What Lies in Store

I have got a plan.

Rather, I thought, I had a plan for everything in life.

I was on my way to my fiancée’s parents when I received that phone call.

On the other end, was my brother, my elder brother, who last spoke to me five years when he came to drop me off at the airport.

My brother and my father were not happy with my decision. “Not very happy” is putting it very mildly.

My father had stopped speaking to me when I had conveyed my decision to not join the family business and move to Europe to pursue a PhD.

You have probably heard of my family.

My family runs a retail company with over 1000 stores in the US.

And my father is the founder of this company that employs over 10,000 people.

The one thing that I distinctly remember whenever we used to visit Dad in his office would be photos from his latest visit to our stores.

Over the past years as his health got worse, his store visits became more and more infrequent.

My brother wasn’t a huge fan of visiting these stores and had started closing many of these stores to focus on the new e-commerce strategy that the company was pursuing aggressively under his leadership.

It’s harder to do layoffs when you have met these “resources” in person, shared a meal and heard stories about how grateful they are for this job and for their families.

I knew all this even before I received the call but had no idea on what I would hear next from Mark.

“Where are you?”

I am outside Paris.

Can you get to Charles De Gaulle, the jet is already on its way. Should be there in …4 hours.

“What happened ??”

“Papa is in the ICU”

“What… when…Will he be alright?”

“Don’t think so…. Maybe a day or two... if we are lucky.”

“Jesus! Mark. When were you planning to tell me ... (looking at my watch)…I should be home in 11 hours..

Mark: You are not coming here.

Sam: What do you mean?

Mark: You are going to Hoboken.

Sam: Where is that?

Mark:100 miles from New Jersey City.

Sam: What kind of sick joke is this.

Mark: Look, you know Papa’s obsession with visiting these stores and getting a photo with the store workers.

There are 3 stores that papa couldn’t visit so far. And now he wants us to do it ... before he ….

Sam: Why can’t we do this later?

Mark: Because we don’t know if he will come out of this Sam. So, it must be now!

Sam: So why don’t you do it then? Aren’t you after all Vice chairman or something and “heir to the throne” as per Wall Street Journal.

My voice was loaded with as much spite, suffering and shame of not living up to my dad’s lofty expectations and that of my brother exceeding them, every time.

Mark: Because everyone in this company hates me. They call me “store killer”.

Sam: You seem to say with a lot of pride.

Mark: They are so much in love with money guzzling, unprofitable stores, that they can’t see the world has moved online.

Sam: So, send one of your lackeys then.

Mark: It must be someone from the family.  

Sam: Send Sara then... isn’t the Hamptons closer to New Jersey.

Mark: Sara... is not … She’s not a son, OK! it must be a son, someone who has the last name as Papa. And so it has to be one of us and since I can’t do it, you have to do it.

I am sorry, you don’t believe in all his archaic, patriarchy stuff, but can you man up for once and do something for this family.”

Amidst all that hate and confusion swirling in my heart, mind and soul, the thing that I realised was this.

I am a few days away or probably a few hours away from becoming an orphan.

Mom had left us long back, a few months after I was born.

I used to think that Papa disliked me because he thought I was somehow responsible for Mama’s death.

But within a few years I realised, he didn’t care much for Mama or for me

He just cared about his business and the people who worked in the stores

His cell phone number was available to every store manager, so that they didn’t have to spend time writing emails to the management teams for urgent matters

We never saw Papa from Halloween till New Year. He preferred to spend the busiest time and most profitable months of the retail season with his army of lackeys and  in the stores.

Mark brought me back to the present moment

Mark: And listen, when you reach the store, if anyone asks you, why you are here, all of a sudden, don’t say anything about Papa’s health.

Sam: Why?

Mark: Because we cannot afford to take a hit to our stock price now.

Right there, in those few words, I realized why Papa loved my brother. Even in this moment, my brother was concerned about the company’s stock price.

I mean, at some level, you must admire the clarity of purpose and priority.

I am sure if he could hear the cruel words that Mark had said just now, he would have approved of it.

Sam: Sorry for the inconvenience! Mark, I snapped back.

Mark: If it goes below $35, I won’t have a company to run, and you won’t have any stores left to visit.

All these PE (private equity) guys and Activist investors have been asking for Papa to step down as Chairman of the Board for the for the past few months now.

They drove him crazy with bad press every day, he started taking these random pills and now he is….

Anyways…. the pilot will have more details. Sending you a number, call him when you reach.

With that the call was done. My mind was just buzzing with so many things to do. Called up Sarah and gave her the fastest summary of my call with Mark.

I was in the Taxi to the airport in the next hour. Soon I was in the Jet that Mark had arranged for and within a few minutes we were airborne

I was given a file that contained details about these stores and my itinerary. I would be making pit stops in three corners of the US over the next 24 hours after I land in Newark.

A network of cars and people would be waiting for me at these airports. I had been on these trips with Papa a few times when we were kids.

I was still thinking of the last time when I was in one of the stores, when the Pilot’s voice boomed inside the aircraft.

“Sir, we have been asked to make a detour, we are now flying directly to the Headquarters “.

A few seconds later I saw the air hostess rushing towards me with a satellite phone in her hands.

Mark : Sam... Papa....