The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1073

A day after Ves fed Ketis with a bunch of candy, he seated himself in his penthouse office and summoned the chief operating officer of the LMC.

Jake Altern looked a little more aged than last time when he entered the office. The older man started out as a retainer of the family and ran some of the businesses owned by the Larkinson Estate. Putting him in charge of all of the actual operations of the company was a big responsibility to fulfill, but from all accounts he did a decent job in keeping the LMC’s administration in order.

"Jake. Long time no see."

"You’ve grown, Ves." Jake nodded amiably at Ves as he crossed the distance and took a seat in front of the desk. "You have different air about you. I like it. You’re just like the other Larkinsons now. Projecting strength is an essential trait in leadership."

Ves rapped his fingers against the surface of his desk. "I didn’t call you here to compliment me. There’s business to be done. First, what do you think of the current state of the LMC?"

"The Living Mech Corporation has become a respectable mech manufacturer." Jake said with pride. "It’s my child as well as yours. I’m glad to see it rise in its current splendor and turn into a huge asset for the Larkinson Family. While we’ve gone through some hard times, I always believed you would return and drag us out of our slump."

"I’m glad you have so much faith in me, but please describe our strengths and weaknesses."

"Well, despite only offering two mech models in our product catalog, they are still profitable, which is quite a rare luxury these days for comparable mech companies. All the recent publicity has helped boost our sales, which in turn help us ease the pressure off our bottom line."

"What other strengths does the company have?"

"I always felt a little dubious about basing the LMC in Cloudy Curtain as it is a large hassle to ship goods and mechs back and forth, but now I see the merits in it. We’ve been isolated of much of the unrest that has currently gripped Bentheim. Our company has grown to dominate half of the planet. We employ so many well-paid people that our existence has begun to have a ripple effect over Freslin."

"What role does Freslin play to the LMC?"

"It’s the closest major city to the Mech Nursery and is where most of our employees live and spend their time at when they are off-duty. While Orinoco still functions as a bastion for the old guard, the city of Freslin is experiencing a renaissance. Under the influence of the LMC, it has become the planet’s main hub for all mech-related activities. The social responsibility initiatives that we’ve undertaken, such as sponsoring the local mech academy, has earned us a lot of support from the locals."

"Sponsorship?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "What is this about sponsorship?"

"Didn’t Calsie already tell you? She allocated a couple of hundred million credits a year on boosting the LMC’s influence in Cloudy Curtain. Back before the economy worsened, she even drafted an ambitious plan to set up a small advanced mech academy on the planet! It would have accepted every local mech pilot who graduated from the basic mech academy."

"I take it those plans didn’t go through?"

"It’s too expensive to start up a mech academy." Jake shook his head. "Not only do we need to invest at least a billion credits into acquiring a wide variety of training mechs, they also need a lot of servicing. The problem with starting a mech academy in Cloudy Curtain is that new institutions don’t have the reputation to attract a lot of students. Cloudy Curtain itself isn’t big enough to supply enough prospective mech pilots to run a profit."

The people who lived on this rural planet also weren’t affluent enough to pay high tuition fees. Frankly, it made little business sense to start an advanced academy on this little planet when Bentheim was right next door. This scheme basically benefited the planet at the expense of the LMC, which only gained a bit of reputation and goodwill in return.

Ves activated his terminal and called up how much money the company spent on corporate social responsibility. He grew grim as he saw that Calsie spent at least two billion credits over the last three years on various infrastructure initiatives such as new roads and hospitals.

He thought he made it clear that the LMC shouldn’t waste its money on these feel-good projects.

"Why didn’t you stop Calsie

Jake shrugged. "Although it looks bad in hindsight, it helped us out a lot in securing local support. With all the events that happened recently on Cloudy Curtain, we need to have a majority of the local population on our side. Right now, our relationship with the Pioneers have never been better. With our backing, they’ve taken over the Planetary Assembly from the White Doves and the Greens!"

This was a significant development. Now that Ves had come into touch with the higher annals of power, he was not as ignorant as before when it came to politics.

It became clear now that the two main farming consortiums based on this planet possessed their own backing. No matter how many setbacks they suffered recently, their enduring resilience signified that they were here to stay.

"What kind of benefits have we received with the Pioneers in charge?"

"They’ve made life a lot easier for the LMC. Not only did they exempt any transports and cargo ships from stopping by at Orinoco’s spaceport, they also reduced many taxes and fees which helped us remain afloat."

Ves nodded in understanding. The Pioneers had a vested interest in the LMC as well.

"Okay, I can see how our earlier initiatives has improved the local conditions. However, I don’t want to keep funding expensive boondoggles. Our reputation among many of the locals is already high enough that I hardly see the benefit in investing more in this aspect."

"While there are various issues that I can think of that we need to change, there is one overarching aspect about the company that definitely needs to be reformed. Our company culture lacked too much direction during your absence. Our employees don’t possess a strong kinship with each other and we don’t even know what the company supposedly values." _{freewёbn૦νeɭ.com}