[All characters, places, organizations, events, and the like appearing in this work have no relation whatsoever to reality, and are fictitious creations born of the author’s imagination.]
“Boss, this structure is excessively bloated. The current system, with the family trust at its apex, is a method that has been proven over decades. But to establish a holding company and make the family office and think tank independent? This is nothing but duplicate management costs. In particular, this organization called a ‘think tank’ is nothing but a ‘head’ with no authority and no working departments. I simply cannot understand what sort of profit it is supposed to generate.”
The others also nodded as if in agreement and looked at Henry. Looking at the pages he had prepared on the think tank and family office, Henry judged that it could certainly sound vague because of the difference in era, and continued his explanation.
“My explanation was indeed insufficient. The overall structure is pyramid-shaped. At the apex is [Devenger Holdings], and on its two wings sit the family office and the think tank. The family office will inherit the duties of the existing committee, but its core role will be compressed into oversight and execution. The accountants and lawyers dispatched to the subsidiaries will supervise the field, and the office will verify those reports once again. It will serve as a shield, blocking the holes through which the family’s assets might leak. You understand this much, yes?”
“Yes. I will understand it as the same duties as the family committee, merely under a different name.”
When Gilberto replied cynically, Henry took a sip of his cold coffee to wet his throat, then immediately countered.
“It is not simply a change in name. The times have changed. What we need is not a handyman who handles a hundred tasks moderately well, but specialists who complete one task perfectly. The key is specialization and speed. How is the committee right now? Investment experts are reviewing tax documents, and legal advisors are meddling even in real estate lease contracts. On the surface, it may look versatile, but to my eyes, it is nothing but ‘chaos without expertise.’”
‘Wow, wasn’t that line just now pretty cool? That was exactly the kind of form elite CEOs in the twenty-first century showed in boardrooms!’
Unlike Henry’s composed attitude, murmurs spread through the meeting room: “Amateurs, he says…” “There are certainly some chaotic aspects, but…” Henry paid them no mind and continued.
“I understand if you think my words are excessive. But this is my true opinion, and that is why I intend to change things. In the family office, I will place a highly advanced legal design organization that studies nothing but taxes and tax reduction—the Shield Team. And we also need execution power befitting our family’s standing. That is why we will establish a Legal Team. They will not be interns who merely review contracts.”
Henry lightly tapped the documents on the table and added.
“They will be a ‘legal task force’ that sends hundreds of lawsuits to those who touch the family’s honor and makes them spend the rest of their lives in court, and that redesigns laws and regulations themselves in our favor for the businesses we want. Their role will be to load the bullets of law into the political gun barrels we possess. No matter who the opponent is, merely daring to put the brakes on our family’s business should make them feel the terror of bankruptcy. That is the sole reason for this team’s existence.”
“I will create a team dedicated to marking my lifestyle. I’m not saying I’ll simply hire secretaries with good visuals. It will be an organization that professionally manages everything from the cars I ride, private jets, and yachts, to personal security, medical appointments, and even my image and style as seen by the public. My own appearance as the face of the family is itself our strategy. Ah, Bart. I’m not saying I’ll go on television and become some celebrity. Look at the state of New York right now. Those lawless paparazzi bastards will climb over the walls just to take a single photo of me, and we can’t block all of that, can we? Then the image shown when I am photographed must become our combat power. I have named this team the Concierge Team. Well, it isn’t urgent right away, so let’s push this down the priority list.”
Henry leisurely waved his hand and continued.
“Other than that, I need an independent investment team that will move faster than hands and feet according to my orders. We can’t hold a meeting every time we invest one dollar. From now on, the family meeting will decide only ‘how much to put’ into this investment team. How it is operated will be under my full authority. This is also a matter of my stubbornness. We’ll simply call it the Invest Team.”
After pouring out everything he had prepared to say, Henry shifted his gaze to the people who were restless, craving a chance to speak. He soothed his dry throat, made hoarse from talking too much, with cold coffee. As expected of the family’s man of influence, Bart deeply furrowed his brow and set his pen down on the table.
