“Team, we need to project competitive growth in innovating the Zones’ potentialities.” Zoli declared “Let’s continue with Zone 4. The Stockholder needs to see new paradigms!”

  “As the honored CEO wishes. We can fake the overhaul easily…” Winston agreed.

  “LANGUAGE! The correct term would be convincingly envisioneer cross-platform initiatives in formulating emerging quality vectors!”

  “As the honored CEO wishes. I will instruct the department to call ‘faking progress’ the mentioned thing.”

  “Good. Using the correct terminology is important to gaining excellence!”

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir!” the Executive Team chorused.

  “So, Zone 4?”

  “Let me change the scale model, sir." Winston instantly swapped the models. The new one was impressive in its simplicity. While Zone 3 sported at least some distinctive geography, Zone 4 was just a simple, southward-sloping hillside without much of ravines, gullies, hilltops, or other distinguishing features. There were only a few steeper places. The whole hillside was heavily forested too, only next to Zone 3's border, next to the stream had open ground.

  “We have identified performance-based synergies, and would promote the Dire Wild Cat as Zone Leader." This time it was Colette from O&A, who presented the Org Chart for the Zone.

  “To utilize the forest, we would like to embrace the dynamic content of multiple Wild Cats and other tree-dwelling employees. We have quite a selection of monkeys and apes in the pipeline, and also Dire and Dread Squirrels. We could also repurpose Drop Foxes or Drop Bears into the Zone.”

  “Marketing would strongly advocate not to hire monkeys and apes. We think a lot of customers and influencers would find killing them offensive."

  “And not the other furballs?”

  “Well, those too, but especially monkeys and apes.”

  “So, no monkeys. Drop Foxes we already have, but what’s a Drop Bear?”

  “Well, sir, according to the CV, some kind of cute critter, native to subtropical forests. Allegedly, they like to drop on the heads of unsuspecting tourists."

  “Dana, could you please point out the granular challenge of hiring an employee from a subtropical forest to have a position in a temperate one?”

  “Well, sir, we could formulate ethical models of hiring an immigrant. Right, Jenette?"

  “No. When we have a subtropical or tropical forest, you can hire Drop Bears. Stick to objectively fashioned focused relationships.”

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir. We will hire only native employees for the different Biomes.”

  “Good. I like the idea of multiple Wild Cats, where the customer has to find the correct one. Do we have different kinds of Cats?”

  “Yes, sir. There are Camocats, True Tree Cats, Tree Lions, Roof Bunnies, and others, that aren't Representatives, but Specialists."

  “Let’s forget the Specialists, and concentrate on the Representatives.”

  “Yes, sir. Basically, all the possibilities are more-or-less the same, Camocats have this camouflage-colored pelt and can hide better, and True Tree Cats are better at climbing, and can glide with these flaps between the legs. Tree Lions have larger claws and Roof Bunnies, well, they like to hide on roofs, not trees, so are probably not ideal for a forest. And can make mostly only a hellish racket at night."

  “Orchestrate a functionalized Org Chart!”

  “Yes, honored COE, sir! We could exchange the Dire Wild Cat as Zone Leader with a Dire Tree Lion, and demote the normal cat to a position of Deputy Zone Leader. Promote one Camocat and True Tree Cat to a Dire version and to the position of Deputy Zone Leader too. Promote two of each species to Senior Agent and group up the teams under Sub-Zones with their respective Deputy Zone Leader."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “All right, sounds good. What about the last Deputy and four Senior Agent positions?”

  “A special offer employee, like in Zone 2, sir, for the Deputy Zone Leader, and three Dire Squirrels as Senior Agents. Streamlining competitive ideas, the last Senior Agent position could go to a Ball Hedgehog. They like to roll down forested slopes, so the niche market in Zone 4 would be customized for the employee.”

  “What do you propose for the featured special offer?”

  “A Dire Silkfur Giant Squirrel, sir.”

