Chapter 43: Keeping Busy
Ian had not returned home for seven full days. He also had not seen Lisa. Other than a text here and there, she did not contact him much and it alleviated most of the stress he was feeling. The thoughts of Mina had been pushed to the furthest corners of his mind and he was completely focused on work. Around the office, many people speculated that he and Lisa had recently ended things and that is why he was more harsh than normal. Secretary Kim had not yet returned to work and her empty desk was a physical reminder about their place in the office. Although they were the absolute best among the staff, they too could be chucked aside at any moment. The pitiful expression worn by that poor woman that day was forever seared into their minds, but since then, their boss seemed to have calmed down.
Zane also noticed that Ian had lost the look of weariness on his face and had returned to his stoic nature, but it only filled him with more questions. Zane was secretly counting down the days until Ian could explain everything that happened within those three days of secrecy. He desperately wanted to know what had shaken his best friend enough to visibly lose his temper.
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Business continued as usual within the Lee Group. President Lee however, left no room for error. He had been personally dealing with every issue that came into the company and in a week, he had already smoothed out all the kinks within the office that were slowing up productivity. It was only a 0.05% increase in production speed, but for a man who was still struggling to take the reins over from his father, the slight boost made him seem more reliable to those who had been worried about their bottom line.
The Lee group had its hands in everything, and Ian oversaw it all. From floristry to weaponry, if there was a problem, he would solve it. Just as things were starting to fall into place, Ian heard that one of his factories overseas was experiencing major losses and they were planning to scale back on production.
This move would cost the Lee group Billions in government contracts and would hurt the company's overall image. The possibility of not being able to fulfill obligations would leave the Lee group open to breach of contract compensation and leave the facility with millions of dollars in unnecessary resources. Before the problem could get out of control, Ian used his family's personal jet and went straight to Sani.
Upon arrival, a Sani politician tried to greet President Lee in his best attempt at Pan's local language. Seeing the man struggle, Ian replied to the man in the Sani language and the politician felt relieved. The two men discussed Ian's visit and some minor security issues.
The politician, was not the current president, but he was the mayor of the district which housed the Lee group facility. The man had a long standing and friendly relationship with the Lee family, and he had heard rumors about the Lee facility. Worried that President Lee had come to cut ties with him for his inability to control the crime in his district, the man dropped everything to greet President Lee before he headed to his factory. He voluntarily handed over a stack of documents to President Lee, trying to prove to the man that he was just asking cautiously, not ignoring the problem.
In truth, the mayor had been too busy with his reelection campaign and had neglected the low voter turnout district completely. After assessing the situation and considering the information offered to him by the mayor, Ian surmised that he would need at least a week to address the issues with the factory.
Currently, the Nation of Sani was in the middle of a crisis. They were a small country to begin with and were always on the brink of collapse. However, when it came to raw materials the country was rich. Unfortunately, one weak leader after another sold off the Sani land and the country soon found itself in a position where the most lucrative businesses were owned by foreigners, the Lee Group included. While most of these companies relocated citizens from their own countries to work for them in Sani, the Lee Group chose to train and hire locally. Because of this, they had a good relationship with several of the local leaders, so Ian had no reason to ignore the files handed to him, if he compared them to his own intel and there was something off, he would know exactly where to go.
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Seven months ago, a rival company popped up and began to threaten the Lee Group employees. Two men had even been killed. This information had been hidden from Ian, probably by one of the men he ousted, and now it had spiraled out of control. Several employees and their families had been taken hostage. Their captors refused to release them unless the factory handed over some of its patents. From then on, many people feared going to work and those who had children, quit. Ian was not as coldblooded as one would think, he knew the circumstances were delicate and he had every intention of allowing those who had abandoned the company to return, albeit with a significant cut to their salary. He did not mind being cruel, and the reality is what it is.
After being informed about the situation, Ian's first task was to figure out who owned the rival factory. The information he had gotten from the mayor was not complete in that aspect. He made a quick call to Zane who had become the unofficial CEO of the Lee Group since Ian took over and explained to him that he would need him to handle things for a few days.
It had been a long time since Ian was able to release his frustrations properly. He was going to enjoy this trip as a little vacation.