The Mech Touch

Ves conceived of the Exemplar Plan as a means to avoid giving away his shares.

Due to his bad experiences with giving away shares in the LMC, it had become taboo in his eyes. He never wanted to reduce his ownership in his mech company or dilute his existing shares ever again!

By drawing such a hard red line, he couldn't reward his lead designers like many other mech companies.

Perhaps regular leaders might not care too much about passing on 2 or 5 percent of outstanding shares to a helpful Journeyman, but Ves was different.

He didn't want to give away a single individual share if he could help it! After losing majority control in the LMC for a period of time, he managed to climb back up to possessing a 59 percent stake.

This was his bottom line!

In the future, he would always welcome expanding his stake, but never lowering it. The LMC was a private corporation and he had no intentions at all to make it public anytime soon!

Only by grasping the majority of shares would Ves maintain absolute control over his mech company. The share of dividends he was entitled to wasn't as important to him as he reinvested most of his personal earnings into the clan anyway.

The reason why he didn't compromise and settle for 51 percent or so was because he wanted to maintain a buffer. If a situation ever arose where the MTA or some other entity coerced him into issuing new stock, thereby diluting the value of existing shares, Ves wouldn't instantly lose control.

He had learned his lesson. He could never be too careful about this, especially when he planned to enter the Red Ocean.

Ves didn't intend to explain all of this to his mech designers. He first focused on explaining how he planned to distribute the profits of the LMC.

"Right now, a significant chunk of the LMC's earnings is reinvested right back into its operations." He explained. He even called up a balance sheet that displayed the massive sums involved. "As you can see, our company is constantly setting up regional headquarters, establishing alliances, building our own distribution network and so on. Spending in this aspect will slowly recede once our growth in the Yeina Star Cluster has reached saturation."

He pointed finger at another section of the balance sheet. "Now, if you account for all of the expenses, taxes, investments and so on, we still have hundreds of billions of hex credits left over. The LMC has always paid out all of its earnings in the form of dividends."

A fourth projection came into view. It displayed a simple pie chart that depicted the current ownership of the LMC. Naturally, Ves dominated more than half of this chart, with the Larkinson Clan coming up second with its 24 percent stake.

"As you can see, more than three-quarters of the LMC's earnings flow into the pockets of myself and the clan in proportion to our shares. There is only 1 class of shares at the moment, so the distribution of money is very simple. I own 59 percent of the company, so I get 59 percent of the money."

This was a huge amount of money! Not a single mech designer including Gloriana could remain calm after hearing this explanation.

To Ves, money was a number. Though he was aware that he could constantly expand his personal fortune, there was little point to hoarding money. He cared much more about growing his strength and expanding his power. In order to do that, he needed to convert his money into useful assets and resources.

The main reason why he continued to dominate the clan was because he spent almost all of his dividends into strengthening it. There was no way his clan would be able to acquire 6 more capital ships in the next couple of years if Ves did not open up his bank accounts!

He didn't hesitate to let everyone know this detail.

"As you can see, even though the LMC has paid out a lot of dividends over the years, in practice much of that money ends up improving the Larkinson Clan in some fashion. The second-class mechs and starships we have recently acquired are all funded by the dividends earned by myself and the Larkinson Clan. Even the factory ship we are in right now is obtained through my efforts."

No one denied how much funding and resources he put into the clan. The numbers didn't lie.

"We are all in this together. If I had my way, all of the money earned by the LMC should be spent on growing and strengthening our clan. However, this is not entirely fair to those of who you are able to contribute significantly to our products. I do not wish to treat you all unfairly, but neither can I allow a situation to arise where the clan no longer gets the funding it needs. The Exemplar Plan exists to balance these priorities and ensures that our clan and mech company and everyone else remains content."

All of that was a big fat lie, of course. Ves was not that generous.

He gestured his hand to the document that outlined the Exemplar Plan. Eight different slots stood out from the text.

"Now how does the plan address this issue? It's quite simple, actually. Through a simple financial arrangement, I will voluntarily deposit the cash dividends I've earned from stock corresponding to an 8 percent stake into a separate fund. This fund will subsequently distribute the money it has received to our best mech designers."

He tapped at the projected Exemplar Plan. Some of the eight empty slots began to fill up with names. Juliet Stameros, Ketis Larkinson and Miles Tovar occupied the top three slots.

"Let's say in the near future that Ketis and Miles have successfully advanced to Journeyman. They become eligible to join this profit-sharing scheme by virtue of their design capabilities. Each slot corresponds to the dividends earned from a 1 percent stake in the LMC. This means that each mech designer that is on this list effectively earns 1 percent of the income of the LMC!"

A lot of mech designers looked impressed, but there were several that grew confused at how the plan was structured. The profit-sharing scheme was not as simple as it looked.

