With the content deployed in an integrated and accurate convergence of the Process Map, exploiting the best-of-breed practices outlined in the Business Plan and envisioning client-centered ideas from the Org Chart, all was left was to populate the cave system in Zone 1.

  “Honored CEO, my team selected a replacement for the Basement Horror!”

  “All right. What it is this time? An Elephant or a Dragon?”

  “No, honored CEO, sir. It’s a Giant Cave Stag Beatle. It has ‘cave’ in its name!”

  Zoli checked the new data package, he received from IT or HR. Indeed, the new hire was more fitting for a cave. Mostly, because it was named Cave-something, and not Basement-something. The new Deputy Zone Leader was half a meter of armored meanness, with mandibles large enough to sever the walls of a cubicle. Including the intern’s hand, who protected company assets. The only concession to being a Cave Something was, that it was slate gray instead of the normal black of a beetle.

  At least in Zoli’s opinion.

  Quality Management proposed the Perks Tough Guy (giving an extra to damage mitigation) and Bloodbath (giving a flat increase to damage), which Zoli signed off to, without much of a thought. They had Quality Management for a reason.

  The Zone was finally taking place: on the outside, the four families of Foxes roamed around – even Zoli faced some challenges to find the Cryptofoxes – the Rabbit Interns were grouped into a few Teams, led by an Agent or two, the Snakes snaked around at the lavatories to provide surprise customer service, the shrubbery was placed in strategic positions, and the rest of the Interns did, what Inters usually did. They took up place and didn’t provide much to the company.

  In the caves, the Beetle patrolled the corridors, while different Rats, Spiders, Centipedes, and small Reptiles occupied their workplaces in the larger rooms and caverns.

  Zoli debated to introduce cubicles, but O&A pointed out, that even an open office space was more expensive than simply leaving everything at it was. Well, open office space and cubicles were introduced as a cost-saving measure in the first place, and most companies would have been happy, to forget even desks and chairs. If the workforce wanted to sit, they could bring their own chairs, after all! Of course, that was only valid for Interns and Agents, the Executive Team obviously needed lavishly furnished offices to efficiently complete their work!

  “Honored CEO, Sir, the last item on the list is to provide the customers with fitting merchandise in the Zone.”

  “Of course! We should set up a souvenir shop somewhere! Maybe a cafeteria?”

  “Honored CEO, Sir, we don't have any merchandise or even products. We can only set up the trees and the workforce as lootable, but I'm afraid, the deliverable materials lack distinctive value. Peter? Raymond? Do you have anything to add?"

  “Ehm, yes." Peter from Production and Manufacturing took over the floor "Simply put, we don't have raw materials, we don't have blueprints, we don't have one-off merchandise and we don't have any manufacturing capabilities."

  “Peter, that is a negative framing. Please rephrase your statement!”

  “Of course, honored CEO, Sir. As I was saying, the challenges the company faces are to proactively customize backward-compatible infrastructures to foster enterprise-wide growth in both research and manufacturing. We need to formulate emerging technologies in the field of supply chains and redefine quality vectors.”

  “Solutions?”

  “Besides outsourcing production to the other side of the world, we need local schemas to acquire potentials in base materials, blueprints, and production capabilities."

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Egon, you are Research and Development. Do some research and development!”

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir. In order to start researching and developing, we need reference materials, i.e. manuals, base blueprints, or at least samples to reverse engineer."

  “So, either we get the licenses from the system store, or you pirate content from the outside? Would we face legal action for copying materials from the competition?”

  “While we don’t have a Legal Department, we are quite certain, we could safely integrate intellectual capital of outside vendors.”

  “Raymond, what about finances?”

  “I strongly suggest foregoing monetary rewards. We have run the numbers, and it's a trap. While providing financial incentives to the customers would increase the visiting rate early on, it would not be sustainable later. Especially, since the company would need to supply the money from the daily stipend. Depleting vertical resources for customer stipends would underwhelm spending on strategic theme areas, such as further Perks for the company, acquiring resources, blueprints, and other technologies."

  Of course, Zoli didn't even thought about handing the customers money, cashflow was or should be strictly in the other direction. The current quandary was that besides natural resources, the company simply could not offer any merchandise. To make products, they needed raw materials, which cost money, and licenses from the System, which cost money. Even if Zoli repurposed lost equipment from customers, they still needed to attract customers, and hope, those would conveniently lose some important equipment. Of course, they could either reinvest the lost materials directly as merchandise, or hand them over to R&D to reverse engineer them, but not both.

  “Relying on found items would be contrary to economically sound, sustainable convergences." Cynthia from Supply and Procurement added, "If we can source reliable markets from the outside, it would be different, but until then, we should only provide merchandise we can produce ourselves."

  “I would suggest, honored CEO, sir, to hold on to outside materials” Egon joined the discussion “It would be easier to develop or copy new merchandise. Only offer materials, we absolutely don’t need.”

  As good managers, they were on the same wavelength as Zoli.

  “All right, but how can we quickly maximize reliable results in onboard scenarios? Besides buying licenses from the system, which we currently don’t have the funds for?”

  “For a few MPD, we can enhance the Senior Agent’s and Zone Leader’s fur, for example.” Peter started the brainstorming.

  “We could hire some Gem Bugs as Interns” Dana added “If the customers find them, they could be valuable, for basically no added cost to ourselves.”

  “My team could Research the different scents, sedatives, numbing and paralyzing agents, so we could place the bottled versions in random places," Egon added.

  “We would need bottles, but there is enough clay in the Lake Biome to make manufacturing viable.” Peter conceded.

  “Yes. If the honored CEO would enhance the clay in one of the Zones there, we could make higher quality bottles.” Winston informed his boss “I’m certain, researching clay bottles and producing them wouldn’t be hard, no?”

  “We actually already have Small Clay Vial as a license. It is unclear if the previous CEO bought it, or if we got it as a default."

  “Honored CEO, sir, we could also seed cost-effective content in the Zone." Ellen, Quality Management added "Like this one, here. Copperwood Trees. They can be a valuable resource but would cost the company not much. Also, different herbs, we already have a lot of them in the roster, and we could acquire the rest for basically free. We could put some plots of them down, so the customers may collect them."

  “Maybe hide some Stone Snakes in the plots.” Dana was thinking “So the customers would still need to expend bleeding-edge core competencies.”

  “Actually, Peter, Egon, Winston, can you do anything with our current deliverables? Make some knick-knacks or something?”

  P&M and R&D shared a look and nodded.

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir. We could research and manufacture some wooden or polished stone pendants, we have the basic license for those too. Of course, the lace will have to be organic material, but we are sure, either tendons or plant fiber would be doable. If HR hires the Gem Bugs, the value of the merchandise will skyrocket. Raymond, what do you say, what price would they fetch?”

  “Simple trinkets probably in the range of a dozen copper coins, depending on the quality more or less. If we add Gem Bugs, double or three times.”

  “All right, make it so! I will modify some clay in the Lake Biome. If you have any questions, solutions, or results, please schedule a meeting, where you can discuss the next meeting's topics!"

  After an exhausting day of hard work, Zoli retreated to his mountaintop mansion.