Los Angeles. Golden Dawn Entertainment Group Headquarters.
"Ms. Avril Hassan, please tell me," CEO Victor said, his voice serious, "have our three new book publishing companies—White Castle, Smile, and Brown Bear—been fully combined?"
"Mr. Jones, yes, they have," Ms. Hassan replied. "The new 'Golden Dawn Publishing Group' is fully integrated. It took three months, but the work is done."
Ms. Avril Hassan was 49 years old and had a Ph.D. from a top university. She used to be a big boss at Random House, one of the biggest publishing companies in the world. Zane had hired her to be the president of his new publishing group.
Her first job was to take Zane's three new companies and turn them into one super-group. It was hard work, but she did it.
"Mr. Jones," she continued, "our new group now has a way to sell books all across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We sell all kinds of serious, scholarly books... but of course, our main business is children's books and young adult books."
"In that part of the business," she said with pride, "we are already the third strongest in all of America!"
She went on:
"We have 1,580 employees."
"We work with 17 big universities, like Stanford and Harvard."
"We work with 22,000 different authors."
"And we have great relationships with all the big bookstores in all the big cities."
"You've done a good job, Ms. Hassan," Victor said with a respectful nod. He didn't give out praise easily.
Victor himself had been learning a lot. He knew that as the boss of Zane's whole empire, he had to keep getting smarter, or he could be replaced.
He knew his boss, Zane, wasn't a mean person, but he was a boss. If you couldn't do your job, you wouldn't get the big stock option rewards. The workplace was a tough place!
"Thank you, Mr. Jones," Ms. Hassan said.
"This was just a warm-up," Victor said. "Now, I have a real job for you."
"Please speak."
Victor nodded and pulled two books out of a cabinet.
Harry Potter 1
Harry Potter 2
"Ah, two new books," Ms. Hassan said, taking them. "No problem. I will take care of them."
Victor shook his head. "Ms. Hassan, you don't understand what I mean."
His voice became very serious. "For these two books, the entire company has one job: to promote and sell them with everything we have. The group will give you $20 million to help. After the books are a hit, we will start making the movies, video games, and everything else."
Ms. Hassan's eyes went wide. She understood right away.
This is a huge, giant move, she thought. This 'Harry Potter' series is going to be the most important job of the entire company.
...
That afternoon...
Zane, after taking a break from the 300 movie set, came to the headquarters.
"Boss, I've given the 'Harry Potter' plan to Ms. Hassan," Victor said. "I'll keep a close eye on it."
Zane patted his friend and CEO on the shoulder. "I'm always reassured when you're handling things, Victor."
Zane trusted Victor completely.
Zane knew that the Harry Potter movies were so huge in his old life because the giant company, Warner Bros., had spent a ton of money promoting them. A small company could never have made it that big.
Zane's company, Golden Dawn, was still much smaller than Warner Bros. The gap was huge!
But... Zane was not going to give up.
"We don't have the power they do... yet," he thought. "So we have to be smarter. We'll use our high-quality, amazing movies, like 300, Harry Potter, and Spider-Man, to conquer the world, one theater at a time."
He smiled. "And if that doesn't work, I'll just create the Marvel Cinematic Universe myself. I will succeed."
...
A few days later...
The first Harry Potter book was about to be sold across America... and the giant advertising plan was already in full swing!
Zane used all of his companies to help.
On his TV show, "America's Got Talent," the ads for Harry Potter were everywhere. The books were piled up on the judges' table. Even the host, Will Smith, personally promoted it!
"You're asking me what's the deal with Harry Potter?" Will Smith said to the camera with a big, excited smile.
"Then I can tell you all, it's a very, very, very good fantasy story."
"You see these dark circles under my eyes?" he joked. (Of course, you couldn't really see them.) "I was up all night last night, reading it. I just love it!"
Will Smith was one of the most popular actors in the world. Hearing him say that made everyone watching at home super interested.
(Of course, no one is a philanthropist. Zane had to pay Will Smith $300,000 just for saying those few words!)
The Harry Potter ads were so overwhelming, viewers almost couldn't escape them. Many people started to complain.
"Darn it!" one viewer griped. "To promote this one book, they are really going all out! They're breaking my heart with all these ads!"
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