  IT obviously had figured out, how to visualize the new hires, projecting their CV and a 3D-rendition above the conference table. Zoli approved – visualizing dashboards and information was very important, every team needed an extra employee to keep the colorful charts up to date. If everything went right, they even remembered to use approved colors and templates.

  As for the current new hires, the Dire Wild Cat was a tabby, larger, than any housecat Zoli had ever seen. Nothing much else stood out, it even had that typical annoyed look, most cats were proficient in equipping.

  The Dire Tree Lion was larger by a noticeable degree, with relatively huge bony claws and orange fur.

  The Camocat was the most distinctive, patterned in different browns and greens. Zoli was quite certain, that coloration was detrimental to city life but was probably good for surviving in the countryside.

  The last of the cats, the True Tree Cat was basically a simple Wild Cat, also a tabby, but with slightly longer hairs and two stretches of skin between the fore and hind legs. Probably for gliding and providing the customers with a unique experience.

  The Dire Squirrels were… Squirrels. Large squirrels with bigger teeth and claws. But Squirrels nonetheless. In Zoli’s opinion, the Weasels in Zone 1 looked more dangerous, but if the Executive Team thought, these critters… ehmm… new employees were a fitting challenge in filling a position in Zone 4, who was he to argue? He had an Executive Team for a reason.

  Mostly for shifting blame to them, if something went sideways.

  In contrast to the normal Dire Squirrels, the Dire Silkfur was almost as large as the Tree Lion with comparable wickedness of claws and teeth. Even on the projection, he could tell, the fur was especially silky and fine. He made a note to tell R&D to enhance the fur even further.

  “Egon, appropriately aggregate the adaptive alignments of the fur!” just to be sure, he told R&D so immediately. He returned to the visualization of the last employee, the hedgehog.

  Curled up, it was almost a meter in diameter, with dangerous-looking hooked spines. Taking a look at its CV, or 'Character Parchment' as Winston kept referring to the aggregate data, he could internalize, why HR advocated a promotion to Senior Agent. Every customer, who caught a face full of rolling hedgehog would probably have a bad day.

  “All right. Enthusiastically extend effective expertize to the rest of Zone 4, Dana. Work with the other departments and schedule meetings."

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir. We will hire appropriate Interns and Representatives for the Zone.”

  “Honored CEO, sir. May I point to providing the leadership and Senior Agents of Zones 3 and 4 with compelling Perks?" Ellen from Quality Management reminded Zoli of an open point of the agenda. Colette from O&A was nodding in agreement. Zoli sighted – he hoped to close the meeting soonish and retire to his pool. No CEO should work so hard or so long!

  “Honored CEO, we have completed a Benefit Summary, if you may review and permit the implementation?" Dana sent a colorful chart to the screen, installed by IT. Zoli had to admit, the chart was masterfully done. Depictions of the different employees were masterfully connected by arrows to certain benefits or Perks, with small icons next to them and with a few words for clarification. Dana even came up with some color coding, although Zoli wasn't able to figure out, what the different colors meant.

  As some of his superiors instructed him back in his past corporate life, presentation was even more important than content. Dana clearly learned from the best.

  “Looks good. You may implement the scheme and credibly conceptualize collaborative catalysts for change. Objectively orchestrate optimal opportunities.”

  If he wasn't dead tired from all his hard work, he may have reviewed the proposition more deeply, reconceptualized innovative solutions, and done other stuff too, that looked at least marginally like actual work. However, the chart looked good, and if anything went wrong, he could point at HR anyway. If Dana was any good, she would find some Intern to put blame on.

  As the old saying went, shit flowed downwards.

  After redefining the interdependent strategic theme areas of not one, but two Zones, he felt he deserved a vacation of a few days or weeks. He was mostly sure, that the Executive Team was able to run a still not functioning company for a few days, and still having decades till the expected opening, no one could blame him for some quality me-time.

  Maybe he could pursue the skiing resort in the Mountain Biome.

  Of course, doing that would mean, giving orders to Zoning and Engineering.

  No, it wasn’t worth the effort.