Shattered Covenants Book III
The Consultant
by
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Joe Baxter’s management consulting career with McKenzie Barber began on the Tuesday after Labor Day in 1968. He spent a restless Monday night in the house on Palmer Street and bolted up form his bed at the sound of the electric buzz from the alarm clock. Jennifer stirred slightly, but returned to sleep. It was five-thirty in the morning and Baxter estimated that the drive to the Chicago Loop would take an hour and twenty minutes. He had made the trip from Racine to Chicago twice during the two week interval following his acceptance of McKenzie Barber’s offer of employment. Baxter used the two week period as a "get ready" period. He had talked once by telephone to Bill Dwyer who informed Baxter that he should report to the Chicago office on Tuesday and fill out the firm’s "bloody papers" and "play Nickerson’s game of orientation charades". You will be assigned a file case in the consultant’s pool and a place to sit. But don’t get too comfy." Dwyer’s voice rose over the din from a crowded airport. "Pack a bag and pick up some airplane tickets for a late afternoon flight to Toledo. I’ve got you on a production scheduling assignment at a hydraulic component manufacturer. Nickerson’s secretary, the lovely Lorna, will have tickets and some briefing documents for you. I’ll meet your flight. They’re calling my flight, Joe. I have to run. Glad to have you with us." The line went dead. Baxter bought a new blue suit at J.C. Penney and visited the Racine public library to research hydraulics, review production scheduling texts and learn about Toledo. He read every piece of business magazine material with articles concerning McKenzie Barber. He was cramming for his new career with an elite world class firm. His career experience to date included The US Army and Washburn Manufacturing. Had it prepared Baxter to compete and survive in the world of McKenzie Barber? He visited the barbershop on Saturday and purchased a carry-on suitcase from the luggage department of Sears Roebuck. Agnes, the housekeeper, was waiting in the kitchen for Baxter. "I’ll have breakfast in Chicago, Agnes," Baxter said accepting a cup of black coffee. "You look very nice today, Joe. I know that you’re going to make a very nice impression on your first day." "I will be going to Toledo this evening and won’t be back until late Friday evening." "I’ll keep things under control here, Joe and I’ll have a hot supper waiting for you on Friday night." Baxter drained the coffee mug in rapid sips and paused to observe his reflection in the hall mirror. His red hair was neatly combed. His large frame was very comfortably presented in a blue suit, white shirt and red tie and his shoes were highly shined. "McKenzie Barber, here I come!" He proclaimed to the mirror. Baxter found himself in the McKenzie Barber reception area on the Tuesday after Labor Day waiting with three attractive young women. There was a tall, reserved woman from Cornell named Andrea, a heavily tanned woman from Cal-Berkley named Sandy, and a short dark haired, energetic Jewish woman from the University of Chicago named Naomi. Naomi, who chose a blue linen suit to wear on the first day of her career with McKenzie Barber, looked familiar to Baxter. She wore dark rimmed plastic glasses, smoked two cigarettes as they waited for Nickerson’s secretary, Lorna, to gather them up. Baxter made the connection when the group was placed in the pool to fill out their forms. Naomi was Naomi Schwartz from his University of Minnesota days. She recognized Baxter at the same time. "You’re Joe Baxter, who went off to Wisconsin to install a Scanlon Plan at a small company," Naomi observed during a coffee break. "I didn’t recognize you with a suit on." "I barely recognized you, Naomi." "Lose two to three hundred pounds and your best friends won’t recognize you," Naomi explained with a sharp smile and Baxter remembered her waddle. "I thought you were going to be a GS-9." "I tried it and decided I’d go off to the U of Chicago on a Jewish Virgin scholarship. I finished my MBA and decided to come here." "I’m glad you’re here," Baxter said. "So am I. You and I should have a drink one night and get caught up." Baxter recognized invitation in Naomi’s dark eyes and round face. "Let’s get our bearings around this place first," he suggested. Baxter was immediately assigned to an engagement with a manufacturer of hydraulic components headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. The engagement was the development of a materials management system for the client and was led by an Associate named Russell, with Baxter serving as the "grunt consultant". Baxter was charged with all the detail and basic information gathering. Each Sunday evening, Baxter was expected to fly to Toledo, check in at the Holiday Inn, and meet with Russell for breakfast at six-thirty a.m. The next morning to go over the week’s work plan. Following their breakfast meeting, they would drive together to the client in a rental car, timing their arrival for ten minutes ahead of the first shift. They would generally work until 6 PM and return to the motel. After freshening up, Baxter would meet Russell for dinner and they would review the day’s