For example, Neither Ves nor Gloriana were on the list. This caused the latter to look a little upset.

As far as Ves was concerned, Gloriana had no reason to take part in the plan. As his wife, his possessions were hers and vice versa. Of course, this was just an excuse. Ves had no intentions of actually allowing her to do anything with his ownership stake.

Oscar DiMartin raised his hand. "Sir, the document only holds eight positions. What if the LMC grows to the point when there are more Journeymen?"

The most important question had finally come up. Ves crossed his arms.

"The plan only encompasses the top 8 mech designers of our Design Department. If there are nine, ten or even more Journeymen, then I am sorry to say that the mech designers who haven't reached the top 8 will not receive any cash dividends."

"Isn't that unfair, sir?!"

"I don't think so!" Ves barked back! "In every mech company, it is always the top mech designers who are responsible for most of the success. As more and more mech designers ascend, more and more people will want a slice of the pie. At a certain point, each additional talent that rises up will effectively take away the earnings of other mech designers. In order to prevent future arguments, I have capped the amount of eligible mech designers at eight. This means only those of you who work the hardest and contributes the most are entitled to the richest rewards! These eight individuals should be lauded in our company. This is why they will be regarded as Exemplars!"

Exemplars!

This was a new title that Ves had created in order to celebrate the breadwinners of the LMC.

He could already see the effect of this announcement on his mech designers. They aimed to secure this coveted position for themselves and beat out any rivals that could push them out of the top 8. The competitive spirit of his Braves and Erudites were already firing up as they understood the significance of becoming an Exemplar!

"You haven't exactly explained how this is fair to the rest of those who aren't… Exemplars." Oscar said.

"Non-exemplars will not go destitute, if that is what you're afraid of." Ves quickly answered. "Working for the LMC has never been about money. The Exemplar Plan is just a relatively small reward compared to all of the other benefits you are getting. Think about it. Aside from earning a salary that is already generous by industry standards, you also earn Larkinson merits, which you can exchange for all kinds of exclusive benefits. Since we set up the Larkinson Merit Exchange, I have seen plenty of you exchange your merits for tutoring sessions, the right to access one of our many exclusive textbooks and many other rewards that can facilitate your career. Is this not generous enough?"

The Larkinson Merit Exchange was a completely open, fair and impartial reward mechanism. As long as they worked hard enough to earn enough merits, they could obtain their rewards without any fuss!

Only the better mech companies offered such lavish conditions. If these mech designers worked anywhere else, then they ordinarily wouldn't be able to obtain these benefits so easily unless they were valuable.

"Being a part of the Larkinson Clan is already an excellent reward in itself." Ves confidently stated. "Working for the LMC is a dream for many of you. The generous conditions that we already provide are your actual rewards. The Exemplar Plan is just a bonus that we award to our best lead designers. While it may sound nice to earn a lot of money, think about what you can actually do with it. As long as you are a part of the Larkinson fleet, where will you spend that money on? A personal ship? Implants? Tutoring? Textbooks? Except for the first one, you can already obtain the rest through other means! Money hardly means anything when you are a part of the Larkinson Clan."

He was right. The people who had become a part of the clan all lived and worked in space. They all travelled together in one big fleet that was intended to fly from one destination to another.

One of the rules of the Larkinson Clan was that every member had to stay within the fleet unless ordered otherwise. Not a single clansman was allowed to leave the fleet and do something on their own without permission!

This meant that if the Larkinson Clan never settled down on a planet, the Exemplars who stood to earn a huge amount of money didn't really have a lot of ways to spend it all. Ves predicted that most of them would eventually channel all of that money back into the clan, but with different priorities.

For example, Ketis would probably choose to funnel the money into the Swordmaidens while Juliet would choose to invest in the Penitent Sisters.

This did not bother Ves or the clan too much. They could always adjust their own investment in reaction to these developments.

For example, if Ketis decided to spend 10 billion hex credits on the Swordmaidens, then Ves would just spend 10 billion hex credits somewhere else!

Regardless of the distribution, in the end the new situation hardly differed from the old one!

This was his ultimate scheme!

Instead of Ves or the Larkinson Clan spending the money directly, it first flowed into the hands of the Exemplars, who subsequently spent it in a similar fashion.

In other words, the Exemplar Plan just introduced a detour that allowed the mech designers in question to feel rewarded while not actually changing the ultimate result!

Though Ves could see that Gloriana, Miles, Oscar and a number of other astute mech designers understood some of the depth of his plan, what did it matter?

With his power, authority and prestige within the LMC, who could possibly force him to change his plan?

The reason why he introduced the Exemplar Plan now instead of later was because his bargaining position was still strong at this point!

Once a lot more mech designers advanced to Journeymen, it would be a lot harder for Ves to ram his scheme down their throats!