United Nations of Fixers

Sam Brodsky and Gloria Christian have a big problem. Their business was under attack.

It seems that Muhammed Attuch, their southeastern representative, saw it first as he made his rounds.

Sam's great grandfather, Yiskel, started the business 125 years ago, joining with his good friend Jesus, Gloria's great grandfather, in repairing the new-fangled machinery that became the bedrock of the "industrial revolution." They known as the business "Brodsky-Christian Manufacturing Products Fixers."


They were part of the hordes of folks who were joining the revolutionary alteration that took place in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation that had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the world. It started in the last part of the 1700s when parts of Great Britain's previously manual-labor based economy turned towards machine-based manufacturing with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. A second Industrial Revolution occurred around 1850 when technology and economic progress derived momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railway, and so later in the century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation.

additional part of this revolution was regarding to the presence of an entrepreneurial class which believed in progress, technology and often linked to the Protestant difficult work ethic. Contributing to the revolution was the confidence in the rule of law and the emergence of a stable financial market and interest of private financial investment in industrial ventures. Other factors were the spread of knowledge through periodical publications, increase of large scale production of chemicals and machine tools, gas lighting, freeing up agricultural labor for industrial mills, canals to help transportation, road improvements, and the triumph of the middle class of industrialists and businessmen over a landed class of nobility and gentry.

Following Yiskel and Jesus in this family business after the founders' 50 year reign, Jacob Brodsky and Joan Christian doubled the partnership volume as more machinery was manufactured and the world started to trust on these labor-saving products, and populations expanded. They, too, lasted 50 years as heads of the company. in conclusion, Israel Brodsky (Sam's father) and Jean Christian-Wilkes (Gloria's mother) inherited the business, and promptly went worldwide to quadruple their lucrative income.

Unfortunately, in late 1994, Israel and Jean were traveling together from a visit to the emerging country of China when their plane crashed and they died. Immediately, Sam and Jean, who were already working in the business, assumed command and watched it grow even bigger.

and so the trouble began. Sort of a whispering campaign that Brodsky-Christian Manufacturing Product Fixers was really a Jewish company supporting Israel with lots of money. Volume dropped incredibly; their 200 or more employees, who were of a lot of religious persuasions, began to worry.

Sam said to Gloria one day, "We must do something drastic to quell this precipitous drop in business." She agreed. So they decided to hire a top notch ad agency and a high-flying public relations group to work on a new promotion approach, changed their corporation to a publicly-held non-voting one, and gave each employee 1,000 shares of voting A stock to make them "owners."

After a couple of months, the campaign's promotional strategy was devised...playing up the United Nation's features of the company. They said through advertisements and public relation releases that their company was really a United Nations of workers of all different types of religious affiliations. There were Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and a lot of other types from all over the world working in their company...and were owners, too. a piece of their employees was an "expert" in their own right on the various industrial machinery that covered hundreds of different markets all around the world.

Their opening promotional salvo for their new campaign features this slogan..."No matter which God you believe in or which religion your follow, and even atheists and agnostics are included, if it is the machinery that needs fixing no matter who repairs it...WE'RE THE UNITED NATIONS OF MANUFACTURING PRODUCT FIXERS AND THE BEST THERE IS!"

Did it work? What do you think?