Sublime

After the purge of the Pai regime, a veteran trader from wholesale named Don Black was brought in to take over the trading desk. After he’d been there for a while, Black summed up his EES experience this way to a colleague: “It’s like going to work every day with your hair on fire and nothing to put it out with but a hammer.”

Next, he required each bidder to submit prices based on material, labor, and other overhead, and even the amount of profit. Under such a system there was no question about costs being kept down, and the savings were tremendous. Instead of being resented, Diehl was very much respected by suppliers, for although their prices were kept in line they we