After a life in business, here I was walking back into a classroom, with a old leather briefcase, clad in tan corduroy pants, penny loafers, and a sweater.   I had passed on the tweed jacket in my closet.  At last, I was a bona fide academic, Dr. Jim, an aging preppy instructor at Midwest Community College.  I had learned that community colleges didn’t care much about academic credentials, if you had practical credentials.  I was teaching: “How to Start and Run Your Own Business”, which I knew something about.

As students straggled in, I noticed that corduroys were not in vogue so much these days.  In this class, it seemed, most any costume would do.  Lots of jeans in bad repair, T-shirts with off-color slogans, cute-ish young girls in tank tops displaying a variety of upper torsos. A couple of students got my attention:  a youngish, but slightly mature woman, second seat from the window in a blue blouse and extremely well-fitting tan trousers.  Her demeanor suggested a certain degree of organization, purpose, and resolve, qualities I valued.  On the far side of the room I spied a thin, lanky guy wearing a golf shirt and jeans, but they in excellent repair with no wrinkles.  His nose and eyes were hawk-like, and his lips were tight.

It was a night class, and many seats were filled.  At two minutes after the hour, I stepped on my little podium with a bit of excitement.

“Good evening, business enthusiasts.  My guess is that a few of you want to start a business, some are accumulating credits toward a business credential, and others are uncertain as to why you are here, or, perhaps, may be lost.  If you don’t mind … or if you do … I want to ask each student to stand up, give your name, and share a comment on your goals for this class.  Believe it or not, I plan to listen and tailor the material to your needs.”

“While a few of you will actually start or run a business, many will be inside a business for much of your life.  Those who avoid business will still be voting on taxes and regulations. Some of you may be in news media.  In my view, the media is likely the segment of our society most in need of business education.”

“OK.  Let’s begin in the northeast corner of the room with the gentlemen in the gray sweatshirt.”

An extrovert-looking guy in a checkered shirt and sweater, “I am Gary Woznicki.  I want to start a business, and get rich as quick as possible.”

Gary was hoping for a big laugh, and got a few titters.  These days, everyone wanted to get rich quick.

After a while, the hawk-eye-looking guy stood up.  “Hello.  My name is Peter Norgaard.  I work for a local company that develops software for online education.  My boss says I can’t advance unless I get more business credentials.  Maybe I will learn in this class that I do want to start a business.”

A few boring ones with bad diction, then a bright-looking girl of Asian descent, dressed in black, stood up. “Hi, I am Stephanie Chen.  My parents started a restaurant when I was little and our family has been working there most of our lives.  I am trying to find out what makes my Dad tick.”

After a while, we got to Ms. well-fitting trousers.  Deliberately, she stood up tall, shoulders back, took a breath, and spoke clearly.  “My name is Cary Ross.  I am an administrative assistant, and I want to take over the world.”  Cary got more laughs than get-rich-quick Gary.  I laughed, too.  She looked right at me, smiled knowingly, sat down gracefully, and I must say, athletically.

I gave my opening lecture.  A lot of it was just letting them know my approach.  “Business is a way of life.  It works out best if you go in with a philosophy and with a plan. Like everything, there is a certain amount of luck in business, but there is less luck in business than many activities.  You want to pay attention and look for opportunity, and try to be at the right place at the right time. In the long run, you might get back a bit more or a bit less than you put in.  But, generally, in business, the more you put in, the more you will get back.”   That sort of thing.

After class, I felt invigorated and puzzled.  I was stimulated by what I had done, but I had no idea if my messages would resonate with anyone in the class.  I was comforted by the observation that, most of the time, their eyes continued to follow me when I walked back and forth across the room.

I took a last, affectionate look at the brick buildings on campus, then headed across the street toward a coffee shop.  Set in a campus environment, it was more like a real 1960s coffee shop, the kind Starbucks copied in the 1980s.  I thought I would linger near the campus and try to keep my Professor vibe going.

After I got my double decaf espresso and headed to the patio, what did I see but Pete hawk-eye and Cary well-fitting trousers sitting together in front of a latte and a macchiato.  They recognized me and nodded. 

