Chapter 3 - THE BIGGEST CUSTOMER
Victoria Grant was not the secret owner of Blake Logistics.
She could not walk into the building and fire Jackson.
She had a different kind of power.
Grant Retail Group operated more than four hundred home-and-lifestyle stores across the Midwest and Mountain states.
Blake Logistics handled a large portion of Grant’s regional distribution.
Thirty-one percent of Blake’s annual revenue came directly or indirectly from that contract.
The agreement was due for renewal in six weeks.
Victoria had already been scheduled to visit Blake Logistics that morning for a quarterly operations review.
The accident changed the agenda.
At the hospital, Victoria learned the name of the man who rescued her.
Daniel Carter.
Then her procurement chief learned Daniel worked for Blake Logistics.
Then they learned he had been terminated before the day ended.
Victoria did not believe it.
So she arrived with:
procurement,
legal,
vendor compliance,
and safety.
Not bodyguards.
Executives.
Grant Retail’s contract with Blake contained more than price and delivery windows.
There were provisions for:
driver safety,
legal compliance,
incident reporting,
subcontractor standards,
and reputational risk.
Victoria did not personally review every clause.
Her procurement team did.
That was why her power had limits.
She could not say:
Fire Jackson because he angered me.
She could say:
We are pausing renewal until we understand whether this vendor’s management practices create safety and compliance risk.
Commercial leverage.
Not monarchy.
May you like
Jackson knew every one of them.
That was why his expression changed.
