Lamborghini (3)

The founder of Lamborghini was truly speechless for a moment. He lived through the second world war and experienced so many different things in life, but it was truly the first time for a young man, who could nearly be his grandson, to leave him at loss for words.

Up until this point in his life he equated the United States with capitalism and greet and as a fellow European truly had no good feelings for America. After suffering from a terrible disaster in South America last year, he truly didn't believe anything good would come out of this meeting.

If he wasn't a proper Italian gentleman, he might not even have agreed to today's meeting. Only the fact that it was supposed to happen at one of his favorite restaurants not far from the headquarters of Lamborghini let to him agreeing this young American capitalist.

He was unsure how to respond right now. On the one hand the situation described by the young man in front of him seemed too good to be true. On the other hand, receiving more money than the current market price would be a proper windfall for him, as he was already thinking about selling his companies for some time.

"Mr. Smith, what you describe sounds good, but I can't just believe your rhetoric right now, no matter how charming your girlfriend might be."

Simon lovingly held Sarah's hand and reassured her because he could feel her slight embarrassment. There was nothing wrong with the concern and mistrust of Ferrucio Lamborghini. No rhetoric is as good as real benefits.

"I know that a cooperation of trust is not reached by having dinner together in one day. But I have a proposal right here, for which my management team would probably laugh at me.

After receiving a professional valuation of your company, Lamborghini Automotive should be worth around 2 million US dollars right now.

I am willing to pay a premium of 150%, totaling 5 million US dollars. I will leave a symbolic 0,5% of the shares in a foundation favoring the future family members of the Lamborghini family and a honorary chairman position for you, Ferrucio Lamborghini, as long as you live.

I believe this a ridiculously generous offer. An offer my peers will probably laugh at me for. What do you say, Ferruccio?"

In his life the Italian war veteran had seen many things, but this time he felt like getting smashed with a large, delicious pie out of nowhere. The offer was indeed ridiculously high. Such a large amount of money for a struggling company, without large success in the last few years, seemed more like a scam than a true offer.

But somehow the sincere eyes of the two youths in front of him gave him a good feeling about this deal. Some of his friends from Switzerland already suggested taking over his company, of course for a much smaller price. He was already thinking about retirement in his heart.

Cashing out a large amount of money and leaving his company in the hands of a inspirational youth who might have the same dream as him didn't seem all that bad in his mind. And he could still take a little care for his old employees if he kept a certain connection with the firm, instead of completely stepping away from the business of Lamborghini.

The rest of the conversation was held in a cordial environment, as Simon didn't really press for a definite answer from the old Italian gentleman. With the passing of time Ferruccio could feel the sincerity of the young entrepreneur in front of him. At no time during their meal did he try to exert any pressure on him, nor did he use his financial difficulties to coerce him into giving up his company under market value.

When their meal was finished both sides left the restaurant satisfied. Ferruccio Lamborghini was already close to directly agreeing to the deal of Simon, but in the end both sides agreed to leave the rest of the negotiations for their lawyers. The head of Lamborghini wanted to make sure that the payment was made in full, and no fraud could happen, while Simon wanted the agreement to be water tide and unbreakable from future generations of the Lamborghini family.

While the lawyers from both sides were working on completing the deal Simon and Sarah spent a few more days in the lovely climate of the South of Europe. Simon was already thinking about the future management of Lamborghini. He was even worrying a little about the management of all his future companies.

Within one year he founded two companies and is now about to acquire a third one. If he kept up with this speed, which would be possible with all the inspiration he had from his future life, he might not be able to manage everything in a year or two.

What made it incredibly harder was the lack of digitalization. In a few decades he might only need his MacBook and could watch any performance indicators of his companies straight on his screen, at best with visualization. But now he had to be physically present to get a correct picture and to monitor his management teams. Especially with companies in Europe travelling around the world would make his life a lot more difficult.

To prevent this problem from appearing Simon needed to create a secretary office for himself. The secretary his family assigned to him was incredibly helpful for his daily life, but training his own managers seemed more reasonable.

Luckily Simon knew about the big management talents that would appear in the 1980s and 1990s, most of them were just studying at university right now, or might even still be in High School.

When he returned to the United States his next task was to gather as many of those talents as possible, in order to slowly release them in important positions of his company.