I decided to break the ice with them.  “If you two are friends, you certainly sat far apart in the class.”

Pete spoke up. “Actually, we weren’t friends … until now.  He smiled at her meaningfully.  We work for the same company and recognized one another.  Cary works at headquarters and I am in logistics.  I thought maybe I should chat up someone who works at headquarters and plans to take over the world.”

Cary winked. “So far, he is getting a B- in chatting.” Well-fitting trousers was putting him down a bit, but still she was smiling at him authentically.   Besides, a B- is not a bad grade coming from an A+ girl.

“You both seem ambitious, so it will help the class to have you.  Leadership is as important in the class room as it is in business and sports.”  I was still trying to win them over.

Cary saw what was going on and spoke again.  “Why don’t you join us, Doc. Pete and I aren’t on a date, or anything like that.”

Pete frowned. “We’re not? You let me pay for the latte.”  Then, he smiled and nodded to me.

“Actually, Doc, we do have a problem.  Our company is being sued.  Maybe you can help us.”

I liked these kids, and I was getting even more stimulated.  “Tell me more if you can.”

“OK.  Our company is called Aristotle Systems.  We provide a software for teaching classes online.  Aristotle is being sued by one of the teachers’ unions for including inappropriate content in our material.”  Hawk-eye Pete paused, and looked expectantly across the table.”

Well-fitting Cary took over.  “Our lawyers say their case is without merit, but that we could still lose.  As you know, a business in a lawsuit often tries to do the most practical thing without worrying too much about right and wrong.  The lawyers want to settle if it will be cheaper than going to court.  To win, our corporate law guys would need to hire a litigation firm that can keep up with the lawyers the teachers union brings … likely big-time litigators.  Besides the cost of the lawsuit, it would look bad if we were forced to revise the content of a course  … an even bigger problem if the union comes back later and asks for further changes.  Eventually, we could lose control of the content of our own product.”

 “Yeah.  We are thinking maybe we need to stand and fight now, or we might sink in the long-term.”

Well-fitting Cary looked me up and down.  “Doc, what kind of business were you running?  If you were a hot-shot CEO, maybe you could convince our bosses to kiss off the corporate lawyers and hire someone who would fight.”

This was starting to look like fun. “I used to be a CEO.  Maybe I could help.  We could start with your boss.  What is his job title?”

Cary was smiling again.  I was getting to like her smiles.  “My boss Gerry is called the Chief Operating Officer.  He reports to the CEO, so is pretty high up. I think maybe I could get you a meeting.  Does he need to pay you?” 

“No.  Not for a friendly chat.” Well-fitting Cary was getting to me, and I was trying not to smile too much.

“OK.  Let’s do this.  Give me some suggested times, and I will try to set up a meeting with Gerry.  Do you want to come over or Zoom?’

“If it is convenient, and you have a good in-person presence, face-to-face is always better for a first meeting.  Zoom, or phone, or even texting, is great for people you already know.  Let’s try for next Wednesday or Friday in the afternoon.”

—————————————————————

Chapter 2

It was Tuesday evening and there was a class Thursday.  Cary and Pete came into class together, though not arm-in-arm.  They walked up to my mini-podium.  I stood on it, so I would be taller than Pete.

“OK Doc.  I gave him your resume and a little story.  He wants you to drop by Friday afternoon about 4:30PM, if you can.”

Thursday night, I gave my first real lecture, and we started working on a Case Problem, how to do a “gap analysis” and come up with a company mission. It was fun for me, and for some in the class.  Here’s a bit of what I said.

“Advertising public relations, and recognition are important, but to start a business, you need to fill a need in the marketplace, to provide something real people actually need or want.  Nowadays some companies get rich by giving away an online service, developing a following, and selling their contact information to advertisers.  Since I don’t know as much about that, I would rather teach you about filling a need in the marketplace.”

