Was it ever made clear when or how he found out about the changes she made to the production line in Malaysia? I don't think he played a part in the changes, but he most certainly would have known about it by Friday hence the plan to have Sanders fired for incompetence that morning.
shareIn the movie she deletes everything to do w her manufacturing problems on their local server, presumably in WA.
He talks to his tech friend in Malaysia and they still have all the emails, files etc on the server in Malaysia. His friend then faxes everything over to him and it is arriving in the morning just before their presentation. Emails confirming the production line requests she made.
She also denies even having being there while he shows a video file of her touring the Malaysian plant.
I was asking about the CEO Bob Garvin played by Donald Sutherland, not Tom. He seemed to have some knowledge before hand before Tom exposed Meredith at the Friday morning meeting and was conspiring to have Tom fired for incompetence so Meredith would remain.
shareSorry. Read the post in haste. Old movie. I recall Phil discussing w Meredith after the harassment try fell through that it would now have to be incompetence to get rid of Tom. Garvin was sort of behind everything from the start so he likely knew whose real fault it was for the production problems ( Meredith's)
They were counting on having Meredith just blame Tom for the production problems in front of everyone at the presentation to the merger partner. For the presentation though, he had the emails that showed all the problems caused in production were due to her changes to the line.
The merger partner was getting fed up w all the bickering and just wanted to know if they could build the CD Rom or not.
Garvin then just told Meredith to step outside (and fired her) and Tom kept the presentation going.
True. But I don't think he was in on Meredith's plan from the very beginning. Sanders in his position of Head of Manufacturing was vital to the merger working and I don't think Garvin would have fired him simply for that reason. That is until Meredith started her little scheme.
shareI don't know. Recall at the start when she is in Garvin's office and Tom is called in and gets reintroduced to Meredith. She says she is up in Seattle for an announcement and Tom says he didn't know she was in production.
She says something like, 'Bob, am I in production now? ' And behind Tom's back , Garvin his holding a finger to his lips telling her to be quiet. Tom sort of catches Garvin's gesture.
Later he's asking Phil about what is going on. And Phil says something to Tom to the effect of , 'Rumor has it she is the new operations manager here and you will still be heading up manufacturing, presumably'.
Tom asks, " Wait you mean I might be out of a job"? Phil then says something like 'you can't bring a new manager and not let them bring in their own team' . Tom says something like " I thought it was just a rumor' Phil says he can't say anything more because he is already going out on a limb.
I seem to remember Garvin and Phil talking about his limited options and how Garvin 'planting the seed' was a genius move.
Garvin passed Tom over and really wanted to get a woman in there. He didn't seem to support Tom and may have been trying to get rid of him completely at the same time.
Well, in the introduction scene, Garvin says "Plenty of time for that now" when Tom says "Maybe we could get together sometime" and Meredith says "I'd love that" and earlier said to Phil "I don't want any bumps before this merger. I don't want him quitting. Just one happy family." These quotes, especially the "one happy family" imply to me that he never planned on getting rid of Tom in the first place. Plus it was obvious by the scene where Garvin questioned Meredith about the recording (when he found out that she her claim was bogus) that Meredith and Phil were trying to get rid of Tom behind his back. If he really wanted Tom gone from the very beginning, he would have already set up some sort of plan and would never rely on a plan like the sexual harrasment accusation that would have such a risk of blowing the merger.
Another question. At the end, Meredith says "Garvin lost his nerve. He's the one who came up with the brilliant idea for firing you for incompetence." What exactly did he lost his nerve about and when?
Good pt on the introduction scene. Maybe they just wanted to get him comfortable w the fact he was getting passed over
I think she is referring to when they are in the meeting and she is trying ( unsuccessfully) to pin the production problems on Tom and Garvin asked her to step outside ( she thinks he lost his nerve).
I just think she id deluded thinking she won when she clearly lost and Garvin didn't have the guts to back her.
Or she is just being dishonest. Then again Phil was the one pushing the incompetence strategy. Doubt Phil was doing that on hos own so I still think Garvin was behind it in someway.
Tom was curing Garvin earlier after being passed over so he seems to know how much of a corporate snake he is too.