My dream had terrified me to my core. It didn’t matter how big our empires were now, we weren’t quite untouchable. In fact, both of us were relatively new in the business, taking on companies that had been in operation for decades, sometimes centuries. Families had run the fashion industry for generations, and our fledgling empires, while impressive, had none of the history supporting it that some of the other companies did. Our businesses could be toppled by a strong enough rival, and given Hidden Gems rise to power against Free and Fancy I knew from experience that it was entirely possible.
If we were defeated in a corporate battle, then the horrible scenario that had invaded my unconscious mind would come to fruition. There was no way in Equestria that I was going to let that happen. I needed to find a way of making Hidden Gem the largest company in the fashion industry, an empire so vast that it was completely and utterly indestructible. However, achieving this in my lifetime would be a challenge of herculean proportions. I didn’t know how exactly I would do it at first, but then I remembered the three letters that prefixed my name. Three letters that afforded me absolute power over Hidden Gem: CEO.
It was very easy to rationalise to myself that my plan was totally necessary. Looking back, I think perhaps it was too easy for me to make my decision. It should at least have posed some kind of ethical dilemma for me, but it didn’t. My heart had completely hardened. I was not the mother of my employees, it was not my job to look after them. In fact, it was their job to accomplish the tasks I set them within my specified deadlines and to my level of expectations. Anypony who failed to comply with these terms was a liability, deadweight and like a paralysed limb had to be removed for the good of the rest of the company.
My purification of the company started with my designers. Since it was their creativity upon which Hidden Gem thrived, I needed them to be always at their best. Anypony who failed to impress me had no place in my organisation. My aim was to create a perfect company, a titan of an organisation that was completely invincible, so any designs that fell short of perfection was penalised. I implemented a three strikes system: Anypony who failed to impress me three times was immediately fired.
I accepted no design that was anything shy of perfect and I eliminated almost 30% of all of my designers, but I did improve the company’s productivity. The designers began to fear me, they knew that I controlled their futures and they knew that anything that I deemed to be not good enough would secure them instant unemployment.
Before long I had begun to purge the company of my worthless models. As with my designers, I demanded nothing less than perfection from my models. Every photo shoot had to yield a perfect photograph and anypony who failed to do so was let go. I couldn’t believe how relaxed I had been about my company up until this point. As I cut the waste from my workforce, I forced everypony else to work twice as hard to make sure that they would be able to wake up the next morning and still have a job.
Finally I turned my attentions towards my dress makers. With them I needed to improve the rate of production. I didn’t particularly care about my dress makers. As long as they were working fast enough, I let them stay. But like before, anypony who failed to meet their quota more than three times had their employment terminated.
The productivity of the Hidden Gem corporation increased almost tenfold, but it did come at a price. About 20% of Hidden Gem’s employees were fired, but it was an incentive to everypony else to work that much harder. Anyone who wanted to remain in my employ had to prove to me that they were worthy of my time and effort.
I think I was too preoccupied at the time to really notice, but Grace stopped meeting me. Normally we would head out for coffee on a Tuesday for lunch or go out for dinner after work, just to chat. That all stopped. What’s more, she became more curt and more polite around me, losing our jovial friendly banter during conversations. Slowly, we began to drift apart. But I didn’t notice. I never noticed. Not until too late.
I knew that my new employment policy was highly effective, simply by the facts and figures that I was bombarded with on a daily basis. By the end of my initial purge of Hidden Gem, our output had risen by more than ten times what it had been the year before, and our profits went through the roof.
But we weren’t happy.
Hidden Gem become a corporation, a monster in the world of business, crushing its rivals and improving itself time and time again. But it was no longer the family that it had once been. But what’s even worse, is that in hindsight I realise that I just didn’t care. I would like to be able to say that I was blind to what I was doing to all of the hard working ponies in my business, or that I didn’t know what I was doing. But I would be lying. I knew exactly how many lives I was destroying and it was all for completely selfish reasons.
Everything I was doing was for my wedding, so that one day it could actually happen. But no matter how much work I did within Hidden Gem, nor how many ponies I let go, nor how hard I tried it simply wasn’t enough. I needed more security. I needed more power. But I had no idea how to get that power, until I took a walk through Canterlot.
I was shopping, alone this time, picking out a dress to wear to the gala. I knew I was only going to wear one of my own again, but it did the company good to have me seen in public showing some sort of support for my competitors. It was then that the idea hit me. As a concept it was almost revolutionary, but it would be a sure fire way to secure my position and to also gain even more strength in the corporate world. I realised that Hidden Gem needed to have its own stores.
Up until that point I had thought it sufficient to simply stock our merchandise in high end boutiques and stores, but I realised that if Hidden Gem had its own official stores, with only Hidden Gem products being sold then we could increase our profits by millions. It would provide more than just security, it would make Hidden Gem the most powerful and influential business in Equestria if it succeeded.
There was only one problem. There was a very limited supply of empty shops and stores in Equestria, so finding enough of them in viable locations would prove difficult. It took me less time than I would like to admit to come up with a solution to this problem. We were going to buy out other smaller companies and take their floor-space.
It was a simple, brutal and altogether brilliant plan. While there may not have been many vacant stores, there were hundreds of small businesses in every major city in Equestria from Manehattan in the far West to Stalliongrad in the East, from Canterlot in the South to Fillydelphia in the North. And Hidden Gem was more than strong enough to remove at least a few of those businesses from the equation.
We began in Canterlot, purely because it was the capitol and had the greatest potential. If we succeeded there, then we could move on and take over any other city in Equestria. I began approaching business owners myself and offering them what I considered to be pennies for their businesses. While it was almost nothing to me, it was more than enough to see those business owners living comfortably for at least the next decade. It isn’t really a surprise that so many of them took me up on my offer.
But there were many who resisted. One thing about me that never changed and probably still hasn’t is my inability to take no as an answer and my utter desire to never lose. Those who refused to take my money were ground into the dust by the might of Hidden Gem. We…no…I destroyed the dreams and aspirations of hundreds of young business owners, but all of the time I was able to justify it to myself. After all, after a few more companies fell to our strength, I would finally have the security that I needed to marry Ray without fear of collapse.
It took me almost two years to complete my invasion of the high street, but eventually Hidden Gem had about 350 official stores and the money was rolling in. I had become the most valuable mare in Equestria after Luna, Celstia and Cadence. I was not only the most influential pony in the fashion industry, but I was a God. I had crushed all of my adversaries and I had risen to the top of the corporate food chain. I finally had exactly what I needed. I had my invincibility. I thought I had placed myself in a position where I was strong enough to do anything I wanted, starting with getting married. Sadly, I was sorely mistaken.