Jeff White

"He's aiming especially at America. He understands that the stars and stripes market can change his life. First Kliot and then Jeff White, owner of Avant-Garde Optics, will become his best customers."

"He's aiming especially at America. He understands that the stars and stripes market can change his life. First Kliot and then Jeff White, owner of Avant-Garde Optics, will become his best customers."

"At the last session Gibbs tried a new negotiating technique. The big issues had been agreed, but 18 outstanding matters remained on the table. He feared they could drag on for another two days when he wanted to catch a plane home. So he announced to the assembled Americans that he had to leave in an hour to catch his flight: ‘I propose we auction the last 18 matters: you have the first one you want, I have next choice, then you next, and so on.’ The room broke up hysterically. *Ameritech’s Jeff White said you can’t resolve serious things like a lottery. I said, why not? Someone piped up, ‘We’ll take this.’ OK. There was* *uproar. Half the room was screaming it was cavalier; the other half was enjoying the fun. White realised it wasn’t the end of the world and started playing the game and it was resolved just like that. And since I knew the ones I really wanted, we gained a few points and gave away nothing of consequence.*"

"I said to the Americans, ‘All I want is a bright, tough, telephone man, who really understands how many people you need to do a job and who is a very experienced manager. And on the other side, I want a financial guy who really understands telecom economics. The guy you had working on the bid, Jeff White, would be perfect.’ They agreed, so along with White they sent Ben McMillen, this brilliant old telephone guy who would get in there at 6am each morning and tear into it. They each brought down some helpers and combined with Telecom’s best we ended up with 50 people in a hotel on The Terrace. I gave them my speech: ‘We’re going to plan a reconstruction of the company within a month. The primary thing is to take labour out of it. I’ve done my analysis and I reckon we can run it with 6500 people.’ They said, ‘Alan, impossible.’ I said, ‘Bullshit. I’m sure we can do it. You’ve got to reconstruct the business as if it was yours. Not as if it’s some lazy American company, but how you would run it with your own money.’ McMillen loved the chance to organise things as he thought they should be. ‘Go to it,’ I said. I’ll be back once a week. They came back with a plan for 6300 staff."