“I'm done making investments for crap”.
I saw this coming and warned Mark Luca but he would not listen to me.
Source
“Mr Whyte, we can work something out. It's not as bad as you think….”
“You lied to me! How do you keep selling a non-eco-friendly product to the public and pass it off as eco-friendly? We pay you, we deserve to know exactly what we are being offered and decide to get it.”
Mark Luca was sweating profusely now, I could see his fixed smile begin to waver with a lack of confidence. I dropped the laptop I was holding with both hands and waited to hear if Mr Whyte would change his seemingly made-up mind.
“I'm sorry, Luca. There is nothing I can do at this point.”
I saw Mark Luca bow his head in embarrassment, Mr Whyte was the biggest investor we had in the past 5 years and now that he was leaving, the company was bound to crumble to its knees.
Mark Luca was the biggest healthy drink producer in the state. I met him on a tour with the biodegradable company where I did my IT in Spain. He was impressed with the efficiency with which I carried out my duties as a nutritionist and promised me a job with his company if I ever came to LA.
I did come to LA after my internship duration was over, and he indeed had a job for me.
“Ah…..Marie Clara, we've met before, haven't we?” he was a really jovial man whose mouth didn't lack sugar-coating words. I liked him immediately until I found out who he really was.
“Welcome to Luca drinks. This is the most healthy drink in LA and I'm not bluffing, you can ask around.” he put his arm around my shoulders and guided me gently around the company.
“This is where the delicious goodness of Luca drinks is prepared,” he said pointing at the place where the aroma of freshly prepared drinks filled the air. “We make our bottles and customize them to the design of our choice. Aren't they beautiful?”
I watched the drinks being filtered into small bottles which had been designed to contain 50cl of liquid. I was going to commend his works but something caught my eye immediately.
“The materials these bottles are made with, are they not polyester?” He raised a side of his cheek and tapped my shoulder.
“I knew you were smart the moment I set eyes on you,” he said in reply and walked away. I hurried on after him.
“If those bottles are made from polyester then your products are not eco-friendly. You shouldn't pass them off to the public as being eco-friendly…..”
“Marie Clara, this is business. You have to tell the public what they want to hear, otherwise, you will make zero profit.”
“Really? Mr. Luca, you have to stop deceiving the public. What if someone takes you up?”.
When he turned to me, I could see that he was pissed.
“I've been in this business for 12 years. Do you think I got here with sentiments? Do you want a job here or not?”
We were back to his office now. I took the seat he offered me and bent my head trying to weigh my options. I wanted to work with a prestigious company as a nutritionist after my internship. It was all I ever wanted, but right now, I wasn't sure.
“I'll take the job,” I thought about the two boys waiting for me back in Spain, and my mother-in-law who felt I was going to return with a lot of money.
“Attagirl” he signed some documents and asked me to give them to the Human Resources personnel. “You can start from Monday”.
I was impressed with Luca’s organization and structure. He knew what he was doing for sure, only that he was the only one who knew that he was doing the wrong thing.
I watched Mr Whyte leave his office now, Luca rose to watch him leave through his office window and then came back to sit in his chair.
“What do we do? What's the best material to use for soft drinks?”
“We could use glass or aluminum. They are more sustainable and can easily be recycled. Just that you would have to pay more for the cost.”
“I'm ready to pay anything to get Mr Whyte back on board.”
I smiled. “I'm not an accountant but I think you would need to sit back and calculate the cost of how much you will be investing into making new bottles for your company. Especially now that you don't have a sponsor as big as Mr Whyte”.
It was his time to smile, “The first time I saw you, I knew you were smart.”
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