NationStates Jolt Archive

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THE DELUGE GROUP & ASSOCIATES, INC.
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a brochure written by Apollonia Sales and Guerilla Marketing, Ltd., a Deluge Group & Associates company

"Environment and business are not mutually exclusive"- company motto

OVERVIEW

The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. is a coalition of over 500 companies, collectively representing over 1500 different industries in all sectors, including manoefacturing, raw materials extraction, consumer services, advanced scientific and technological research, and financial management. Formed in the earliest third of the 21st century by an association of renewable energy business ventures, The Deluge Group & Associates Inc. has grown in the last 50 years to become one of the world premier innovators in clean energy and efficient, environmentally-friendly technologies suited for your modern 21st century life-style.

Our business model is designed to be flexible and make plenty of room for individual advancement and innovation, incorporating a dynamic feedback model which integrates high-tech communications with an ethos of openness and tolerance, to create a highly efficient bottom-up corporate planning and management. Our employees know that their opinions will be respected and honoured by every level of the corporation, from the smallest supervisor to the Board of Directors itself.

The employees are the true heart of our corporation, and every employee knows that if he or she has a grievance, that it can be addressed immediately, without concern for their own livelihood. We cherish all of our employees, and the command structure accepts and acknowledges this by providing stock options and shares in the company to all employees. This communicates the trust and fellowship that we have in our employees, and puts the management at their control, so that each and every employee can go to be at night, knowing that he or she will be able to exercise his or her voting rights as a shareholder of the corporation.

Efficiency is our goal here at The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc., and it is reflected in our designs as well as in our management techniques. By creating a decentralised, bottom-up approach to corporate management, we hope to achieve fiduciary responsibility, intelligent, flexible strategy, and a sizeable and equitable distribution of dividends to our shareholders. By incorporating clean energy, renewable resources, and environmentally-friendly architecture, we hope to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease or entirely eliminate pollution, and conserve our natural earth capital. The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc., unlike many of our competitors, accepts that the rainforests and coral reefs are a valuable source of renewable capital, in the form of rich and bountiful pharmaceuticals and other biological chemicals, and our approach to business reflects these values.


By promoting clean, efficient, Green technologies and Green lifestyles, The Deluge Group and Associates, Inc. hopes to serve as a model for an effective, prosperous, and environmentally-friendly future.

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"So, do you think they'll buy it?" asked Ephedra Minax-Roentgen.

"I think it's great! They'll definitely love this; you did an excellent job, Ephedra," replied Max TetraFac-OmniClean.

"Yeah, but still," Ephedra trailed off as she leaned back against the counter, propping herself up with one hand whilst she sipped her coffee with the other. Max stirred his with a spork.

"I can't help but feel," she continued, "that they'll see past all the happy phrases somehow. I mean some of this sounds incredibly cliché, if you think about them."

"They're just consumers, Eph. You put lots of colour, lots of pretty pictures, and you didn't use very big words or complicated sentences. That'll win 'em over for sure. Don't worry so much! You did a great job."

The silvery, cylindrical form of a Diktat rolled silently past the lounge cubicle. A bank of red sensor eyes turned and glared at the two employees. It had a big number four painted on its front, and a spidery array of arms and sensors was attached to its base. Warily, Ephedra and Max stared at the robot, the way gazelles will stare at a safari hunter with his rifle pointed straight at it; with complete, and yet cautious, incomprehension.

"Hello Diktat Four," ventured Max. "What's the news?"

"Act NOW and get MONTHLY subscriptions to ALL the leading news feeds for a LOW LOW price of 19.99 plus shipping and handling!" said the Diktat, with the smarmy voice of a vacuum cleaner salesman combined with a 1 minute infomercial.

"No thanks, Diktat Four, go away," Ephedra said over a sip of coffee.

This, to the Diktat, meant 'come closer' as well as 'market aggressively'.

"Have bad credit? No credit? Well DON'T WORRY! Now, you can refinance your apartment cube for just-"

"Max, hand me the Diktat-stick, willya?"

Max reached for a silvery stick, placed on a rack, with a red sign over it, which read, "For short-term Diktat relief". He threw it lightly to Ephedra, and she caught it with a practised gesture, whereupon she immediately began poking the Diktat.

Discouraged in this fashion, the Diktat slowly rolled away with an expression meant by its programmers to be one of dejection and sadness, but which translated in its metallic, cylindrical body, to one adequately described as being as near to that of a jack-in-the-box that had been run over by a runaway freight train.

Placing the Diktat-stick back on the stick-rack, Ephedra sighed.

"These damned Diktats. I have no idea why the management's installing them everywhere. What do they want from us?"

"I hear that it's some sort of new virtual reality game, and they're beta-testing them on us."

"But why would they have them sound like infomercials? Or internet popups? Brrrr!" Ephedra shuddered.

"Maybe it's a marketing thing. Hey, you should know! You work in Marketing, don't you?"

"Only Graphic Design and Merchandising. I don't get involved in the whole thinking process - that's way, way above me."

"Hm."

They sipped their coffee in silence, until it was time to get back to their workstations.

