Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Job losses at Meridian Huntingdon (and the state of the economy)

don't worry about the tenth man - he was last spotted drinking at Hedi's bar - pathetically drunk and whimpering about his broken Trifield whilst elsewhere the world was collapsing

But isn't one of the big problems that the tenth man is now being paid multiples of what he earned 10 years ago for doing the same job, whereas the other nine are either going backwards, or earning a few percent higher, for doing the same jobs? (albeit that we're ALL probably doing the jobs of at least two employees from a decade ago)

Cheers,
George

And the other problem is that those bonds which did not qualify for AAA rating were re-packaged and then given AAA rating, even though the contents were still the debts of the unemployed alcoholics.

Indeed. And wasn't it the tenth man who re-packaged and gave them that rating?

Cheers

George

Sometimes, yes.............Many times, No

Like Football teams, there are a lot of "Tenth Men".......all different skills and specialities

But I think that it is safe to assume that at least the first four men did not have a hand in the operation.

The topic started out as �Job losses at Meridian Huntingdon� then switched to �Understanding Derivatives� (page 6) and last but not least to �And on the same subject, then there is "Bar Stool Economics". Gee whiz, I get nailed for giving my two cents on another topic (post now deleated, but hopefully this problem will be resolved) and look at this and wonder why. Why me?

Moving forward, Luxury Society had an article written by Sophie Dora on March 30, 2011 entitled �Tim Ireland, CEO, Meridian Audio� which suggests to me that the reduction of employees as mentioned in message #1 regarding a 2008 article has to do with the following excerpt:


Priorities for Mr Ireland were to simplify the product offering, clarify the value proposition of the brand and leverage the existing philosophy of low volume, high quality. �In terms of performance we have a very simple credo: to be the best in class. Three years ago Meridian had over 130 different products, now there are less than 30. This has made it considerably easier for the customer to understand what he (or she) is buying.�

Central to increasing consumer awareness was the establishment of Meridian branded retail stores, the first in Bangkok in 2009, followed by Santiago, Mexico City, Kuwait, Taipei, New Delhi, Bangalore and Moscow in 2010. A veritable line-up of some of the world�s strongest emerging luxury markets, with exports outside of the UK now accounting for 85% of total sales.http://luxurysociety.com/articles/2011/03/tim-ireland-ceo-meridian-audio

This is my favorite story of the times we live in.

It is a slow day in the small Minnesota town of Marshall , and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A rich tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Farmer's Co-op.

The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything... However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

The idea is, you get money moving and the debt crisis will disappear.

Hi George Good to bump into you again. Interesting story. Meridian America is looking for a California Marketing Director. Humm, that makes me want to .... I worked for a top notch VP of Marketing long ago. This is a true story. He walked into the office one morning after a meeting at a local bar with a client. He had a big grin on his face and handed me a cocktail napkin. It had a sales agreement signed by a client that was for a million dollars worth of product. That was how it was done long ago. There was a lot of respect and honor between people doing business.

I did that once. Came back from conference in Berlin with an agreement solely based on a handshake. We did the business requested by the client, they paid us the agreed fee and a bonus (which was not part of the original agreement) and everyone was happy. We did the same thing again, and again got a payment with bonus.

Then legal got involved. They insisted that we have a formal agreement in place with the client. Ten pages of dense legalese later everything was signed. The client took me out to lunch and told me that we couldn't do another deal, the lawyers had squeezed the life out of the whole point of dealing with us in the first place.

Sorry to be the wet blanket here but experience has taught me that contracts which are not clearly defined to both parties are a disaster. The expectations and understanding of one party may well not be the same as the other and the whole thing degenerates into a "he said, she said" argument.

For example, in your "handshake" deal, did you both know the payment terms? It's very easy in Europe to expect payment in 30 days but your Middle Eastern client will pay as he does normally in 120 days leaving you with no cashflow.

The other point concerns the avoidance of corruption. Your handshake morphs into passing brown envelopes.

However, it is not necessary for lawyers to crawl over most normal business contracts.

I'm with you on that. In the arts business if you perform without a contract you almost invariably end up getting ripped off.