[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/xuKygLC.png[/img]
[h3][color=orange]Conference Room #3 - Sobel-Braunson Security Systems HQ - Boston[/color][/h3][/center]

[color=c9d2e3]"Nine percent."[/color]

The close proximity of this cramped, obnoxiously lit conference room made the words reverberate for a rather dramatic effect. For all the discomfort this new headquarters brought, it was a small boon to brighten up an otherwise rather disappointing day for one Stephen Bernard Sobel. It made the suits sitting across from him all the more uncomfortable under his hardened gaze, pale blues unflinchingly held upon one of the many underlings his chief operating officer had sent to brief him on their recent foray into foreign markets. In truth, he held little in the way of malice towards this young man of thirty or forty years, but it was always amusing to watch them squirm before him as they explained away failing that were far out of their hands to control. The perks of success, he always found.

"Y-Yes, sir, we only managed to fulfill nine percent — of our rather optimistic projections, mind you — in the East Asian market as of last quarter. Regional competitors, primarily Phoenix Rising Entertainment, managed to supersede our production expectations and flooded the market with a virtual reality device in the weeks leading up to our big release. Our returns were substantial even still, but—"

[color=#c9d2e3]"But we fell short. Ten times shorter than we should have. Every man, woman and child from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea should be using our software, our personal assistant, and you're telling me some Japanese wannabe news network, peddling a headset twenty-five percent more expensive, priced us out. You let this happen?"[/color] His gaze did not falter for a moment, even as the young man did.

"We couldn't have known... The products were very, very different in design. Entirely so. Four million units is still very good, and our returns almost entirely covered the expansion of the new Research and Development department. If we simply—"

[color=c9d2e3]"I'll not take advice from some bumbling... what are you exactly, some kind of secretary? I don't need the incessant dribbling of some low-grade, paper milling secretary to tell me what we can do to mitigate this big a failure in our first big push outside the domestic market. We [i]make[/i] secretaries. I could have you replaced by phone, and it'd like as not do a better job at predicting what four billion people are going to want to buy. Get out of my face. Take your secretary's secretary with you."[/color]

While watching the poor lad scurry out of the room with his fellow in tow brought some small semblance of joy to the titular Sobel, he did have a damning prospect of where to go now. He had grown complacent, no doubt, in the position that "merging" with Braunson had put him in. They were healthy in capital despite maintaining a small, private set of investors, and had more than enough in the way of stock of their latest assistant to dominate whatever market they set out to. Asia was a given, considering the demand, yet he had underestimated the presence of the companies there. The returns Sobel-Braunson had made were certainly not insignificant, the chicken legged secretary was right about that. With a bigger and better intelligence development team, they could push forward with more ambitious projects without worry. Yet now there was a challenger for dominance, an entrenched challenger with capital to throw and a home market, by all reports, depleted of funds to buy up whatever that capital chose to create. 

So where now? Where would he peddle his precious Sobbie, as the boys in the lab had affectionately named the crisp Irish tone that chattered every handheld device in the damned building. It was a matter of principle for the company to use company software, after all.

There was always the motherland.

[color=c9d2e3]"Sobbie, economic reports, European Protectorate. Let's see what the old country thinks of a little new blood."[/color]

[color=82ca9d]"Right away, sir."[/color]