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However, the stack of documents in Henry's hands wasn't everything. He said to the young man,
"Thanks. There are still a lot of files in my office. Please move all of them over here as well.
"We'll be using them during the meeting. You can use a trolley to move them. Different stacks serve different purposes—keep them separate and don't mix them up."
"Yes, Mr. Brown."
The young man immediately called over his colleagues—Julian included—and headed off to move the documents.
Meanwhile, Henry rubbed his smooth, pale chin, wondering whether he should imitate Tony Stark's flamboyance and grow a beard himself.
Setting aside how long that baby-filled spacecraft had drifted through space before his rebirth, he'd arrived on Earth roughly seventy years ago.
It was now 1995.
That meant this body had spent about twenty-five years on Earth. For all intents and purposes, he was twenty-five years old.
Yet here he was calling others "young people," when he wasn't all that old himself. Following a normal academic path, a twenty-five-year-old would have only just graduated college, with perhaps two or three years of work experience.
If they'd gone on to graduate school, they might still be agonizing over a thesis right now.
There was an old saying back home: "A man without facial hair lacks gravitas."
Tony Stark's carefully groomed beard was almost certainly meant to deal with the old guard of Stark Industries.
What about him, then?
Should he grow a beard too, just to add a bit of authority?
Standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows, Henry gazed at the scenery outside while pondering this. At the same time, he monitored the situation across Stark Pictures as a whole. The ripple effect from firing the administrative director was spreading, with news traveling rapidly through the departments.
He reassured himself that firing a single administrative director shouldn't really cut into the company's main artery. The man wasn't a sales champion, a technical genius, or a Stark family member.
Tony Stark was practically alone now. Plenty of people sharing the Stark surname had tried to claim kinship, only to be shut down when Tony traced the family line back three generations and proved it was a single line of descent.
If that dismissed director truly held some critical leverage over the company… well, so be it. This wasn't Henry's company anyway. As a hired executive, he had no emotional burden to carry.
Even if something really went wrong, as long as it didn't land him in prison, at worst it would mean a painful adjustment period. Get through it, and things would become clear; fail to get through it, and they'd simply cut away what couldn't be saved and find another path.
As the saying went: the Earth keeps spinning no matter who's missing.
Not everyone was Superman, capable of spinning the planet backward to reverse time.
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While Henry's thoughts wandered, the department heads of Stark Pictures arrived at the conference room one by one, all before the scheduled meeting time.
Even Wendy Ingley—the newly appointed administrative director who probably hadn't even had time to warm her seat—was present.
In Henry's perception, the unfortunate former administrative director, John Snap, was currently being escorted by legal staff and security as he went through every single item he was required to hand over.
The list… was long.
Every missing item added another count to the charge of "misappropriation." In the U.S., misappropriation fell under theft, with sentencing based on the amount involved. First-degree felony theft could carry a maximum sentence of twenty-five years.
Faced with that, would John dare to resist?
That would just mean retiring behind bars.
Once everyone was seated, Henry finally turned from the window and walked to the head of the table. He didn't sit down, choosing instead to stand and address the room.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm Henry Brown, the new CEO of Stark Pictures.
"Some of you saw me at yesterday's inauguration banquet. Some of you didn't. That's fine. From today onward, remember this face—we'll be dealing with each other for quite some time."
Henry waved his hand, and several administrative staff who had been waiting by the door stepped forward. Following his instructions, they distributed the files to the respective department heads.
"These are the documents you brought to my office this morning for approval. I've finished reviewing all of them and sorted them for you."
Henry didn't even open the files. Instead, he pointed at each stack and rapidly summarized its key contents. His pace was blisteringly fast—like a rapper delivering a verse—yet every word was clear and intelligible.
For most of the documents he'd approved as proposed, Henry picked out a few key points to praise before saying,
"I'm looking forward to the follow-up results. Please remember to report back to me."
As for the unreliable trap documents, Henry didn't expose the schemes behind them. He simply rejected them with solid reasoning, even pointing out sloppy wording and logical gaps.
When it came to the production department, Henry didn't bother with encouragement at all.
Pointing to the taller stack, he said bluntly,
"These projects and proposals are unacceptable. Return what needs to be returned. Destroy what doesn't.
"Even if our production department hasn't made films in a long time, that's no excuse to rush into unreliable projects. We're a for-profit enterprise, not a charity dedicated to helping people fulfill daydreams."
Then he pointed to the shorter stack.
"As for these projects, I know for a fact that other studios have already begun production on them. Some are even in post-production.
"Why they appeared here, and whether there are legal risks involved—have the production staff cooperate with legal to investigate. If there are violations, we will not shield anyone. If it's illegal, it goes to court."
Henry never explicitly accused anyone of trying to set a trap for decision-makers and drag the company into disputes. But everyone in the room was an industry insider—they all understood the consequences.
If lawsuits followed, the invested funds would inevitably become losses. And whose head that bill would land on was obvious.
Finally, it was the equipment department's turn.
Henry was even less polite here. His sharp gaze locked onto several individuals who looked less like engineers and more like professional schemers.
"I don't understand why issues like loose screws end up on my desk instead of being handled by R&D. Or when clients request new features, why there's not even a preliminary proposal attached. Am I supposed to come up with solutions one by one myself?
"If the equipment R&D and manufacturing teams can't solve these problems, then fire the entire department and replace them with engineers who can.
"If it's the management or product managers who don't know how to assign tasks properly, then fire those incompetent, overpaid people and put capable leaders in their place.
"Today, Stark Pictures' most important source of revenue is the equipment division. I don't need people who don't understand the situation dragging the company down and causing losses. Is that clear?"
The equipment department head was visibly displeased. She stiffened and spoke up anyway.
"Mr. Brown, you clearly didn't study the documents we submitted carefully.
"Our company's camera equipment hasn't seen any breakthrough innovation in years. Whether it's ARRI from Germany, or Panavision, Phantom, and other brands, they've all adopted new technologies and made significant progress in the same field.
"If Stark Pictures can't produce superior equipment, we'll eventually be eliminated by the film industry! This company—founded by Howard Stark himself, with its great history—won't survive into the next century."
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