantly. Handled everything Zhora had dictated. A volley of questions opened fire on me. I opened the planner back up. Asked everyone not to rush, to speak in turn, and started taking notes.
First – we needed an office manager, we were jammed up on supplies! The wish came from everyone.
Second, from Marina. On the matter of relations with the Antonovsky Fund. The firm «Interbik» was tangled up in it, the one Zhorik had ordered us to ignore. But on all the paperwork we were taking goods on consignment from Interbik – how were payments to be recorded going forward, and to whom? Would the limited partnership being registered later be shut down? Plus another ten questions of lesser importance. I didn’t even bother listening closely.
Third, from Konstantin. New Year orders are all very well, but what do we do about excise stamps? Rumor has it that either from November or after the New Year alcohol may only be sold with stamps. Where do we get them? And what are they, anyway?
Fourth, from Lena – once we started selling, how would we take cash, and how would it be recorded? Under which company?
Fifth, from Sergei – the local network was all clear, but how would we sync sales between the two offices and the stock database?
Sixth, from Pavlik – if the KAMAZ situation worked out tomorrow, did that mean we could start selling on Friday?
No other questions.
Having logged what I’d heard in the planner, I started in order, from the last item. Announced that we’d start selling Monday, right when the ads would come out. Pavel was glad to have a spare day, and left.
Right, next…
I flipped through the planner and admitted I couldn’t answer right now. Needed to think it over. If we’d picked up some experience in small-lot wholesale over a month and a half, in large-scale wholesale it was a complete wash. In short, I needed not just to think, but to think it over together. So I proposed we all go back to our workstations, chew it over on our own, and reconvene at five p.m. sharp, this time with proposals.
