With the product and supply chains handled, the two most important and central parts of the business had been tackled. The product, the material inputs, and the magicapita inputs for the product had been settled. With this, they had almost everything needed to begin their manufacturing runs.
"The only thing left is labor," Cæ replied with a serious tone. "Based on the details you sent me, each production line can potentially be tackled with a single worker with the necessary skillset, yes?"
"That is technically possible, yes, but we will need an extremely qualified laborer, and there aren't too many of them in the labor market, as most of them migrate," the man nodded. "However, it would be extremely burdensome and will most likely lead to eventual delays of all sorts. It really is too much on a practical point to expect one person to be responsible for calibration, processing, assembly, inspection, and testing, as well as other protocols in the sequential flow of our production line."
Cæ nodded. "Then, let's settle for the number that would ensure that there are no compromises for the production process. Delays can be damning, and once demand for these micro-housing units surges like I expect it to, it will be a nightmare."
"That's wise," Feidin nodded. "I recommend three workers per production line for absolutely no delays and a highly efficient manufacturing process. Although it will increase our labor costs and reduce our profit margins to stay within the product price constraint, it will increase our output tremendously. It all depends on how successful you think this business will be."
Cæ's eyes sharpened. "I have strong confidence in our business. Let's go with the three laborers per production model. That will certainly balloon our labor costs significantly and increase our manpower. We will need to have an organizational structure and human resources that can manage our laborers well enough."
Feidin nodded, having expected that. "Having considered our needs and our purposes as a yet-to-be company, I have formulated a simple but effective hierarchical organizational structure that efficiently handles our laborers."
He shifted to the next slide, displaying a top-down structural hierarchy with Cæ, Feidin, and Seliphaz at the very top, lower down were managers of the different divisions of the company such as Dlint and the distribution division, along with a finance and accounting division, marketing, manufacturing & production.
"A top-down segmented hierarchy allows for an efficient division of labor while still retaining our agency in the company as owners," Feidin remarked. "At least, while we operate in one city with one factory, this will be good enough. Should the business be as successful as we hope it will be, then we can expand the hierarchy to include other factories and bases, have plant managers, and so on."
Cæ nodded. "If this business is as successful as I think it will be, I think we will need to expand across the entire city to tackle demand for our services across the entirety of the Colohen Slums."
Cæ's vision extended far into the future when a great portion of the inner circles of the slums would desperately clamor for their product.
"…Well, for now, let's begin with this," he nodded. "With this model in mind, we will have almost sixty employees. Our estimated sales with a profit percentage of about five percent, paying the salaries that you have listed, will be about…"
He paused for a moment, multiplying great numbers together in the blink of an eye, "…two thousand three hundred and nineteen units just to handle all net expenditure, including all taxes, payouts, and other potential liabilities and estimated overhead costs."
Feidin fiddled with a calculator, and his eyes widened with a surprised expression. "That's exactly right… Did you just run all those numbers in your head just now?"
"No," Cæ lied. "I ran the numbers earlier from the reports that the two of you sent me over the past half year."
"Ah, that makes sense."
"So, to sum up," Cæ continued. "We have the final product, the supply chains, the organizational and management structure, the labor requirements, the magicapita. That leaves us with our marketing and sales, and we're effectively done."
The two of them nodded.
"H-How do you intend to market to the slums?" Seliphaz asked with a curious expression. "I don't have any expertise in marketing. But from my understanding, you don't particularly have the necessary marketing infrastructure to run ads or other existing paradigms in the slums, do you?"
Feidin nodded in agreement. "I was wondering about that as well. You had advised me not to hire or consult with marketing experts, so I'm guessing that you have a plan in mind."
"I do," Cæ replied with a confident tone. "Forget the marketing experts. Their expertise is only relevant to the inner cities and actual modern civilization. They will be clueless on how to market to the slum for a product as unconventional as ours. Unless you have lived in the slums, you don't know what it's like and how the inhabitants of the slums think."
Marketing as a field of pursuit was generally geared towards modern civilization. The most important sub-fields of it, such as magital advertising, promotions, sponsorships, and a variety of other tools that they had in the toolkit, were entirely obsolete when it came to the people of the slums, who were entirely disconnected from much of modern civilization.
That was why he had taken it upon himself.
"So, how do you intend to market the product to the public then?" Feidin raised an eyebrow.
"It's simple," Cæ replied with a knowing tone, "the people of the slums do not trust easily. They will not trust you if you tell them about the product. They will not trust if you wave pretty posters of it in their face. The more you try to convince them about the product, the more they will suspect you of trying to scam them."
Trust was in short supply in the slums.
It was the first thing that anybody brought up in the slums learned.
Trust nobody.
That was why many of the standard advertisement paradigms were entirely useless in the slums.
