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was, Wallace suggested keeping detailed logs of all decisions in
the event that legal action were to be brought by shareholders
against
MCM
.
The employees were mostly unaware of the nature and extent
of the power struggle between Kutt and the outside investors.
Some of them were being used as pawns in the game for cor-
porate dominance, while others became increasingly proactive
in search of realistic solutions to the most critical production
bottlenecks. Their dissatisfaction with the corporate governance
had not subsided, but the employees now seemed more organized
and determined to act. They didn't want individual meetings
with the directors anymore. Being more and more distrustful
of the board's ability to correctly assess
MCM
's corporate and
production realities, the employees began issuing resolutions. In
their 1 August memo addressed to the board, twenty-two em-
ployees requested that
MCM
's “administration adopt a mechan-
ism for making responsible and positive decisions based upon
direct consultation with the personnel knowledgeable in the
areas concerned.” The employees also asked for full support for
Rea and Laraya in their positions as vice-presidents responsible
for manufacturing and development engineering, respectively.
Their demands included strong managerial decisions to freeze
the design of the current
MCM
/70 product, and a decisive com-
mitment to budget and production schedules based on an ac-
curate understanding of the company's production capabilities
and market needs. Most importantly, they urged the board to
resolve the critical issue of the
MCM
/70's power supply. They
wanted a fast and simple solution and called for disengaging
Edwards from any direct involvement with ongoing product de-
velopment and production decisions.
But the solutions Wallace had in mind to address the com-
pany's managerial problems were entirely different. In his memo
of 4 August, he announced to the employees a new organiza-