James Torchulli: Good evening, and welcome to The Deluge Group's public radio station. Bringing YOU the news that only middle-aged professors who wear striped argyle sweater vests would like! Remember to support public radio by giving us as much money as you please, or we won't be able to give you the corny, dry, boring entertainment that we know you love! And now for Pressing The Issue, with Elaine Willis. Elaine?

Elaine Willis: Thanks, James. I'm here tonight with Kyle Stevens, Associate Marketing Director at Rigelius Investment Networks, a Deluge Group affiliate. The subject we'll be talking about will be the ever-popular, State of The Confederacy Report, where guys like him get to rant on about matters of almost-insignificant import. Welcome, Mr. Stevens, glad to have you here tonight.

Mr. Stevens: Hm! I'm glad to be here as well. By the way, I'd encourage all the listeners to go out and BUY MY BOOK NOW! Over five hundred pages of complaints regarding every subject imaginable! You'll love it!

Elaine: I'm sure we will. So, Mr. Stevens, what DO you want to rant about for our listeners tonight?

Stevens: Well, I'd like to talk a little about marketing. I'm Assistant Marketing Director at-

Elaine: Right, right, get to the ranting.

Stevens: Oooo...kay... well anyways, I really think that The Deluge Group should stop reaching out so much, so quickly.

Elaine: Erh- What do you mean?

Stevens: Like to other nations. If you've been monitoring the actions of both Boards - the Directors AND the Trustees - like I have, you'll see that they've been sending out propositions and trade agreements left and right. If you've looked at the memos, EVERY one has been to inquire about or pursue some avenue of finding some market goal.

Elaine: Isn't that a good thing, though? I mean, The Deluge Group is a corporation...

Stevens: Right, I know that. But ever since we bought out Kiribati, Micronesia, and Puerto Rico and declared independence, we just can't take the old corporate approach anymore. We're dealing with nations like they're competing corporations - and I'm not saying that some aren't - but still, we can't go on doing that. What we need to do is learn diplomacy, that's the basic point really.

Elaine: I see. And what, specifically, do you think should be... ahh... rectified about our current diplomatic stance?

Stevens: Well, see, a guy once said "speak softly and carry a big stick". When we were just a massive band of multinational corporations, corporate oligarchies, and monopolistic trusts, we could afford to be brash and powerful, because we had all the lawyers, we had all the money, we had all the shares. Our investment groups and brokers held over 54% of the entire market of the United States - we could afford to act like emperors and kings because we had a stranglehold on the national economy.

Elaine: Soo... you're saying that we CAN'T sue the pants off of nations we don't like?

Stevens: Exactly. The problem isn't that we don't have enough money - I sure don't! I can hardly afford to buy a fourth car, and I'm STILL paying off for my yachts. We always need more money.

Elaine: That's right! Money IS good! It can be exchanged for goods and services.

Stevens: Right! Right! Gosh I love this show - people are so smart! But anyhow, that's not the problem here. What we're doing is that, even though we've got money and lawyers, and the power of multilevel marketing schemes, we can't go on treating the world as though it were just another market. We're on a national level. When we were a group of corporations, we were operating under the aegis of the United States's national protection. We don't have that now. All we have is skilled accountants and lots of money. And lawyers - those are always important.

Elaine: So... what you're saying is that we ... uh... need an army?

Stevens: That's exactly my point! I was about to waste more of your time going into the minutiae of these things, but yeah, that's my point. We can't do all these propositions and business deals, treating nations as if they were corporations, if we don't actually have a physical force to impress on them.

Elaine: But we've got security forces. Security guards are ALWAYS useful!

Stevens: True, but they only operate WITHIN the company, you see. They're like the police. And you don't go dropping the police into foreign countries - there's no such thing as the World Police.

Elaine: No, no there isn't, is there?

Stevens: Which goes back to my point. If we're ever going to amount to anything, we'll need to expand our marketing scope. Right now, we just target consumers and investors, still acting like a corporation, but since we're a nation now, we'll have to broaden our viewpoint. In order to achieve greater profits, we'll have to start treating entire NATIONS as a whole new super-demographic. What nations want our services? Whom can we target for aggressive marketing campaigns? How do we orchestrate a takeover of a nation, if all we have is MONEY and not GUNS?

Elaine: But we can buy guns.

Stevens: That's a great idea, Elaine! Actually, that'll be the subject of my next book! I can see it now, the title will be: "Why We Need To Buy More GUNS".

Elaine: Great! Wow, I think we made a lot of progress tonight. I'm sure that our listeners, what few who are left, are marginally more informed than when we started. If you're just tuning in, I'm talking to Kyle Stevens, Associate Marketing Director for Rigelius Investment Networks, A Deluge Group Affiliate. I'm Elaine, on Pressing The Issue, and we'll be back, after a short Beg-A-Thon with James Torchulli.

[ END ]

James Torchulli: - and now for some news by people who are pretending to be English!

Female Announcer Lady: On Walnut Street earlier today, the price of PetroMax, a company under the aegis of The Deluge Group & Associates, Incorporated logo, peaked at 56.78 credits per share, closing at a record of 52.45 credits per share. Simultaneously, however, the Wow Stones! industrial index declined by approximately 42.15 points.