"What I have in mind is simply showing them the truth that we want to convince them," Cæ replied. "I will have Dlint and some others live in the slums a bit with the product in question in the upcoming monsoons that will undoubtedly lead to heavy rains, storms, and floods. It will demonstrate the sheer utility of the product relative to unstable housing infrastructure."
Feidin and Seliphaz considered his idea with an intrigued expression. "Won't that take time?"
"All advertising campaigns take time or magicapita," Cæ replied, shaking his head. "On top of that, you need to understand that the demand that we're tapping into is not small. Shelter is one of the most essential human needs. People will gravitate to something that clearly works in regard to shelter. If we were selling cookies, it would certainly take an extensive period of slow and constant exposure to generate even semi-stable sales."
However, the same could not be said for housing.
People would leap for an effective solution that protected them from the elements without being structurally unstable and risking their lives every time they partook in its shelter. And that was exactly what Cæ was counting on.
"Well, even if you market it that way, how do you intend to facilitate sales in the slums?" Feidin raised an eyebrow. "For one, without marketing, nobody would know where to find us. The issue with the slums is that it isn't just enough to get the people to know of our existence. It's all to figure out how to get them to reach us and to transact our product to them."
He brought up a good point, of course.
There was no financial infrastructure that the people of the slums were a part of that would allow them to place magital orders or any distribution service in the slums that would allow their company to deliver their product to the slums.
"The distribution will be toughest," Cæ admitted, "I don't think that we can do any more than simply set up bases in the inner circles of the slums, one in each district. As for how they will procure their housing unit…"
He turned to Seliphaz with an expectant gaze. "You did add wheels to the micro-housing unit."
"Y-Yes," she hesitated. "Is that why you asked me to do that?"
Cæ nodded. "Wheels are just convenient and make the process of the people of the slums acquiring their product simpler. We can charge an extra fee if they want us to deliver the product to their place manually. It's as simple as that. Most likely, each of them will try to take it by themselves. The concept of delivery is foreign to most of them."
The two stirred as they listened to Cæ's confident tone.
"That would mean…" Feidin turned to the organizational structure chart that he had put up on the screen, glancing at the marketing and distribution teams with widened eyes, "These two divisions will have to spend their time in the depths of the slums!"
Cæ frowned. "Well, yes. I thought that was obvious."
"Not until you explained your marketing strategy," Feidin replied with an indignant tone. "The marketing team will have to literally spend time living in the slums in our micro-housing unit, while the distribution team will have to spend time in the bases amidst the dangerous slums!"
"…The slums aren't that dangerous, either," Cæ remarked with a dubious tone. "They'll be fine; it's not like they're going to be eaten alive in there. All said and done, people in the slums still survive."
"…Still, you will face potential legal liability if you place workers in a dangerous environment that potentially leads to workplace injuries," Feidin insisted.
"That's true, which is why I intend to have them sign a waiver of acknowledgment and consent," Cæ replied calmly. "Besides, I don't intend to hire a bunch of pampered pussies for this job. Why do you think I hired Dlint for this job?"
The two of them widened their eyes as they understood why he had hired the former slum delinquent-turned-army vet as his operations manager. It also meant that he had had this marketing and distribution strategy in mind for a long time.
"The man knows the slums well and is equipped to handle such tasks," Cæ replied, "it's also why I left the task of finding marketing and distribution laborers. He probably knows many people in the slums who are desperately looking for a way out and are willing to slog as hard as he was to leave."
Feidin gulped. "You want to have gangsters from the slums working in our marketing and distribution divisions?"
Cæ directed a glance of disapproval at him.
"Not everyone living in the slums is a gangster."
Feidin winced, raising his hands. "I know… but you get my point, right? Do you really trust random fellows from the slums of all places? What if they steal all our supplies and run away?"
Cæ heaved a sigh.
It was precisely this attitude that prevailed in the minds of essentially the citizens of the inner city while the rich went one step and essentially treated them like a lesser species. Cæ had run into this attitude his entire life, depriving him of countless opportunities that he wished he had had.
"Dlint is not incompetent," Cæ remarked, shaking his head. "Besides, I do not intend to make it seem like that is a wise thing to do, as you'll see."
CLACK
The three of them glanced at the front door that opened up as Dlint entered, nodding at the three of them up on the second floor. "Boss. Feidin. Seliphaz. I have bought our new recruits."
Behind him, several burly men walked in, wearing torn and patched clothes and a ski mask, waiting to be pulled down to cover their faces. Scars, burns, and other disfigurations ran across the skin of their body. Their expressions were severe and intense, ready to fight.
Feidin and Seliphaz grew pale while Cæ strode forward to the railings of the second floor, nodding at all of them and turning them to Dlint.
"They're perfect."
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