KiShin's rise
Shin gazed at the building before him. Located in Toshima Ward, his company had acquired the building for a reasonable 140 million yen, a relatively low price for Tokyo prefecture. Despite its modest appearance, Shin had plans to renovate it and establish a café and a small restaurant on one of its floors.
The KiShin employees observed their new workplace with excitement. To them, this marked a fresh start and a realm of possibilities.
---
The sales of KiShin SKT FamiCom continued to soar at a remarkable pace. Some opportunistic companies engaged in price gouging, akin to Yakuza families vying for more KiShin SKT FamiCom units. As a result, the sales of KiShin SKT FamiCom kept climbing without showing any signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, within the main headquarters of Tora Corp, in the office of the Chairman and CEO, Asahi Tanaka sat deep in thought. Facing him was a young adult with blonde hair, Itori Tanaka, his elder son and the current CEO of Tora Electronics.
"In my opinion, there's no issue in emulating such a lucrative product. Our electronic technology team has already devised a way to avoid copyright infringement. There's nothing to be concerned about," Itori calmly stated.
He continued confidently, "Furthermore, we can potentially outperform KiShin's products with superior specifications. We can also hire numerous programmers to develop games for our hardware. We can commence mass production of our video game console imitations to meet the demand in the new market."
Asahi nodded but expressed his worry, "I'm aware of that. I'm concerned, though, that this might be a trap set by the Suzuki Group."
Itori appeared puzzled by his father's concerns and asked, "Chairman, what exactly worries you? Even if it is a trap, we can be prepared."
Asahi shook his head and elaborated, "I'm concerned that the Suzuki Group foresaw this move and that Shinro deliberately rejected our proposal as part of their trap... My suspicion is that their trap might unfold like this: when we begin mass production of a similar product with better specs, Suzuki Electronics under the Suzuki Group might suddenly introduce an even superior product with access to KiShin games. This could potentially render our imitation product unsellable until then."
Itori nodded, understanding the gravity of his father's words.
"Don't worry, Chairman. We'll find out soon enough when we receive information from our spy within the board of directors," Itori reassured Asahi.
Asahi nodded silently.
---
In just about two weeks since the launch of KiShin SKT FamiCom, the revenue of KiShin Electronics had already reached an impressive 2.8 billion yen. Game cartridge sales alone had reached at least 700 million yen, a notable achievement considering KiShin had only released a few games thus far.
With this surge in revenue, KiShin was actively expanding its workforce and increasing production capacity to meet market demand. The video game console market resembled a blank canvas, and KiShin had firmly established its dominance with no competitors in sight.
Major companies like Suzuki, Toyota, Tora, and others could only watch helplessly as KiShin SKT FamiCom sales and production continued to rise. As more units entered stores and malls across Tokyo, the demand showed no signs of abating. KiShin expanded its reach to neighboring cities, securing deals with stores and malls, which kept the retail division of KiShin exceptionally busy.
The KiShin brand gradually gained recognition throughout Tokyo, with their video games and FamiCom consoles steadily gaining popularity in the city.
---
"As the demand for our FamiCom consoles grows, so does the demand for video games," Lee Han explained, detailing KiShin's sales figures and the potential video game market.
"We've already recruited numerous programmers at KiShin," Shin said with a smile. "They've developed a few games, including Contra from my vision plan and a game of their own creation, Snake. However, this alone hasn't significantly boosted our game cartridge sales. While the company is expanding, we've managed to address the issue of FamiCom shortages. However, our game cartridge sales have fallen behind because customers appear content with Super Mario Bros. Therefore, we must prioritize cost-effective marketing and promotion strategies to boost our video game sales without overspending."
The key KiShin employees fell silent, pondering the situation. One of them suggested, "Perhaps we can promote our products through flyers or allocate more funds for in-store and mall promotions. Additionally, we could consider contracting a top celebrity for endorsements?"
The employees nodded in agreement, but as the company's rapid rise and soaring revenue had led to complacency, their suggestions began to sound naive and impractical.
"We can sign contracts with many national top celebrities or better yet, international top celebrities and have them promote our products for at least several months."
"Yeah, securing contracts for at least a year."
The employees turned to Shin for confirmation but were met with his cold expression.
They didn't quite understand, but Shin suddenly spoke in a frosty tone, "Is that your suggestion?"
The employee who had made the suggestion felt a pang of fear, and the others shared a similar feeling.
He nodded hastily.
"I'm disappointed in all of you," Shin said with a cold gaze, his eyes scanning each of the employees. Beside him, Lee Han felt helpless, witnessing how these top employees had grown complacent and arrogant in just a matter of weeks.
Shin closed his eyes in disappointment and continued, "Everyone except Mr. Han, please leave." He spoke with indifference.
The employees exchanged glances before exiting the room.
Shin couldn't believe he had wasted time discussing the company's plans with this group of people. They had casually suggested spending more money as if they were the ones holding the purse strings. However, they failed to grasp the financial realities. While the company's revenue had grown, the increased workforce, acquisition of factory space, and supply costs had taken a significant chunk, reducing the nearly 4 billion yen revenue to 1.9 billion. Managing all of this, along with the additional building and workspace, was no easy task, which was why Shin had hired qualified individuals for these roles.
Yet these employees were casually throwing around the idea of spending more money without consideration, which deeply frustrated Shin. They hadn't been like this before, but now, their egos had inflated beyond reason. The mere thought of contracting a top celebrity for endorsements would cost millions of yen for just one commercial. And this group of employees was suggesting contracting many of them for months or even a year. They even have the audacity to suggest that the company should contract an international celebrity. Frankly, even the entirety of the company's funds wouldn't suffice to meet the demands of such individuals for a contract lasting several months or a year.
The audacity of these employees was truly disappointing to Shin, as their thinking had been reduced to such a simplistic and costly solution.