“Henry, I understand the intent, but… creating new organizations called Legal and Shield is clearly a waste of cost and manpower. The people of our family are already competent enough. Is there any need to bring in outsiders and move in secrecy? If things go wrong, it will only harm the family’s solidarity.”
“That is precisely why we must change now. We have to build a sturdy frame before the family becomes even larger. The talents of our family will become the core of that frame, and the talents we recruit will become the cement that hardens it. If we work together for about a year and conduct evaluations, efficiency will rise without harming our sense of unity.”
At that, the chief financial officer Gilberto threw in a tackle as if he had been waiting.
“I am well aware that the boss has such authority. But granting the investment team full authority is far too dangerous! Investments without the committee’s oversight could easily become arbitrary gambling. Please do not forget that even in the previous patriarch’s time, every investment went through strict consensus.”
“Both of your concerns are perfectly valid ‘under the old way.’ But I said it earlier, didn’t I? The times have changed. In the current market, where a single second can determine the fate of millions of dollars, if we wait for consensus, we will become nothing but prey.”
‘Consensus, my ass. They don’t know the terror of twenty-first-century short-term trading. I’m setting up the board to use a money-copying bug right now, and they want me to be monitored?’
Henry met the eyes of the elders one by one and drove the nail in.
“This time, I will be a bit stubborn. Because I really am confident I can do well. Let’s look at the results this time next year and then decide whether the investment team will remain. I trust everyone now understands the family office, so let’s move on. Let’s talk about the Think Tank, which doesn’t generate any profit.”
Whether it was the investment team or the family office, Henry had not the slightest intention of reversing his decision. It was because although there might be plenty of investors in the world with better instincts than him, there was no one who could copy a fixed future and steadily increase assets the way he could.
In this era, the term “family office” was not a proper noun the way it would be in the future. If one insisted on translating it, it was merely an extremely businesslike and crude expression that sounded something like “the Kim family’s household office.” So it was only natural that, the moment the family’s experts heard the term, they would first bring up the cost issue, saying, “So what exactly are we supposed to do in that office?” But because Henry understood its usefulness painfully well, he had no intention of yielding.
However, Henry had deliberately left out one of the core functions of a family office: “Family Governance.”
Family governance was a system by which family members established decision-making methods and rules in order to sustainably manage shared goals such as the family’s vision, values, assets, and corporate management. It also included successor education.
Right now, in Henry’s view, they were in a growth phase where he had to proceed autocratically and rapidly expand the family’s wealth. It was not the time to worry about maintaining the status quo and read moral textbooks to anyone.
‘Brakes like governance or whatever can be installed after the family swells up like a dinosaur, and it still won’t be too late. No, would we even need them later?’
Before the twenty-sixth year prior to his regression, he wondered whether successor education could be carried out under three years of trial and error and supervision. But even then, if he created a clone with points and transferred his consciousness into it to live on, the successor of this family would always most likely be Henry himself.
Because of that, there was something else he had resolved to do: never meet the successor—his clone—in private, and never build affection.
‘In the movies and anime I watched in my previous life, those immortal villains always got to the end and threatened, “Now it’s time to change bodies!” only for some sad flashback scene to suddenly pop up, and then they’d fall into a dilemma because of emotions like affection or love and die.’
Henry intended to eliminate even the possibility of such a flashback scene altogether. It was a new body his own consciousness would enter anyway, so what use was education? All he had to do was keep one step away and, with the heart of a true parent(?), pray, “Please don’t cause trouble, don’t get hurt anywhere, and just grow up healthy.”
And if possible, it would truly be best to create it only right before changing bodies. Of course, reality was such that one never knew what might happen, and voluntary suicide was strictly restricted, so it was not as if he could simply think, “Ah, I’ll die tomorrow!” and die. But he intended to reduce that gap as much as possible. Or, well, even if he had to use a setting like the child becoming obsessed with music and going off to study far away in Europe, he intended to avoid meeting them.