....in the first place?
The whole thing was premeditated by Garvin prior to the movie's first scene. But why?
Garvin was going to a lot of trouble and effort to get rid of one dude. Just wondering why.
Meredith was trying to distract Sanders to take the blame for changes she made on the production line managed by him. I don't think Garvin was in on it and necessarily intended for Sanders to get fired right from the beginning. Remember the scene where Meredith tells Garvin that it was exactly how she told Blackburn when he asks what happened after he finds out about the recording. It was made clear (especially more so in the novel) that Blackburn was the only one who was in on the sexual harassment scandal, so they were obviously going behind Garvin's back in getting rid of him. Garvin still believed Meredith had a chance to change and was concerned for the future of the merger, so he decided to go with Meredith's plot after Sanders rejected his offer.
I do not believe Garvin ever knew about Meredith's incompetence until she finished her speech after Sanders exposed her involvement, otherwise why else set up Sanders to take the fall? Garvin likely knew she had flaws, but still believed she could be potentially successful, when the reality is she had no idea how to run the divisions at all and solve any problems that could occur.
The whole plan began way before the sexual harassment claim.
Garvin had her change the line, it wasnt her incompetence. He had her do it on purpose to set up Tom. This was all premeditated way back a year earlier. Remember the tv clip of her in malaysia?
So my point is why was garvin against tom to begin with.
Garvin wasn't involved in changing the line. She did that herself to cut costs to make the company look good to Conley-White and ease demands for the Malaysian government without Sanders's approval and ended up wrecking the line in the process with no knowledge of how to fix it. Garvin likely was blind or indifferent to the things that Meredith did, as she was manipulating him since she met him. The whole point of setting up Tom was to blame him for her mistakes, because she knew that if her mistakes were revealed, then that could be concrete and legitimate proof for Garvin to fire her for incompetence. Meredith and Blackburn were just using Garvin to accomplish her plot.
That being said, no doubt Garvin was the instigator behind the Friday presentation to make Sanders look bad, but he was far more concerned about Meredith being the face of the merger while still likely being blind to her flaws and mistakes.
I will rewatch it to see if what you say bears out
shareYou should read the novel. It explains much more in detail about Meredith's and the company's motivations.
shareI had that novel years ago but didnt read it. I wish i had. May have to dig one up.
You have pretty much convinced me, though i will continue to mull it over in the future.
In that clip tom saw when he was at the hotel, why was the malaysia manager scheming with meredyth to set tom up? I thought he liked tom.
It really wasn't explained. In the novel he tried to talk Meredith into undoing some of the changes, but she was more concerned about protecting her reputation. He was fired, but felt guilty over it. I think it's implied she was either paying him or blackmailing him from the discussuon in the novel. It was likely her position of power he was helping her.
shareThe novel made out the Malaysian manager to be Tom's knight in shining armor. He sent Tom the data he needed to discredit Meredith.
But in the novel's end, the merger does not go through, Tom does not receive his promotion, both Phil and Meredith eventually found better jobs elsewhere.
The film's Hollywood ending had Meredith getting her comeuppance instead.
Arthur Kahn was the dude who was conspiring to get rid of Tom, which the novel really doesn't explain. It was Mohammad Jafar who ended up sending the data to discredit Meredith by chance. In the novel, Meredith told Kahn to make Jafar take "another vacation', so Jafar was probably a subordinate while Kahn was his superior.
shareMeredith was manipulating them both to turn them against each other. She was trying to get rid of Sanders and then put the blame on him for the whole factory fiasco. That way he would be gone and Garvin thinks he did it.
As someone else said, in the novel her manipulations are more explicitly revealed. It also explained why Garvin was more willing to accept her side of the story. Garvin's daughter had died, and Meredith put herself in as a surrogate. Even going so far as to make herself physically resemble the daughter. But that wasn't used in the movie.
The thing that still bugs me is what was Meredith thinking when she made those changes and what was she hoping to accomplish? Sure, costs was a concern for Conley-White, but why did she think that was more important than the product itself? Why did she go behind Tom's back to make all those changes if she was concerned about that? Didn't she even know that what she did was unethical, since the products themselves were not her responsibility, but Tom's, and could lead to potential problems? If she had any sense, she would have at least had someone explain to her the potential consequences of making such changes on a whim, for both her and the merger, and she would have dug deeper into what could be improved.
share