“Gap analysis” is about sitting in a comfy chair with a good drink and thinking about things you would like to have that do not exist … yet.  Then, you imagine how you could create the product or service you would like, think about how much it might cost to make, who might be willing pay more than your cost, and how you could contact them, make the offer, and collect the money.”

“If you can see a clear path, you have a product idea.  If you can see a path to a family of products or services you could provide to a defined, ongoing customer group, you have a business idea.  Then, you come up with a mission, i.e. a long-term goal.”

————————————————-   

Friday, I was a little nervous, but the feeling was like the butterflies that athletes and actors have before a performance.  I had done a thousand meetings, and I would feel great once it got going.

Cary’s boss was called Patrick Henry.  He looked middle-young and not long out of school.  People weren’t dressing that well these days, so it was hard to draw any conclusions from the baggy slacks and striped shirt that did not fit Pat nearly as well as Cary’s clothes fit her.

“Hi Jim.  Cary says, besides being her business teacher, you used to be a CEO who has been in lawsuits.  We have a doozy on our hands, and Cary suggested you could talk to us a little without charging any fees.  Do you do consulting as a business?”

“Not at this point”, I answered.  “I don’t need to make much money these days, so I took a shot at being a Professor for a while.  I am probably more interested in getting background for a story I want to write.  It is about our education system and what schools are doing these days.”

“Naturally, we would want you to sign a Confidentiality Agreement and keep the lawsuit content secret.”

”Sure. Whatever I would write about later would be labeled as fiction and not traceable to your company or the people suing you.  You could review the manuscript whenever you like.  Your review would likely help me check my authenticity.”

Wow!  Things seemed to be moving fast in my new dual career as a professor and author … even though I had not yet proven to anybody that I was capable of doing either one.

“OK.  Here’s the deal.  Our software teaches about history and civics.  These days, there is a shortage of history teachers, and almost no civics is being taught in many states.  Our Aristotle history/civics bundle teaches middle school kids civics in the context of American history, that is … how our government was designed …  how it evolved over time … and … how it works now.  Our editor-in-chief, Larry Aziz, should explain a little about the details of the case.  Hit it, Larry.” 

“OK, Pat.  We have a group of lessons called Separation of Powers and Conflicts of Interest.  The first chapter unpacks the American Founders’ ideas about checks and balances … how each of the three branches of government is assigned separate powers not assigned to the other two … to act to check and balance the other branches. Many are aware that the Separation of Powers designed in the constitution has been eroded in recent years. The debate about that is mainstream and is covered by some media.”

“We are not trying to be activists here, or to back causes or political groups.  But we ARE teaching what is really happening in history and civics.”

“A second part of our course discusses Conflicts of Interest in government, not mentioned in the Constitution, which arise because people in government are also citizens. It seems improper, but is not illegal, when congress exempts itself from complying with laws other citizens must obey or gives themselves a raise without any overview.”

“Even more subtle is the evolution of rules that compel government employees to join unions paying high dues used to fund political campaigns in which candidates must promise to enact measures favoring public employee unions or lose the votes of 15% of voters who are public employees. Since it has become nearly impossible to fire public employees, elected officials have limited tools to bargain with them.”

“Our material states that the best example of the so-called capture of democratically-elected officials by government employees is the K-12 education system in many states, a government monopoly in which most policies are made by teachers unions rather than the elected officials and school boards who, in theory, “run the schools”.

“As you might imagine, the teachers’ unions do not like these statements and are suing us to have them removed from our teaching materials.  In the past, when every book had to be approved by teachers unions, such statements would never make it to print.  Since we have a contract to provide continuously-updated online content to schools, the control and censoring of our content has become more difficult.  Since we have a multi-year contract with the schools, the teachers’ union decided they could only contest the content we provide by suing us.”  Larry Aziz stopped talking and looked back at Patrick.

Patrick was staring out the window, chewing his lip, and holding a pen very tightly. He slammed the pen on the table and took a deep breath. “We have a creative editor, Kira, our subject matter expert in civics, who wrote a lot of the material. She was an intern at the Cato Institute. We thought her slant would give us an edge in certain education markets. I think it will, but right now, we are seeing a down side.”