progress. Russell would excuse himself at nine o’clock to go to his room and call his wife. Baxter would try to call Jennifer, but she was consistently out for the evening. The project lasted three months and was succeeded by a four month project for a large physical distribution company in Cleveland where Baxter worked for an Associate named Dave. This was followed by a month long stint reviewing purchasing practices for a farm equipment manufacturer in Des Moines, Iowa working with Russell again. Baxter would pick up his airplane tickets for the coming week at his cubicle in the pool on late Sunday afternoon and catch a cab to O’Hare to leave for the next week’s work. He would also leave off his time and expense sheet which were required every two weeks by McKenzie Barber. There were always consultants in the pool on Sunday afternoon. They drank coffee, smoked cigarettes in spite of the No Smoking signs, ate pizza and poured over data charts, while operating Friden calculators. One Spring Sunday afternoon, Baxter found Naomi and Andrea working feverishly on a project with papers strewn over the long table at the back of the room. "Hi stranger," Naomi greeted Baxter. He hadn’t seen her since the Pool Consultants Christmas cocktail party in December. "You remember Andrea from our morning of filling out insurance forms? She goes by Andy." Andy stood up to shake hands. She was quite tall, arranged her hair in a bun and wore a turtleneck and slacks. Naomi had her black hair cut short, was dressed in a black sweater and slacks with a single strand of pearls. She was still large breasted, but now her waist was narrow. Her legs appeared shapely, although Naomi still showed heavy thighs in her black slacks. She note Baxter’s eyes moving over her body. "Joe knew me when I was as fat as two hogs. That’s why he always gives me the once-over, Andy." "And what are you ladie
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About the Book
Book III, The Consultant
The Consultant covers an eight-year span of time that brings Baxter into contact with a colorful grouping of consultants and clients. They range from Bob Friedman, a clever, womanizing West Coast McKenzie Barber Partner, Leon Harwell, a wealthy investor, who becomes Baxter's career building client relationship, continued contact with "Wild Bill" Dwyer, a brilliant, but unorthodox manufacturing consulting practice, Dr. Alice Dungler, a ribald technology consultant who founds a major software corporation, and the development of Baxter's protege relationship with Hamilton Burke III, who emerges as the Chairman's crown prince.
Book III reintroduces several characters from Book I, Present & Past Imperfect including Ernie Grey, the Chairman, the villainous Clyde Nickerson, Paul Brimmer, Burke's competition for Chairman succession, Baxter's first meeting with Bridgette Morgan, and his alienation from his second wife, Jennifer. Book III, revisits Baxter's torrid five love affair with a consultant then known as Dominique Beaufort who was introduced as the Baroness DeHartog in Book I. Book III concludes with Baxter's transfer to the New York office of McKenzie Barber.
The Consultant is a fast paced narration of Joe Baxter's career emergence, recognition, and entanglements in the complex and often Byzantine organization of a global consulting firm with elasticity in values.
About the Author
Dwight Foster, the author of Shattered Covenants, is a native of Minnesota who was transferred to New York City in 1980. He retired as a consulting partner from an international public accounting firm in January 1990 to form an executive search firm. Shattered Covenants is a first novel, which represents an eight year project dealing with the passing of leadership in a professional services firm. Shattered Covenants is Book III of a series of free standing novels relating to the formation of a major management consulting firm, its rise, zenith, decline, and ultimate compliant merger with a principal competitor. Shattered Covenants deals with the passing of CEOs (i.e. kings) and their ultimate effect on the careers and lives of the courtiers and rank and file professionals who follow the leadership of the CEO. The author has spent his business career in the consulting industry and, for the past eleven years, has headed up a well-recognized executive search firm. Dwight Foster has published previously in management studies and magazine articles and is quoted from time to time in the national press. His experience in the practice of executive search and familiarity with organization and business models over the past thirty years provided the motivation to write a sweeping novel. The primary narrator of Shattered Covenants, Joseph Baxter, Jr., is the son of a labor martyr from Minnesota’s Iron Range who rises to a Board Room, world traveling executive compensation consultant. Baxter is a modern day Candide who develops the cunning to survive in a ruthlessly competitive business world. Dwight Foster is a University of Minnesota Alumnus, the father of two adult children, and is married to Dorothy Choitz Foster, a well-known consultant to the cosmetics and fragrance industry. The Fosters maintain an apartment in New York City and a permanent home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.