For the first few months after the merger, a wave of cash poured in. Everyone agreed that bringing in Stirling had been an astute move. Even the financial broadsheets who always criticised Plantation, thought it a good idea. Yet, as so often occurs in life, the truth was somewhat different.
When separate businesses are fused together, there are re-organisations and adjustments which everyone has to bear.
Stirling had insisted that all of its five directors should sit on Plantation’s board. With Jim Ashby away, Grenville had a perfect opportunity to clear out the original directors and replace them with Stirling appointees. Ashby remained as managing director ; Grenville made himself chairman. Nigel Black, the former principal of Stirling, became the company secretary.
When Jim Ashby returned, he found the old board gone. The new line-up were total strangers to him.
Some early claims had been notified on Stirling policies. As Stirling had been fully absorbed by Plantation, the claims were payable by Plantation alone. Some of them were so large, they could have decimated the company altogether.
A furious row broke out between Ashby and Grenville about the merger. But it was too late. Jim Ashby had signed on the dotted line and given his commitment : that was how things stood.
It slowly dawned on him that for the first time, his control of the company had slipped from his grasp.
Why it had happened, was kept secret from Ashby but could be said in one word : revenge.
Decades earlier, Plantation was set up by Jim Ashby on his own and he was proud of what he’d achieved. The early years weren’t easy and he naturally wanted the fruits of his labour for himself and his family. He hadn’t actually declared that publicly but it was his view of the world and of Plantation itself.
If the company’s employees had known as much, they mightn’t have worked so hard to make the business a success. And no-one had worked harder in the hope of greater reward and recognition than Roger Grenville.
In many ways, Grenville was similar to Jim Ashby. He’d risen from the same background and worked his way up the corporate ladder. Like Ashby, he’d toiled long hours building up the business over twenty years. There came a point, however, when it was obvious that Ashby wouldn’t accept him as a partner. Instead, the younger Ashby would run the business with his father. Eventually, the son would replace the father. Grenville would end up answering to a junior.
It was then that Grenville decided that if Jim Ashby wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he’d take it anyway and the rest of the company with it.
Grenville had been the finance man for over ten years and knew all there was to know about the accounts. This gave him an insight into the strength of Plantation’s business which he knew inside out – perhaps even better than Jim Ashby himself. He recognised where its weaknesses lay : there were clients who brought in all the money and others who were dogs and needed to be discarded.
While Ashby senior bemoaned the value of Plantation’s capital, Grenville knew exactly what the company was worth.
Jim Ashby’s clientele was the envy of his competitors. Like many entrepreneurs, he’d remained loyal to his clients who were profitable in the good times but were going through bad times. And he refused to admit that they were dragging the company down.
Grenville had perceived years earlier that Plantation was on the rocks. As time wore on, he knew that bankruptcy was unavoidable. The all-powerful founder had become too greedy or arrogant to have noticed this himself ; most of the time, he was on a plane visiting clients or out of the office for weeks on end.
If Plantation went under through Ashby’s neglect, Grenville would be on the street without a job. It would mean the end of his career, his directorship and his shares (which should rightly have been worth more). Everything he’d worked for during the past twenty years would go down the drain. Most of his working life had been spent at Plantation. It was a question of personal prestige, not to let it be swept away through the intransigence of one man.
The closer Plantation drifted towards disaster, the more it rankled with Grenville that he was powerless to avert it. Finally, one day, he lost patience altogether and vowed to become utterly ruthless and push James Ashby out of the way – along with his son – and wrest Plantation from them, to take what should have been his.
It was now a game of survival, a fight to the death with his bitterest and most hated rival. It was all or nothing with no backing out or running away. He was determined to be the winner and have Plantation for himself.
His plan was to gain control of the company’s assets and client business while removing Ashby from the company. To do this, he would contrive a situation where Plantation’s business would degenerate to such an extent and in such a way that it was close to crashing. It could then be sold cheaply to an interested buyer – a front company run by someone else but at Grenville’s direction and with him as ultimate owner – possibly in Luxembourg or in the Dutch Antilles.