“Clearly, our primary goal is to be viable in the marketplace.  Normally, businesses like to settle legal disputes out of court, in hopes that the related issues will go away. In this case, we’re not sure what to do. If we knuckle under, we could lose everything.”

When Patrick finished talking, there was a moment of silence.  I was stimulated by the challenge this conflict presented.

Pat broke the silence.  “Well. What does the former CEO think about this?”

Patrick and Larry seemed pretty interested in my opinion.  It wasn’t exactly a legal question.  Rather, it was a business strategy question. Cary had sneaked into the small conference room on some pretext, and was hanging around.  Patrick and Larry seemed to be OK with her joining.   

I cleared my throat a couple of times, straightened my shirt cuffs, and stood up. “No business ever wants to go to court against a customer.  In a sense, the Teachers Union represents your customer, but, in a larger sense, maybe they do not.  If you don’t accept the Teachers’ Union as a legitimate representative of your customer, you might be going against the true interests of your customer by settling. If you lose your edge, you could lose this market segment you mentioned.”

I went on. “If you permit an organization that is not your customer to dictate your content one time, they will likely want to do it again … and again.”

“In the most basic terms, it boils down to whether or not you have a good chance to win.  To lose, could be the end of the Company.  If you can win, you would get good publicity and you could grow your way out of this.”

Cary was now sitting down and staring across the room apparently as engaged in the topic as I was.

I was trying to decide whether to keep talking, or shut up.  I shut up.

———————–

Chapter 3

A few days later, I was asked to meet with the Aristotle lawyers who wanted to settle.  Larry and Patrick,  the CEO, were also in the meeting.  They thought we should propose revised content and they would negotiate a settlement.  They wanted $1,100/hr each for two attorneys for whatever time it took to reach the settlement with the Teachers Union.  There were no specific suggestions about the nature of revisions.  They said we should have two or three proposed revisions which we would introduce, sequentially, until we got one the Union would buy.

Patrick looked at Larry.  Larry put his head down, then looked over at me.  Patrick acknowledged me.

“Jim, do you have any suggestions.”

I did.  I took a medium deep breath, stuck my chest out a little. “My advice would be, to steal a quotation from Admiral Nelson, ‘Damn the Teachers Union, full speed ahead.’ ”

Pat smiled weakly and addressed the lawyers.  “Thanks for your suggestions.  We will take you suggestion under advisement and get back to you within a day or two.”

—————————————————————————-

After several days, Aristotle retained an independent attorney, retired from a large New York law firm, who, like me, taught at Midwest Community College.  I had seen him in the coffee shop and liked his suits.  An initial trial date was set.  Aristotle also hired me to work with the attorney, Tom Paine, and offered to pay me $150/hr to advise Tom Paine.  They didn’t tell what they were paying Tom Paine.  It turned out he was taking a bunch of stock options in Aristotle that would vest only if we won.  He probably didn’t want the stick options if we lost.

—————————————————–

The courtroom was modern-looking with lots of glass and light-colored wood. I had hoped it would be old-fashioned with dark wood, like the one in the movie Inherit the Wind, where Clarence Darrow debated with William Jennings Bryan about teaching the theory of evolution in Tennesee schools. I hoped there was a parallel here.

The counsel for the Teachers Union was a New York-looking guy in a gray suit with white stripes, who looked like a combination of Woody Allen and Noam Chomsky, intellectual, impish, but capable of bad humour. He addressed a lone Judge in a nearly-empty courtroom. They had told me his name was Ira Marx.

“Your Honor, as legal representative of the Midwest School District, the American Congress of Teachers has standing andrequests the court to issue an injunction ordering Aristotle Systems to cease and desist from publishing specified content in its online course American History and Civics that we contend is inaccurate, infllammatory, salacious, and damaging to the American Congress of Teachers and its affiliated school districts.”

Judge Miriam Elias paused and looked straight at Marx. “Counselor, the first thing we need to establish indeed is whether or not you do have standing to address the court on this issue.”

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Categories: Fiction, Stories