Select Excerpts from Evil Inc
- Tom Pennington’s Speech About Saving a Plastics Plant from Closing
- TV Network Anchor Pat Pierce on Tom Pennington’s Announcement to Help the Victims of a Terrible Explosion at the Plant
- Ayvil, Inc. CEO Paul Archson on How Rich He Sees Himself to Be
- Ayvil, Inc. is Renamed “Humanifit” to Embody its Role to Serve Humanity
- Cindy Morse Helps Ken Get Over the Mourning Process of His Dead Wife
- The Fate of the All-Powerful CEO
Tom Pennington’s Speech About Saving a Plastics Plant from Closing
Slowly, applause began to build, then cheers, then
the noisy, happy hubbub that comes after a sudden death,
overtime touchdown. Then Pennington raised his arm.
There was immediate silence.
“You know, firing people is easy. And mass firings
are even easier. Because, unlike firing your buddy Joe
down the hall, it’s impersonal. It’s just
numbers. Two thousand downsized here ten thousand laid
off there. But they are not just numbers. Every one of
those lay-offs is a person and a family. It shatters careers.
It destroys communities. And more often than not, it doesn’t
even end up helping the businesses over the long haul.
That has been documented time and again. Now, I’m
not here on a mercy mission. I’m here because I’m
convinced this can be made a viable business.
“This is the oldest of all the Ayvil companies. And this is where the new spirit of the company is going to be born. No, reborn. From this moment forward, no one in this building is an ordinary employee. Everyone is on a special emergency task force with a single goal—to reinvent this division and bring it back to profitability.”
TV Network Anchor Pat Pierce on Tom Pennington’s Announcement to Help the Victims of a Terrible Explosion at the Plant
“We’ve just heard the first official briefing here at the scene of the Ayvil Industries disaster. An estimated one thousand employees, including twenty preschool children, are dead in an industrial accident. Ayvil Industries Executive Vice President Tom Pennington announced that his company would set up a foundation to provide the surviving family members of the dead employees for the next twenty-five years. Mr. Pennington appeared visibly shaken and made a very emotional speech. From my vantage point very close to him, I could see that he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. I have covered a lot of executives from major companies under many circumstances, and I can tell you that is the first time I’ve seen one of them cry. This is Pat Pierce for ANN at this scene of tragedy in Dayton.”
Ayvil, Inc. CEO Paul Archson on How Rich He Sees Himself to Be
“Very rich? I wouldn’t say so. It all depends on what you compare yourself to. A lot of people make a lot more money than me. You know, the board pegs my compensation at the seventieth percentile of my peer group. Take a look at the hedge fund guys, venture capitalists, LBO guys, real estate developers. Let’s just say there are a lot of men out there who make me look like a piker. Believe me, a lot of them. I’m surrounded by them in Greenwich.”
Ayvil, Inc. is Renamed “Humanifit” to Embody its Role to Serve Humanity
“A great corporation has no other purpose but to serve humanity,” Pennington said, “to serve its shareholders, its customers, its employees, and the communities where it lives and does business. To do so, it must earn a healthy and consistent profit. That’s the other f-i-t in Humanifit. Profit,” he said emphatically. “Without profits, the corporation cannot exist. It cannot serve humanity. It cannot serve the greater good. Therefore, the mission of this company called Humanifit is simple and to the point: Profits for the greater good.”
The Humanifit logo moved up to the middle of the screen and PROFITS FOR THE GREATER GOOD appeared below it. In the background, the moving images of happy workers froze in place.
Cindy Morse Helps Ken Get Over the Mourning Process of His Dead Wife
“’Ken, it’s time for you to come back to the world of living.” She let go of his hands and slid her arms around his chest. “Sandy would want you to. It’s time.”
Ken let her hug him. She rested her face against his neck. “You can do it,” she whispered into his shoulder, “it’s time.” She stared up into his eyes, her lips just slightly open, inviting a kiss. When Ken hesitated, Cindy moved in and kissed his mouth ever so lightly—once, twice, three times, each time her lips lingering longer against his.
“Uh, we shouldn’t,” Ken said, drawn to his pretty roommate and hesitant at the same time.
“Ken,” Cindy purred, planting little kisses between her words, “you need to live. To feel alive. Sandy would want you to live. She would want you to feel alive. I’m a woman. I know.”
“I don’t think I’m ready.” He tried to let go of her.
She held on tight. “If you don’t start living again now, when will you?” She made a circle of kisses around his mouth.
“Not now,” Ken said.
“Now is all we have,” she said.
That stopped him.
“Now is all we have,” she repeated. Then she placed her lips on his and whispered through soft kisses, “Did you miss any ‘nows’ with Sandy? Tell me, Ken, did you?”
He thought of many. A painful list of chances for happiness with Sandy he missed, bungled, and threw away. “Yes,” he said quietly.
“Now is all we ever have,” she said insistently, “don’t you see?” He nodded.
“Then kiss me back,” she whispered. She took his head in her hand and showed him just how he should do it. “You remember how, don’t you?” This time, her lips drew his lips apart.
“It’s all right,” she said comfortingly, “it’s alright, Ken. You deserve to feel alive again.”
The Fate of the All-Powerful CEO
Hildreth put his hand on Pennington’s shoulder. “Tom, the people you met at school, the ones who took the accident of birth as proof of their superiority, were just lucky idiots. Money ends up in the hands of the most unlikely people. On the other hand, you have reached your position in life, not because you were destined to be rich, but because you were destined to lead. That’s what I spotted in you. I’m interested in the men who are superior by nature—the natural elite of the human race. They have the right to get more because they know how to do more.”
“You mean like…” Pennington asked with a mischievous smile, “…a master race?”
“Well, to be perfectly blunt,” Hildreth said, “in some ways they had the right idea. But in the end, the Nazis were ham-fisted bullies. And more to the point, they had their criteria all wrong. The idea of racial or tribal superiority is archaic and unworkable. Bloodlines and family trees can’t prevent your relatives from growing up to be idiots. In fact, it often guarantees it. Witness our English cousins and their aristocracy. No, I’m talking about an aristocracy of ability.”
Hildreth started walking again; Pennington followed. “Look at Harry Warren. He is very capable but very common. He measures everything with money. As a result, he misses the larger point. Or Michael Guillaume. Guillaume is exceptionally talented, but he does not qualify either. He is too conventionally good.” Hildreth said “good” with contempt. “He is bound by the rules that keep ordinary men ordinary. He will remain second-tier his whole life. He will be proud of it and never know better.”
“Whereas I, Tom Pennington?”
Hildreth stopped and looked back over his shoulder to see if Pennington was following. When Pennington folded his arms across his chest. Hildreth turned and came back beside him.
“You, Tom Pennington, have cold, clear intelligence and the unblinking willingness to act. Hotchkiss, Princeton, and Harvard gave you a taste of life at the top and deprived you of it at the same time. It bloodied your raw ambition and polished you at the same time—an exceptionally useful combination. You learned what great kings and presidents know—that rulers make decisions that shatter some lives and benefit others. Different rules apply to those who truly understand power.” Hildreth put his hand on Pennington’s shoulder in a fatherly gesture. “After an appropriate time as CEO of General Industries, it will be time for you to apply your talents in higher office. As I’ve said before, you are what they used to call ‘presidential timber.’”
