The Challenge Resolved

The archives, which were only accessible after someone was dismissed, were unremarkable. There were no glittering collections, nor any antique or finely bound books found in wealthy homes.

On the contrary, mismanagement is the problem here. The place is filled with mold and dust, and many fluorescent lights flicker, but thankfully there's no smell of rats or small animal droppings.

Henry put the keys away and turned to the chubby woman. "Julianne, you don't need to stay here. Go and inform all the department heads that there's a meeting in the main conference room at 10:25 AM, two hours from now."

"Okay, Mr. Brown."

"Go."

Once everyone else was in the archives, Henry immediately used his Super Speed to browse through nearly twenty years of documents.

The archives were dirty, but fortunately the classification system was still functioning properly; documents weren't just randomly placed, and they were stored according to year and type.

The whole process took less than ten minutes. Henry even stirred up all the dust in the archives because he moved so fast. Luckily, he could hold his breath and move around, otherwise he would have been choked to death by the old, dusty mess.

Henry decided to delegate the cleaning and tidying to someone else. He didn't want to overstep his bounds, even though he could do it in a short time. So, after reviewing what he needed to know, he returned to the CEO's office.

That mountain of documents wasn't difficult to process.

Because Stark Studios went through a long period without a CEO in charge, with department heads acting independently.

Driven by autonomy and initiative, superiors don't need to offer much advice. Most documents simply provide a "as proposed" response, allowing subordinates to follow suit.

Only a small portion required a ruling, and even those contained some pitfalls. However, these pitfalls seemed hastily dug, and their problems were immediately apparent. Therefore, a direct rejection was sufficient; Henry didn't even bother with revisions.

The film production department, on the other hand, brought in a huge pile of project plans and scripts.

After Howard shifted his focus, Stark Studios only reduced its production department, not eliminated it. So every few years, the studio still releases one or two low-budget independent films.

This action not only maintains the production department but also the distribution department. Furthermore, it supports new directors and independent films with innovative ideas, while preserving Stark Studios ' reputation.

The production department doesn't actually have a standard for which specific project or director to support. The only constraint they face is the total production budget, which is a fixed figure of one million each year.

Actually, this number wasn't small in the early 1950s. But it hasn't increased in over forty years, and today it's not even enough to make a single movie.

If the money isn't used, the funding can be carried over to the next year. If it makes a profit, the company benefits; if it loses money, although the employees won't lose money, the reputation of the person in charge of producing a film that loses money and has no good word-of-mouth is predictable.

Therefore, Stark Studios ' production department has always played it safe, and hasn't done any big-budget productions with budgets exceeding ten million dollars. Now that a new CEO has taken office, they seem to be looking to return to their former glory, presenting all the projects they've gathered to Henry, waiting for his approval.

After all, the production budget Tony Stark promised Henry was more than ten times that of the past. Even for big-budget productions in the tens of millions, he wouldn't directly refuse; he would just have to report to that young master and request permission.

However, looking at this pile of stuff, Henry felt that they weren't genuinely interested in making a movie, but rather there to cause him trouble. Many of them were indeed projects promoting leading ladies. It seemed Charlize Theron's presence was quite attention-grabbing.

Henry didn't deliberately hide their relationship. Ultimately, he took this job today to pave the way for that future Best Actress. Her agent should know how to make good use of such resources, right?

However, the projects submitted by Stark Studios ' production department were either completely unfamiliar to me, or even lacked a script. They wanted to get projects approved and funding based on just a few storyboards.

Leaving aside projects where the trickery is obvious at a glance, there are also scripts that Henry knows have already been greenlit by film companies and are currently in production. Some are even in post-production.

The recruitment notices for those film crews have all been sent to the Actors Guild. Given Henry's memory, the possibility of him making a mistake is almost nonexistent.

Simply put, the vast majority of the stuff the production department sends out is either filler material or a huge mess that could lead to lawsuits.

He hoped to find some hidden gems, perhaps movies he knew from before his time travel that were box office hits. After searching through them, Henry realized he was dreaming. There weren't that many good scripts waiting to be picked up for free.

As for Stark Studios' most important source of revenue today, the various requests and documents put forward by the equipment department are mostly feedback from camera or other equipment users.

There were requests for improvement, defects discovered during use, and complaints simply about the price.

Ironically, Stark Studios already has its own equipment manufacturing and R&D department. Most of these issues should be resolved internally, yet they were placed on the CEO's desk. Their intentions are crystal clear: to cause trouble.

Henry made no comments on these documents, which were similar to user testimonials and feedback.

After all, he hadn't seen the condition of the equipment being complained about, so even if he wanted to help change the design, he couldn't. Therefore, he simply categorized the files, grouping those with similar issues together.

After doing all that, Henry looked at the empty office. The small office outside, where a secretary or administrative assistant should have been, was also empty.

Helpless, Henry, now a high-level employee, could only miserably carry a stack of documents, piling them almost to chin height so he could see where he was going, and then walk alone to the conference room.

I don't know if it's because the route from the CEO's office to the meeting rooms on different floors is too remote, or what, but I didn't see a single person along the way who I could call on to help.

What's the office culture like in the United States? Can superiors casually ask subordinates to help with miscellaneous tasks? Or will they be met with a response like, "That's not within my job scope"?

Having never worked in an United States workplace before, Kryptonian was a little panicked. Before his transmigration, he had only ever been a lowly employee, never a manager, let alone a CEO. All of this was a completely new experience for Henry.

After finally arriving at the conference room, a group of administrative staff were making preparations. Henry immediately spotted that conspicuous, chubby black woman again.

It seems he doesn't have much seniority in the administrative department, which is why she gets all the trouble.

However, this was, after all, a department that had experienced Henry Lewell's leadership, unlike other places where they would feign death or blindness.

As soon as Henry entered the conference room carrying a stack of documents, everyone stopped what they were doing and greeted him in unison, "Mr. Brown." Some quick-witted young men even stepped forward to take the documents.

Henry finally handed over the documents and materials, clapped his hands, and breathed a sigh of relief.