Chapter 202: Touring the Company

Lunch at Julian's house wasn't exactly enjoyable for Carter. After all, the North Carolina delicacies were quite unusual, and the arrangement of dishes, especially the four Mexican-style dishes that seemed out of place on the table, made Carter feel the importance Julian's family placed on his visit!

Most of those Mexican dishes seemed to be for Carter alone, indicating that Julian must have instructed his wife, Josephine (Josephine, or Jose for short), to prepare them, knowing Carter's love for spicy food. Even that liver paste, which looked like crap, with an ice cream ball on top, wasn't some cheap stuff.

After filling their stomachs, Carter entertained the two little ones at Julian's house. Promising them a trip to Disneyland when they returned to the South to play with him, he earned smiles from the two kids. They kept hanging around Carter until he and Julian left.

Knowing well that "where there's milk, there's mommy, where there's fun, there's brother," Carter joked!

"Alright, let's go. Our company is on the fourth floor!"

About an hour and a half later, the car pulled into Manhattan's southern district. They parked under an office building in the Wall Street area, to be precise, not too far from famous institutions like the New York Fed, NYSE, Mellon Bank, and Deutsche Bank in the heart of Wall Street.

It could only be said that Julian's choice of office location barely made it into the financial district of southern Manhattan. Carter could understand that, starting out, one had to be a bit frugal.

"Wow, quite extravagant! You've rented a whole floor?"

Entering the office building, Carter saw only a sign that read "Tiger Asset Management Company" behind the 4F location on the floor plan next to the elevator. He couldn't help but marvel.

Considering both the choice of office location and Julian's past behavior, Carter had the impression that Julian was a bit stingy. But today, Julian seemed to have changed his ways?!

"You have to spend money to make money! If you don't expand the office space a bit in such a location, how can you expect others to trust you to manage their money? Once the company sign is unveiled tonight, bring it over tomorrow and hang it up. Let's go, let's go inside and take a look!"

Exiting the elevator, Julian first pointed to the empty space on the wall next to the elevator, then smiled wryly and led Carter closer to the nearest office.

"This is the trading hall, with twenty automatic market feeders over there. They allow us to monitor real-time trading activities from various exchanges including New York, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, etc., so we can make timely and accurate judgments!"

The trading hall, or Tiger's trading processing center, looked very similar to the large office Carter had seen in "The Wolf of Wall Street".

Rows of tables were neatly arranged, with a row of automatic feeders along the wall. The phones on the desks looked like they belonged in a call center. However, compared to the trading hall of Little Lee's company in "The Wolf of Wall Street", the spacing between workstations here was much wider, and it wasn't as crowded.

There weren't many employees waiting in the trading hall at the moment. After Julian introduced Carter to the traders and they exchanged greetings, the three moved to another large office facing the trading hall.

The layout was almost identical to the previous office. It had all the necessary automatic feeders, and there were quite a few of them. However, compared to the trading hall, the desks here were placed closer together. There were also more computers and some whiteboards that Carter had no idea what they were for, quite a few of them!

"This is Tiger's brain. Market analysts work here. They analyze various market data, communicate with industry contacts, interpret policies, and provide guidance for our young Tiger based on their performance and interpretation of various market data."

After introducing Carter to the analysts, Julian walked toward the next office, shaking his head and sighing:

"It's a pity. I still don't have an analyst like Jim here."

"Why not try to recruit him? Didn't Mr. Rogers fall out with Mr. Soros?"

Following behind Julian, Carter asked the question he had been wanting to ask for a long time. If there weren't platforms suitable for him to make use of his skills, such as investment banks or investment companies, Carter himself wanted to start digging.

"Heh, Jim now has a personal fortune of at least fourteen million. Mind you, that's personal wealth, more than our entire Tiger now. What can you offer him to recruit him?"

Ah, this...

Carter was momentarily speechless, thinking it over.

If Soros was aiming to become a billionaire, as his partner, Rogers' personal wealth shouldn't be too bad. And for someone like him, who had already made a name for himself, offering him a salary wouldn't be effective.

After all, their income composition was no longer primarily salary-based. It was mostly profit-sharing. So, to get a larger share of the profits, you needed to have a large scale so they could get a bigger share!

If the scale wasn't large enough, unless you offered them an extremely high profit-sharing ratio, but then, would your own profits still be there?!

"This is the finance office, where fund settlements, general ledger accounting, and tax reporting are handled. This will also be the office directly managed by you, the supervisor of this company, in the future."

Just as Carter realized this, Julian opened the door of another office again.

"No, no, no! You manage it, I'm usually not here. I only invite a few auditors to come and do the accounts at the end of the year. As for daily work, you handle it however you want!"

Although he said that, Carter was quite serious when he met with the finance manager. At least, he remembered the guy's name: Nashat Ambrose.

After touring the administrative, personnel, and logistics offices, the three finally entered the CEO's office.

"John Griffin! My old friend, and now our steward. John, this is Mr. Carter Blake. It's fair to say that without him, you wouldn't have such a comfortable and spacious office today!"

"Ha ha ha, welcome welcome! Boss, truly a young talent!"

Shaking hands with Carter's outstretched right hand, John smiled. However, behind the warm welcome, Carter could clearly feel a hint of perfunctoriness.

After all, why would they respect him? It was more like they respected the five million-dollar investment and his identity as the second largest shareholder.

Instead of respecting him, they respected those five million dollars.

Laughing heartily, Carter shook hands, remembering the name. Then, the two moved on. But this time, it left Carter feeling a bit speechless.

"Why did you even prepare an office for me? And a secretary's office too. Isn't that a waste?"

In front of a large office with his nameplate on the door, Carter shook his head with a wry smile. The layout of this office was almost identical to the CEO's office he had just visited.

Before entering his actual office, there was a small secretary's office. To enter his own office, he had to pass through this obstacle.