A small elementry school in East Los Angeles PS #74 has an army of volunteers painting, hammering and landscaping the campus wearing royal blue t-shirts with LabTech Logo on the back in white.
 
Megan is painting a mural on a large wall which has stretches across one side of the school's stucco wall. The kids and adults fill in the numbered area with paints labeled by number. Joe, Brad and Shelia Perkins are planting trees on the grounds. Mel Boxner and Tiffany Barry are assembling a huge jungle gym structure.
 
A mature woman wearing half a dozen dried pasta noodle necklaces around her neck hits the big triangle to get everyone’s attention. “Hi everyone, I am Principal Catherine Cutty. I want to single out and thank LabTech on be half of the students and teachers for their generous donations and time. Also would like thank the students, parents, faculty and community volunteers for their role in making our learning environment an inspiring and beautiful place today. Please give yourself a hand.”
 
Everyone claps loudly. At this time kids and adults including Chrissy and Dan dressed with tomato stain aprons and flour on their faces, burst out a side door bringing a stack of plain flat square boxes to the tables.
 
The principal waves Joe over whose shirt is both wet and dirty. “I would like to introduce Joe Pepowitz an engineer at Labtech and our champion for sponsoring this event for us.”
 
“Thanks principal Cutty. LabTech loves investing in the future and these children are our future. I know everyone is ready for lunch, but I just want you to know the pizza was made fresh from ingredients grown from PS 74’s roof top garden. I understand your classmates have created some very unique combinations. Before we wash our hands and dig in, I would like us to bow our heads and give thanks. I would like to bless this food for it nourishes our body and the great people who are able to participate today making the world just a little bit better, Amen”.
 
The children race to the portable sinks as water and soap fly everywhere. The teachers, students, and Labtech volunteers all sit together at the tables outside under bellowing the canopy.

Joe sitting next to Mel gives him a playful elbow in the side. " I thought I recognized you. Do your bosses at ZVZ know you're at a LabTech event?".

Mel smiles back. "Still the jokester I see. Well you see that cute little angel over there at the other table is my grand daughter Tiffany who goes to this school. I will not be wearing the t-shirt but I will help. How have you've been?".

Joe responds a little too serious, "Things are really going great. I can't remember not having some kind of drama in my life. It's almost scary waiting for something to happen".

Megan comes by holding her pizza gives Joe a love tap to the shoulder. " Who is your friend?".

"My old boss Mel Boxner when I did a summer internship with Groves Engine parts. They got aquired by ZVZ ." responds Joe. " Oh and this is my co-worker Megan Alverez, Mel".

Mel stands up to shake her hand, "Nice to meet you Megan, my grand daughter has told me all about the mural you created".

Megan blushes a little, "Thanks, I would like talk to you about that ..and Joe, but I promised my former 5 grade teacher I'd sit with her to catch up on things. I 'll see you later."

She turns to Joe giving him a harder love tap on the shoulder, "We'll have to discuss your introductions ".

Mel sit back down looks at Joe and they both have a good laugh. Mel shaking his head, " I'm guessing she is much more than just a co-worker... no drama in your life , huh you are about to experience a lot of it real soon".

Late afternoon in LA in Santa Monica at the ZVZ offices.
 
Gene O’Shea in a $1000  Armani suit is pacing behind an oak desk in his massive office while talking via wireless head phone set. “ Mel what is this bullshit about my unit costs can’t be lowered? That number is not just a target but the costs for us to have a program. The real target is 25% lower”.
 
Mel Boxner audible sighs, “Gene if you want quality merchandise to hit our reliability goals you have to pay for it. I’m sure we can get the lower price points from unqualified ISO 9001 manufacturers. They may do it at cost just to get our business, but they have no track record with us, or they have a reputation for using substandard parts, or their manufacturing process is uncontrolled”.
 
Gene kicks his trash basket across the room, “Quit giving me the techno speak crap! Drop my cost and keep my schedule or you’ll be drop kicked and blackballed from this industry”.
 
Mel replies calmly, “ So you’re gonna sign off relaxing reliability requirements?”
 
Gene answers quickly, “Sure, sure. They got to get their items repaired by us anyway. We’ll make more money on the service end. You can knock those targets down 30%”.
 
A frustrated Mel inquires, “This could effect a lot of things, don’t we need to have a project meeting to decide the best number?”
 
Gene stops pacing a moment to say, “Mel, Mel. I’m the program manager who decides the number. The rest of the team will make it work.”
 
Mel responds, “Ok, I’ll send you an email with the details, just give me an approval for the changes”.
 
Gene groans, “I’m a big picture guy, I don’t care about details. I know you’re just covering your ass. Send it today”.
 
“Ok boss but…” Mel is cut off by Gene hanging up.
 
Mel lets out a brief “Arrrah!!!”. Picking up 3 darts on a desk cluttered with papers and throwing them at a dart board forming a tight circle around Gene’s name on an organizational chart.
 
There is a light knock on Mel’s closed door. “ Come in!”, he shouts.
 
Sam Bushnic peeks his head around the door to see Mel chewing on another pencil. “You alright?... We could hear you from cube city across the way”.
 
Mel smiles at him, “Sorry about that. Sometimes upper management can be both stupid and …never mind. If  not for my pension, I would have left long ago but I think its time to reconsider”.

A surprise Sam asks, “Are you quitting?”.
 
Mel swings around his chair a complete 360, “Let’s just say when I send my next email to wide distribution, I may be forced out”.
 
“What are you going to do?”, responds Sam.
 
“Just follow our project’s required change process which some people may not like”, explains Mel.
 
“What do you mean? That seems like the thing to do”, agrees Sam.
 
“Sam, a critical part of project management is the change requirement set up to prevent cost over runs, low production yields, spare parts mismatches and schedule slips. A simple change can affect a lot of people, parts and processes too. So I’ll be sending out a fundamental change proposal to all our stake holders. Service and marketing will tear this individual a new one, tarnishing his “untouchable status”. I’m sure he will make it his mission in life to see me gone.”
 
“Wow that really sucks.” Exhales Sam.
 
“Yeah, so how is your little project going?”, as Mel peers over his glasses.
 
“It’s been tough. These investors want way too much of my business”, responds Sam.
 
Mel smiles, “Not that, I’m talking about that young woman in sales you keep tripping over”.
 
Sam laughs, “Hey she is going to come around, she just doesn’t know it yet”.
 
“I heard she has expensive taste and already has some banker boyfriend”, responds Mel.
 
“I enjoy the chase….”
 
They are interrupted by the building’s fire alarm. Mel grabs his bright red hard hat and whistle hanging by the door putting them on as he leaves his office “Come on people let’s move quickly”.

Everyone in the office walk briskly to the exits.