Ferdinand was caught by Princess Clementine, given a stern lecture, and then dragged to a few boring aristocratic banquets before she temporarily let him go.
It wasn't without its rewards; at least he gained a talent from his mother: Franz Kafka. Does that name sound familiar? It's the same as an Austrian Jewish novelist.
However, they are not the same person. This Franz Kafka is a Hungarian man in his forties who has been managing Princess Clementine's properties and has performed very well.
Ferdinand had an in-depth conversation with him, initially recognized his abilities, and then persistently persuaded Princess Clementine to loan him over.
He planned to let him try it out, and if he performed well, the person in charge of the department store supermarket would be found.
In the 19th century, the market economy was not yet so developed. Family businesses were the mainstream, and talent mobility was not very high. High-level talents could only be found by picking up what was available.
In 1881, there were only over 13,000 university students in Austria. At first glance, it seemed like a lot, but a closer look reveals that only two to three thousand students graduated successfully each year, distributed across various majors. When narrowed down to specific management majors, there were only a pitiful one hundred or so people.
After excluding those who were already nobles or merchants, the number of people who truly needed to find a job was very small.
At that time, university students were truly the darlings of society. Various government departments and major financial groups vied for them, and most had their positions secured even before graduation.
Ferdinand had to temporarily abandon the idea of recruiting from schools and honestly decided to cultivate his own talent.
The first task Franz Kafka undertook for Ferdinand was to recruit staff, but things did not go smoothly.
That day, Franz came over and bowed to Ferdinand in a noble manner, saying, "Your Royal Highness Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony, Franz Kafka greets you."
"Hmm, you can choose to call me Your Highness or Duke. The full title is really too inconvenient. Franz, what brings you to me today?" Ferdinand said casually.
"I'm very sorry, Your Highness, I cannot complete the task you assigned on schedule," Franz Kafka said with some difficulty.
"What? It's only recruiting over a thousand people, how can you not complete it?" Ferdinand asked, somewhat puzzled.
His evaluation of Franz had already dropped a few points. He had given him half a month to recruit people, and now less than half the time had passed, and he was already talking about difficulties. Why didn't he know how to solve them?
"Your Highness, according to your requirements, it may be impossible to complete. So far, only three hundred and eighty-two people have been recruited. And since yesterday morning, the number of applicants has been very few. I'm afraid there aren't that many highly educated people in the Vienna area still looking for work!" Franz Kafka explained.
After a pause, Franz suggested to Ferdinand, "Your Highness, do you think we can lower the standards for the remaining positions? This way, we can also reduce some salaries, save expenses, and it won't affect the supermarket's operations!"
Ferdinand's minimum education requirement for recruitment was a middle school diploma. Because the salary offered was generous, the first recruitment of one hundred people was completed quickly, which made him overlook that in this era, middle school graduates were actually considered highly educated talents.
At that time, graduating from middle school meant one could easily find a good job, and its value was even higher than that of 985 and 211 graduates in later generations.
After hearing Franz's reasons, Ferdinand's anger had subsided. This was due to his own oversight.
He secretly reminded himself to remember this lesson and not bring the concepts of later generations into this era. Making a fool of himself was minor; if he wasn't careful, he could end up in a ditch.
Correcting mistakes when they are realized is one of Ferdinand's strengths. Since Franz's suggestion was reasonable, there was no reason to refuse it.
"Mr. Franz, your suggestion is excellent. The rest is up to you. Go ahead and do it boldly according to your ideas!" Ferdinand's tone was much more polite this time.
The management talent for the supermarket was in place, but financial personnel were still a big problem. There were no computers in this era, and accounting relied entirely on manual labor.
The workload was huge, and each supermarket had to be equipped with reliable financial personnel. For a while, Ferdinand found it difficult to find so many people.
For the previous five supermarkets, the financial staff were temporarily trained on the job. They could barely keep accounts and had nothing to do with professionalism.
Just thinking about it was frustrating; it seemed that opening Volvo all over the world was still a long and arduous task!
However, thinking about the supermarket's profits, Ferdinand immediately perked up. The first Volvo supermarket broke even in its first month of operation, and the other four had only been open for a short time, but their profits were also good.
"Indeed, the easiest way to make money is through monopoly!" Ferdinand thought to himself.
However, he also knew that these good days would probably last at most half a year. Once others joined in, profits would definitely decrease.
After continuing to monitor for more than two months, the supermarket operations had become regular, and Ferdinand had already handed over the daily management work to Franz.
Of course, he also didn't forget to promote two people from the earliest employees to be Franz's assistants. The supermarket would definitely continue to expand, so how could he not prepare talent in advance!
The supermarket matter was temporarily concluded, but Ferdinand was not idle. The supermarket's profits were good, but compared to what he would do in the future, it was still a drop in the bucket.
Thinking about Bulgaria, Ferdinand felt that he was not working hard enough! After all, he was a transmigrator who had seen big scenes, so how could he be satisfied with a mere income of over ten thousand pounds a month!
Of course, if he had an income of over ten thousand pounds a month before transmigration, he would certainly be very satisfied.
Now everything was different. After all, he was a prince and a duke, and the future king of Bulgaria, so how could his vision be narrow!
Ferdinand greatly envied those transmigrator predecessors who casually came up with some inventions and creations and had tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in assets. When it was his turn, he could only do small businesses.
Although the Koháry family also had tens of millions of pounds in assets, that was all nominal. A large area of territory and castles simply could not be cashed in, unless they planned to abandon their aristocratic standing.
In reality, the Koháry family's annual income from various investments and land revenues was only about one million pounds. After expenses, they could probably save two to three hundred thousand pounds each year, which was considered first-class in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Ferdinand couldn't invent anything. He knew about things like adding an eraser to a pencil, but Hyman had already patented it in 1867, so there was nothing he could do.
Stockings were even more ridiculous. Given the chemical level at the time, even if they could be made, the price would probably not be much lower than gold, and whether they could be worn was another matter!
Since this path was blocked, Ferdinand decided to continue focusing on food, clothing, housing, and transportation, such as a grain processing plant, which seemed like a good idea.
Although the profit was not high, even a mosquito has meat! The grain was produced on his own land, and after processing, it could be directly sold in the supermarket, forming a small industrial chain and increasing resistance to risks.