The company is caught in a double bind.If it doesn’t modernise it won’t make money, but if it does modernise they’ll have to make people redundant because they won’t need them any more.
" 7 at the latest." This is another expression, but be careful with it because some people say: " Oh, I'm working until 7 at the latest." , " Until 7" means 7 is the latest, so " at the latest" becomes redundant.
He replies with a snort in the lower octave range, then finds, after a certain amount of inner deliberation, that a discussion with both of those women at the same time would be redundant from the very start.