“Honored CEO, sir, we have finished the survey of the Forest Biome.” Egon opened the next urgent meeting “May I provide the findings?”

  Zoli just nodded. He expected the survey to finish a few days ago, but knew very well, that collating data, analyzing channels, formulating content and, most importantly, fashioning a customized presentation took time. Not, that anyone could barge into the CEO’s office, and declare, they found some weeds on company property!

  “The core of our findings is, that we have found some interesting weeds on company property. Let me start up the presentation. Hmmm… Ehmm… Harold, why won’t it start?”

  “Try restarting your workstation.”

  “… All right, now it works. Thanks. So, honored CEO, sir, as you can see, we applied a classification to every plant and other resource we have found: medicinal, recreational, crafting, and other. Seasoning herbs for cooking are grouped under 'Crafting', to be clear."

  “What does 'other' cover?" Zoli asked. After all, not many things wouldn't be either medicinal, recreational, or crafting.

  “A good question, sir. We grouped the raw materials according to their primary use, and put everything with multiple primary uses under other. Well, and a few other things, we aren't exactly sure, what they could be used for."

  At first, Zoli was captivated by the colorful presentation – it had everything an important introduction to a very important, company-changing topic needed. It had small icons, a lot of arrows, pictures, and graphs (most pointing upward), and was focused on tangibly implementing compelling metrics. After the twentieth plant, Zoli realized, however, that the presentation itself was mind-numbingly boring.

  “Here we have another plant.”

  “And a slightly different plant, that does slightly different things.”

  “Another plant.”

  “This plant looks almost exactly like that other plant, but does completely different things.”

  Zoli decided to send Egon to a presentation training. Or suggest to let one of his researchers, who was any good, to do the next presentation.

  “And this wraps up the medicinal plants we have found.”

  “All right, let’s have a networking break.” Zoli declared. He missed those little finger foods and drinks and such, which were always served between sessions of very important people talking about very important things. Maybe he could outsource the catering or create a team for such purposes?

  The few hours of break were barely enough to have small talk with the managers and tell a few jokes. Zoli was reinforced in his belief, he was actually a funny guy. Back on Earth, before his unfortunate accident, his underlings and fellow managers all laughed at his jokes, and nothing changed in his new company.

  Of course, he laughed at the jokes from his superiors too, but those guys were obviously funny too. A promotion came not only with a higher salary, more underlings, and a company car but with a newfound sense of humor.

  It was, on some level, strange, but it was probably a natural law.

  Managers got suddenly more handsome and funny.

  Either way, it was time for the second part of the presentation; moreover, it was about the more interesting botanical applications.

  “Honored CEO, sir, we found exactly three things with primary recreational use." Egon started "A mushroom, a weed, and a shrub. The mushroom, if eaten has a quite strong hallucinogen property, the weed needs to be smoked to put the consumer at ease, and the leaves of the shrub, if eaten, make him just high. We are almost certain, we could research all three to allow different ways of ingestion possible. And enhance the properties."

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  Zoli was mostly sure, Egon talked about refining the medicinal herbs too, but remembering a hundred or so properties was coupled with some challenges while focusing on only three internal, organic sources and core competencies in providing compelling methods of empowerment was much more efficient.

  “All right, target research for all three. Also, schedule meetings with the other departments to strategize interdependent solutions for manufacturing the product. Oh, wait, won’t this paint the company in a bad light? Legal issues? Damn, we need a dedicated legal department!”

  “Honored CEO, sir, we are almost sure, there will be no legal issues. According to the supplied data, the company will operate in some backward world, and there should be no legal regulations for the products we can provide.”

  Before Zoli could call another networking break, Egon continued with crafting materials.

  There were even more than the medicinal resources! It was not the CEO's job to remember every last seed, plant, leaf, root, fruit, vegetable, horn, claw, bark, stone, and fluid his company dealt in! Especially, if those were just the raw materials, and the basic merchandise, they scattered around in the Zones.

  “All right, stop just there!" after a few dozen different plants and materials, Zoli finally had enough. "I understand, we have a treasure trove here. However, work with the other departments to compile an optimized list of quality vectors and competently exploit alternative opportunities. I expect you to form a Business Plan on how to promote functionalized scenarios on seamlessly integrating economically sound growth strategies. Also, matrix a Process Map for implementing the resources!"

  “Yes, honored CEO, sir. We will distribute patches of the resources into the Zones, as you directed. Do we have a free hand in the distribution?”

  “Yes, yes. You are experienced enough to run the day-to-day business. Gardening falls squarely into that field. I will rather concentrate on the Org Chart and Process Map for the further Zones, to maintain emerging meta-services. Do you have the proposition for Zone 5 ready?”

  “The departments have scheduled a meeting for this afternoon to finalize the presentation. We are ready to present the Org Chart and the Process Map by tomorrow morning.” Dana supplied.

  “Good. Make a preliminary chart for the plants and what to research by then too.”

  With delegating work done, Zoli closed the meeting. At least the part, where he needed to be present. He was sure, the managers had other things to talk about, but it wasn't his business or responsibility. A real CEO didn't waste time with things like where the next intern needed to be seated, or what kind of plant made the employees more happy and productive! Being a CEO was all about envisioning cooperative catalysts for growth, expediting compelling strategic theme areas, and dreaming up new vectors for maximizing market share.

  Of course, a real CEO did all these things from his boat, beach house, or anywhere, that wasn’t a boring office, filled with the pedestrian workforce.

  While Zoli floated in his nice mountaintop pool, attached to his mansion, he spared some thoughts, about why the Stockholder was unimpressed by the progress.

  Only a few months have passed, and he built up a competent executive team, directed them to do research, manufacture merchandise, populate the Zones, and implement innovations! Zoli even renovated not one, not two, but four Zones!

  What did the stockholder expect? All 45 Zones in the Forest Biome, all… ehmmm… dozens of Zones in the Lake and Mountain Biome being reconceptualized in such a short time?!?

  Clearly, no person, no matter how brilliant, could have done more, than Zoli and his highly qualified team! If anything, they needed a few other departments, and needed to hold more meetings to discuss leading-edge solutions to expedite enterprise-wide growth channels!

  Anyways, Zoli was absolutely sure, it wasn’t his fault, that the stockholder was dissatisfied. It was most likely because the basic employees weren’t dedicated and excellent enough! They didn’t work hard enough! They should be grateful to be employed by such a growing company, embracing highly efficient alignments, driven to cutting-edge synergies between credibly fashioned cross-platform best practice core competencies!

  Zoli decided, it was time for an all-employee meeting, where he could synergistically architect an expanded array of collaboration and idea-sharing! Talk about the goals and metrics of the company, and hammer home the need for 24/7 applications.

  “Janine! Find six hours in my calendar for an all-employee meeting" He called to his secretary. "Oh, and write a speech for it! I will review it when you are ready!"

  “Finding six hours in your calendar will be hard," Janine answered. For some strange reason, it sounded sarcastic, although she delivered the sentence with a smile. The ending sounded like she wanted to follow with an address – she probably wanted to use 'sir', but forgot it. No matter, Zoli wasn't overly keen on his secretary using honorifics, that were reserved for the executive team and the underlings.

  One should always keep the secretary on his good side, Zoli always thought. A good secretary was probably the most important thing, a CEO could have!