Lhotse's primary revenue source was not, as previously assumed, mineral extraction, materials science or even construction. Lhotse's primary revenue source was insider trading, subsidies and political patronage and the entire rest of the corporation existed to launder that money.

It's unambiguous, looking at the detailed records. In fact, many of the legitimate industries run at a loss - overpaying for employees, underpaying for equipment, logistics broken up over dozens of electoral districts. In a lot of cases it feels clear that this is State-subsidized make-work or porkbarrelling rather than legitimate industry. As an interesting side effect, the corporation's best years are always during eras of crisis, disaster or shortage; there is a huge amount of slack inside Lhotse which can be activated in the event of a crisis. Sometimes even before a crisis starts - even with the inside view you can't determine if Lhotse [i]just so happened[/i] to be correctly placed to take advantage, or if it was forewarned. 

This arrangement means that Lhotse has a lot of everything except money; its structure calls to mind the old state-owned enterprises of the Soviet Union more than anything. Overall the corporation is comfortably in the black at the cost of acting as a shadow welfare state. This does give Lhotse a unique ability: the power to crash the economy in any region, market or city on demand simply by withdrawing its support.

The annual budget has given you 100MacroCredits to spend at your discretion. That is enough for an ambitious reform programme, a medium level corporate war, or a breakthrough into new market segment or technology. Every human being on the planet is going to pitch you their cool idea for what you could spend that money on.

Your VI chimes as it locates your candidate. It had taken a while because Brevander Tochman has been through several major life experiences. Recent experience included membership in several cults, including a stint in the ateks, then a swing hard in the other direction where they transitioned into a buff jaguar anthro lady and joined the military, before settling into an androgyne catperson with a career in professional gambling. They go by Paradisia now. 

On the one hand, they will [i]not [/i]be the corporate type - but on the other hand, you struggle to imagine how a corporate type could convince this genuine Cyber Punk to betray you.