A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 52: Part 3

A large part about managing a business was cutting through other people's bullshit. Well, a large part about taking over a business. 

Fei Chuan was no fool. Every change of power required a similar process: out with the old, in with the new. The council Henry Anderson kept was one populated by old, corrupt fogeys whose first thoughts were maximizing their own profits. Fei Chuan nailed them with one charge after another, courtesy of his ever informative system, and successfully pried them out of their well worn seats. 

To replace them, Fei Chuan reached out for financial and scientific experts, or whoever could be counted on to prize their expertise and knowledge over their gains. Arrogance, Fei Chuan could handle. 

Then, Fei Chuan dived back into the applicant pool for researchers a bit more malleable and humble. He had a pet project to start. 

******

 In two years, an startup research company by the name of Fenrir Pharmaceuticals established itself as pioneer in the field of drug development. 

The head of the company had pushed their first product, a fever-targeted pain reliever drug by the name of ibuprofen, so efficiently through the FDA that it left economists reeling. The head had never revealed their identity, but a nondescript social media account set up under the company's name revealed that several new lines of drugs, this time targeting several well-known diseases, were underway. 

Though Fenrir Pharmaceuticals had yet to reach the status of a major corporation, investors all agreed that it was on the rise and making waves. 

"Add the costs of the Slayer Tech computers. This goes towards our deductions."

Liam did as he was told, and Fei Chuan felt proud of his nephew's diligence. "But why would you hide your identity if you're going to name it Fenrir anyway?"

"Check that box here, and input our net profit as shown below." Fei Chuan said, pointing at the sections. "For now, we want plausible deniability. The Andersons have a trademark in oil, not the word 'wolf.' Later, however, this common thread would provide a smoother transition when assimilating the two companies." 

"Which company is eating up which?" Liam asked. 

"Which wolf is bigger?" Fei Chuan didn't smirk, but only because it was uncharacteristic of him to do so. 

Liam's grin told him that he had no such compunctions. 

******

 The only reason Fenrir Pharmaceuticals could take off at all was because Navi Anderson's nineteen years of savings was enough to overcome its black hole developmental phase. As such, Fenrir Pharmaceuticals emerged like a star, free of debt and wholly under the ownership of one Liam Michaels. 

Fei Chuan would wait a little longer before breaking that news to him. 

On the other hand, Vargr Oils was just barely meeting the quota of a 7% yearly profit increase. Not for a lack of trying, but not in the way one might have thought. Vargr Oils' upper management was ridiculously corrupt and inefficient, and it took Fei Chuan a ridiculous amount of effort to keep profits from shooting off to 20 percent following his purge. In fact, to do so, Fei Chuan actually had to propose a foray into the ever costly renewable resourcing just to suck up some of that excess. 

Vargr Oils couldn't grow into a behemoth just yet. If Fei Chuan started off with a million dollar profit increase off the bat, he would have to continue raking in a million and a half at the very least. 

He had better things to waste his brain power on, thank you very much.

Like the drug for high blood pressure. A baby researcher proposed a way to lower cholesterol levels, and Fei Chuan was excited.