Billionaire Baby Daddy

I wasn’t about to let his comment throw me off, though. We were talking about saving money throughout our entire company, and I knew exactly how to make it happen. I had done a research paper in school about the cost saving analysis of companies that started to use natural lighting throughout the day. Most companies saw an average of 25% reduction in their energy costs by simply adding skylights to their warehouses and work floors.

I analyzed all 72 of our facilities and came up with an estimated $54 million dollars a year that we could save by simply switching to more natural lighting. It was an easy change that we could have all our offices retrofitted for within a year, and it could make a huge difference in our bottom line. Now, I just had to articulate that change to the board members and my father.

For the majority of the meeting, I sat quietly and let the elders discuss ways they thought we could save money. Some of them were pretty good, but nothing that would save us nearly as much as my plan.

It was important for me to wait for just the right moment to discuss my ideas. I couldn’t jump in right away and seem too eager. I wanted everyone else to be done with their ideas first. When my father had heard all of their ideas and didn’t like any of them, then I could sweep in with my great idea and wow them all.

“Chase,” my father said, “do you have anything you’d like to contribute?”

He said it sarcastically, and I knew he didn’t expect for me to have an answer. The look in his eyes said that he thought I was going to say no. He wanted me to be responsible, but my father didn’t actually expect that I would make the changes he asked me to make.

“Yes, thanks for asking,” I said as I opened my briefcase and pulled out some handouts.

I walked around the room and handed out a one-page summary of my proposal to each member of our executive team. The look of shock on my father’s face was perfect, as I handed him his copy of my proposal, and the other executives in the room were equally as shocked.

“I have analyzed our warehouses and other office buildings. It is clear that we could retrofit all our facilities to use more natural lighting. This is a similar process that the Wal-Mart brand was able to integrate, and it helped them save almost a billion dollars a year. Of course, we don’t have as many buildings as that giant does.”

I stayed silent for a minute as everyone looked through my handout. It was nice to see a couple of the guys talking back and forth and nodding, like they thought my plan was a good one. But the person I wanted to hear from most was my father. I watched him as he looked at the proposal and seemed very unimpressed.

“How much money can we really save if we have to do this much work to each of the buildings?”

“I’m glad you asked that,” I said as I grabbed a second piece of paper just for my father. “This paper outlines exactly how much the retrofitting will cost to complete and a reasonable time frame to get the work done. As you will see, it is going to cost almost six million dollars to upgrade all facilities.”

“Chase, come on now. We are talking about saving money and you want us to agree to spend six million dollars on skylights!” my father said.

His voice boomed through the room, and it took everything I had to keep my face professional, as well as my voice. Everyone who had thought the idea was a good one suddenly seemed on my father’s side and shook their heads back and forth to say no to the plan.

“Please take a look at the bottom of the first page I handed out to see the amount of projected savings.”

“Fifty-four million!” one of the finance guys yelled out. “That’s insane.”

“I know it is a lot of money. But that is only twenty percent of our current energy budget. If we used the same numbers as Wal-Mart, the savings would be even more. I underestimated to be safe.”

Suddenly, my father was paying attention to the numbers and my idea. Everyone in the room was paying attention at that point – $54 million dollars was a hard number to ignore. My father talked with his finance Vice President next to him and they continued to talk while the rest of us sat quietly and observed.

“If these numbers are right and this is actually possible, this will change a lot for our company, Chase,” my father said.

“I really think this is the wave of the future. Using clean energy and natural resources has helped to save a lot of money for companies over the years. We aren’t reinventing the wheel here; we are just using the natural resources around us.”

“I like it, Chase. Great presentation. I’ll have some guys get started on further research and see if this is something that we could implement.”

It certainly wasn’t the praise that I had hoped for, but I was confident whomever he had researching the plan would come to the same conclusion I did. And, despite his lukewarm reception to my idea, at the end of the meeting, I felt like he genuinely liked it.

We all shook hands with each other and I left to go back to my office. The meeting had gone past six o’clock, and I wanted to get back to my house and to Jordan as soon as I could.

“Chase,” I heard my father call from the boardroom. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

I walked back to my father and sat down next to him in the boardroom. W

e had never sat down at work before, and I liked it. I liked the look in his eye. It was much better than the disappointed look that he normally had when we talked.

“What’s up, Dad?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I have heard some great things about you at work this week. Keep up the good work. And this proposal is really good. Even if we don’t decide to use it, I want you to know I appreciate you putting this kind of effort forward.”

“Thanks, Dad. I did a lot of research. I know your guys might have some questions, please have them come talk to me. I would be happy to work with them and share some resources I came across.”

Instead of continuing the conversation, I decided I should just go. He had extended the olive branch, and I was more than happy to see him making the effort. But I needed him to feel comfortable enough to give me the reins of the company, and it was clear that he was nowhere near that kind of decision. I didn’t see a reason to waste my time or his by sitting and talking any longer.