So....after this saga ends badly, and the company is bankrupt, what does a guy like our esteemed President & COO (Mr. Delmonte) do? I guess he looks for another job. I was thinking about that, and I was visualizing how the interview would play out. Here is my best guess (“C” is the company, and “D” is our esteemed President and COO, Mr Delmonte).
C: Welcome, D, and thanks for interviewing with our company. As you are likely aware, we’re a company focused on accomplishment, and we pride ourselves on getting things done. In this hiring process, we’re eager to hire an individual with not only impeccable credentials, but also a ‘go-get-um’ attitude. Therefore, I’m looking forward to our discussion.
D: Thanks
C: I see from your resume that you were promoted in April 2020 to President and COO of a promising company, so we’re delighted to speak with you about your deal-making ability and your incredible accomplishments. Why don’t we start by having you tell us about some of the partnerships and collaborations that you spearheaded.
D: Um…..Um…..Um…..Um
C: Mr D, it’s ok. I’m sure you have a lot running through your mind about where to start, so let’s just take one accomplishment at a time. Where do you want to focus?
D: Well, at my prior company, we didn’t do any deals.
C: “Laughing”. I see that you have a terrific sense of humor. Thanks for breaking the ice. So…..let’s talk about your accomplishments.
D: For starters, I am proud that I was promoted by our CEO and Chairman based on my loyalty.
C: Yes, and?
D: Well, that’s it.
C: I don’t seem to understand. I was under the impression that you were also promoted based on your partnering initiatives?
D: That was just some language that our Chairman, George, jammed into the filing in April 2020. We didn’t intend to partner with anyone.
C: I see….but this confuses me a bit. My impression is that you were with the organization for a number of years, and received a promotion. That would naturally tell me that you are a deal-maker.
D: Chuckling. No, deal-making wasn’t our intent. We only wanted to make some ‘pain-in-the-ass’ shareholders think that. I think we did a great job of throwing them a curve-ball, and suggesting that it was our intent to make deals. In reality, our goal was to strike a legal settlement with Intel.
C: Intel, meaning, the company Intel Corporation?
D: That’s right. We think they used our technology without our permission. So we should get some money out of it.
C: I assume you are referencing patent infringement?
D: Yeah, that’s right, I think. Infringement, or something like that.
C: OK. In the meantime, while your attorneys were at work, what were your responsibilities? I’m sure you were hard at work formulating strategies to move the company forward?
D: Not really. I needed to make sure I could quickly answer any phone calls that might have come in from our attorneys, so that I could fax them info quickly. And we had a great fax machine.
C: ???? I’m not sure what to say.
D: To be honest, I’m so proud of myself. I don’t think I missed a single call from the attorneys, and was able to turn documents around expeditiously. That’s what I’m most proud of.
C: Ok. {whispering under his breath, “this is brutal”}. Therefore, you must have had a clinical or mathematical expert on your team who spearheaded things, since my understanding is that HDC is the sole owner, world-wide, of SVM-RFE?
D: What’s SVM-RFE?
C: Oh my goodness, I thought you would tell me.
D: Oh, yeah, it’s some crazy mathematical pattern recognition stuff, but our team didn’t worry about the details.
C: Why not?
D: We didn’t care about that, or any other of the other things. I think they called them patents. We just wanted to strike a deal with Intel and head out with some dough.
C: But in the meantime, didn’t you think you had a responsibility to represent shareholders? Wasn’t HDC a publicly traded company?
D: You got me. Either way, it didn’t matter. I just wanted that title on my resume. Our chairman was cool enough to help me out.
C: Ok, so if the company was still alive, didn’t it employ or at least contract with a clinical or mathematical expert, who could speak the language?
D: It’s funny that you ask. When we conducted an annual meeting for shareholders last year, which we wanted to make sure didn’t even last 30 minutes, and we did a fantastic job at that, our Chairman mentioned what a great guy Dr. Zhang is.
C: Who is Dr. Zhang?
D: He’s a college professor, but we pretended he works for us. We actually put his name on our website, to make it seem real. It’s pretty cool.
C: Has Dr. Zhang ever worked with you on deals?
D: No, since I really haven’t done any deals.
C: I see. So your promotion last year was based on loyalty? I’m not sure how else to interpret this.
D: Yup. Damn straight.
C: Good for you, Mr. D. Tell you what…………I have an important call that I need to make, so I’m going to have to break away. I’ll have my HR folks follow up with you. Thanks so much for coming in.
D: Thanks so much. I really enjoyed this chat. Can’t wait to talk more.
C: Ok. I’ll have someone see you out.
