The president had a devastated expression on his face as he said, “Little Prince, our losses are massive. Not only d o we have book losses, but even more importantly, our upstream and downstream supply chain shave also suffered losses as a result of these attacks.
“We can’t sell our products if the raw materials are out of stock, and we’ve already reduced the factories’ production by a third. And this is after we, the strong ones, made advanced preparations. If this goes on, the smaller companies and factories are all going to close down.
“If one link in the industry goes down,
it’ll deliver a blow to the entire industry,”
His words resonated with many people
around him.
What he had said out loud was the dilemma everyone was in now.
The people here belonged to powerful companies in their respectful industries.
They would not have been qualified to attend the economic forum if they did not have the required talent.
However, if even they had felt how powerful this attack was, there was no doubt that the smaller companies that were far less resilient and powerful than them had too.
A slight increase in force would be enough to uproot them entirely.
Modern companies were intimately interdependent as industries were all closely linked. A single industry chain might be formed by countless corporations both big and small.
Large corporations had plans of their own, while smaller corporations also had tricks up their sleeves. They had long since formed a mutually beneficial relationship, such that these large corporations would not last long if the smaller corporations all collapsed.
A frosty expression appeared on the little prince’s face when he saw how the people around him reacted in response.
If individual companies like them were already bracing themselves for the storm, there was no doubt that the royal family, who had deep roots in all sorts of industries, had even higher levels of sensitivity.
While on the way here, he had already heard from the family that several of their industries had already run into some trouble.
Some of these difficulties were due to losses in the financial market, but even more of them were because of problems that arose and caused a chain reaction in the upstream and downstream supply chains they were linked to.
For example, A Company provided materials for B Company to manufacture into products for C Company, who then sold the products to the average consumer.
That was an example of a supply chain.
If problems arose in their middleman, B Company, A Company could not sell their materials while C Company could not produce the end product.
Thus, B Company’s problems would be
projected onto A Company and C
Company.
This was only the simplest form of a
modern supply chain. They were usually
much more complicated in actual practice.
Most of the Royal family’s businesses
were in the upper-middle reaches of the
supply chains.
Based on the current feedback from his
family, the little prince already had the
feeling that his family, which used to
operate like a massive, well-oiled
machine, was now starting to move with
less agility because the parts had started t
o rust.
It was only the beginning. If the condition
continued worsening, the parts would not
only rust, they would begin
malfunctioning and become detached
from the rest of the machine.
As he thought of this, the little prince
sighed and said, “Everyone, I understand
how you’re feeling now. To be honest, the
Royal family is not doing much better
than you are now. However, the problem is that this is not a difficulty that just one o r several of you face. Rather, we’re all stuck in a similar situation.
“Thus, we can’t rely on just one person or several people to solve this problem. We have to count on each other and gather our resources to tide over this difficult time.”
The little prince’s statements were superficial and formal, but at least it was a – statement. It helped those in closer contact with the Royal family feel slightly less resentful.
The little prince observed the situation in silence before he smiled and said, “I believe that everyone here has heard how Swallow Capital has purposely sent someone over to act as the economic forum’s special guest today.”
Sure enough, he managed to pique everyone’s interest with that sentence.
