gestures are lithe and his voice rich and melodious.
He makes straight for Héloïse the moment he sees her, opens his arms spontaneously, as if to embrace her, but then stops himself short. There has always been a certain closeness between them, which had not been affected when Henri Rami put more distance between the two men some years ago. Before the accident, whenever she and Hubert had met by chance, they had never spoken of the company but rather had warmly discussed their shared interests in nature. She owes much of her love of the forest to Hubert. Since her childhood, he has helped her discover the secrets of its inhabitants, whether those of the stag, the cuckoo, or the oak. But right now it is necessary to discuss other things. Hubert speaks first.
“The meeting starts at nine, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, but I need to talk to Thierry beforehand. Is he here yet?”
“His car wasn’t in the usual parking lot just now. But he sometimes parks in the employees’ lot. Would you like me to go and check the shop floor?”
Héloïse recognizes Hubert’s generosity. Not only does he not appear to bear a grudge against her for following her father’s choice of Thierry Ambi over him, but he also shields her from embarrassment about the shop floor. Although they had never spoken about it, he knows that Héloïse doesn’t like to go through the doors at the end of the corridor, which lead to the two workshops, one for metal and one for wood.
“Yes. Thank you. And tell him to come to my office right away.”
She turns away from the doors to the workshops and goes to greet Léon in his office, directly opposite Georgette’s. Léon, who is in charge of procurement, is in the midst of a lively private conversation with Yasmina, the new secretary. Secretaries seldom stay long at H. Rami—a fact that has a rekindling effect on Léon, an old bachelor forever hoping to find his soul mate in the form of the new recruit.
They are animatedly discussing their respective vacations, which had ended the day before. Their time off had been disturbed somewhat by worries about their future with the company. Héloïse’s appearance stops them cold. Without even giving them time to mumble hello, she shakes their hands briskly and retreats back down the corridor in a heavy silence. Héloïse is keen for this day to end.
9:00 A.M. Once more in her father’s office, Héloïse paces back and forth, unable to concentrate on any one thought. Hubert has already been back twice to tell her that there is no sign of Thierry. He asked Georgette to phone his house, but to no avail. Thierry has a cell phone of course, but only Henri Rami had known the number, for Thierry never really connected with any of the employees outside of working hours.
He was polite with everyone, but his sudden arrival in January—with the bizarre title of “supply chain manager,” which no one else understood—had started things off on the wrong foot. Henri Rami had hired him without any discussion with his employees at all, as though his presence would change nothing. In fact, all the relationships between the supervisors, the staff, and the workers had gradually changed. As usual, everyone waited in vain for some sort of explanation from the boss, without ever daring to ask for one. This brewing crisis was finally resolved by Henry Rami getting rid of the secretary.
Traditionally at H. Rami, the secretary becomes the scapegoat for everyone’s frustrations, and everyone feels in harmony again the moment she leaves. This was how Yasmina had arrived at the end of spring. It was around this time that Thierry’s colleagues had grown curious about what exactly his job was. Five months after its creation, it seemed to them to consist of both everything and nothing at all.
Yasmina has barely knocked on the door when it swings open to reveal the worried expression on Héloïse’s face.
“Yes? Is he here?”
“Um ... It’s Mr. Chaillou, ma’am. He wants to know if the meeting is going to start.”
Roger Chaillou, the supervisor of the wood shop, shambles in behind Yasmina, looking worried. Henri Rami named him head of quality control soon after he congratulated Roger on being, unlike his counterpart in the metal shop, punctual for meetings. Since that time, other people’s lateness causes Roger great anxiety, as though it were his responsibility.
“Is the meeting going to start?” Héloïse wonders, petrified. She reacts the way she does before a concert, when the nervousness of others, combined with her own, compels her to throw herself into the music the way she would throw herself into a cold lake: with an empty mind, she just begins.
“Yes. Tell everyone that we’re ready to start. Thierry will join us when he gets here.”
For this kind of meeting, “everyone” usually meant Hubert Lancien, in charge of sales; Georgette Olivier, head of accounting; Jean-Marc Gridy, supervisor of the metal shop; Roger Chaillou, supervisor of the wood shop and head of quality control; Thierry Ambi, supply chain manager; and Henri Rami, president.
Héloïse shakes Jean-Marc’s hand quickly when he arrives with his usual grumpy air. Then she follows Hubert and Georgette, who have emerged simultaneously from their offices. They climb the spiral staircase up to the meeting room, located on the top floor.
The room has a vaulted ceiling and a skylight over the tables, which have been arranged in the shape of a U. At the top of the U is a wall covered by a large whiteboard. The attendees sit mechanically facing it. Héloïse hesitates. Hubert signals her to sit beside him, at the bottom of the U. The silence is heavy. Everyone looks at their feet.
Héloïse starts to speak. “I came in this morning to participate in your monthly meeting and to tell you all how things are going to be from now on. But I’d rather wait for Thierry before getting started. In the meantime, I suggest you carry on with your meeting as you usually do. Yes—just pretend I’m not here at all.”
Looks are exchanged, and after some back and forth, everyone’s glance settles on Hubert, who clears his throat before speaking. “It was Thierry who started to organize this meeting soon after his arrival. He called it the ‘S&OP’ meeting—the sales and operations planning meeting. My understanding is that, when Henri was in charge of chairing them, Thierry was the one who was supposed to prepare things with each of us between meetings. I gave Thierry my updated sales forecast by product line, as usual, but I don’t know what he did with it, as we were supposed to hold this meeting several times in the spring but often had to postpone due to emergencies. We finally had one at the beginning of June, at which Henri mainly asked questions about the backlog. Therefore, we did not have time to deal with the important issues. In my opinion, it would be better to wait for Thierry to get here to show us what he’s prepared.”
Georgette takes on her usual air of a perfectly behaved schoolgirl and pipes up, “I kept the note that Thierry handed out about this process. He considered it to be critical in building the future of our company and allowing a proper implementation of the ERP. We had planned to work together to prepare some scenarios for next year, but we haven’t done it yet.”
She takes a sheet of paper from her binder and passes it to Héloïse, who reviews it aloud, for fear the deafening silence would return.
“I see several definitions with highlighted words,” she murmurs hesitantly. “‘It is a set of decision-making processes that balance demand and supply’ ... ‘it brings together all the plans for the business: sales, marketing, development, manufacturing, sourcing, and financial’ ... ‘it