Male Announcer Dude: The bond market has been doing well, both inside the Deluge Group economic bloc, and externally, on the global marketplace, rising by an average of 35 points. Also, the price of labour has declined by 4.5 credits. Walnut Steet Journal economist, Melville Broker, stated in a recent article, "I think that with the unstickying of wages, allowing them to be freely exchanged and move with the fluctuations in the market, has allow for greater flexibility and responsiveness, and expect that this policy will carry forth with great, positive ramifications in the long-run. We can all benefit from not being able to predict exactly how much money we'll earn every day."

Female Announcer Lady: In intercorporate news today, Garbundia Exxel, a sanitation company and affiliate of The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc., has discovered vast amounts of seaweed and other forms of marine algae collecting in several bilge pumps in Western Benthic City. A task force has been delegated to study this phenomenon and its possible market impacts.

Also, lawyers from Sykops Industrials, Ltd. tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide today by jumping from the piers in East Benthic City, at Point Salty. According to a suicide note found in a briefcase, left at the scene of the attempted suicide, they were disappointed at having sued the Deluge Group under the long-outdated Sherman Antitrust Act, and, not surprisingly, failed, when countermeasures were taken, and their stock portfolios and assets were liquidated at record low prices. They are now being held by Deluge security forces, and a trial is pending, brokered by Judicicorp International & Co. Should they be convicted, they shall be sentenced to death by being thrown off the piers in East Benthic City, at Point Salty.

Male Announcer Guy: In sports news, teams from the Yakitori Corporation and AirNirvana Inc. competed for shares in Deluge-wide foosball competitions. During the foosball tournament, the prices of both teams fluctuated between 35 credits and 73.2 credits per share. At the end of the game, Yakitori, the winners, closed at 65.9 credits per share, whereas the losing team from AirNirvana broke record lows at .25 credits per share, becoming the first foosball team to close at a lower price than to begin with.

Female Announcer Lady: And that ends tonight's Deluge Group daily news briefing. We shall be back in one hour, with the exact same news, repeated in slightly different order.

[end]

((OOC: Out of curiosity... were you here with a nation before this called "the Deluge Corporation"? It seems increasingly likely with every new post you make.))

[[ Bing-O Crepuscule! Correctamundo! I'm back, and better than ever! Now with 150% EXTRA CHEESE! ]]

]WHAT IS THE DELUGE GROUP?

A brief brochure and overview, by Apollonia Sales and Guerilla Marketing, Ltd., a Deluge Group & Associates company

Serving Communities Thru Fiscally Responsible Investment and Capital Management

It is our foremost goal here at The Deluge Group to develop efficient and sound financial investment opportunities, based upon and around environmentally-friendly, ecologically sustainable thinking. To many of our consumers, the sheer broadness of our coverage in goods and services may seem monolithic and confusing. Don't be afraid! We are only here to help, and once you see the sheer simplicity of our profound market initiatives, you can be sure that, whether rain or shine, you can always trust The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc.!

Our economic plan here at The Deluge Group is simple: organise as many corporations under one aegis, producing an efficient and flexible financial transactions network. Once production, distribution, and extraction of resources is centralised under one banner, one flag, one logo, our financial partners find profits and revenues increasing, employee morale improving, and investor confidence rising. The most basic idea behind all Deluge Group initiatives and motives is cooperation and community, and our corporate design philosophy reflects this.

The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc., is merely a conglomeration of corporations, representing possibly every sector of the economy, uniting a vast array of goods and services under one banner. Unification is our goal, community is our hymn, and our consumer-centric, bottom-up organisational scheme is based around delivering just what you want. Ultimately, The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. revolves and relies around the consumer and the end-user.

We are governed by possibly the most democratic system of corporate organisation achieved thus far. Every employee gets stocks and stock options, and uses his or her share of the company to exert influence on the policies, from the smallest management group, to the very Board of Directors itself. This way, every voice is heard.

We take customer opinion and employee satisfaction very seriously, which is why our customer services branch is on standby 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to address any issues that anyone may have with the way the company is run, or any particular products we produce.

So you see, when a branch of any company affiliated with The Deluge Group opens up in your local community, you needn't fear it as an intrusion, but as a concerted effort on the part of our great corporation to bring the better services and goods that you want.

Always remember that we at the Deluge Group are ALWAYS looking out for you.

"Serving the needs of YOUR community"

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James Torchulli: -which is why you MUST give us money NOW! PLEASE! PLEASE! *thump and James's voice is kinda far away* I am on my knees! Literally! We have no money! Call our hotline at 1-800-TAK-EMYMONEYNOW, and let us pocket more of your hard-earned cash! Please! *sobs*

Elaine Willis: Err... right, James! Exactly! And now back to Pressing The Issue, with your own very favourite hostess - moi. Now, this evening, we have two very special panelists: Pammy Gunderson, pop economist and author of the successful, I'm Okay, You're Poor! series of self-help books; and Chet Jenkins, a law consultant for the firm Law To The MAXX, X-Treme Legal Advice and Rock Climbing. They're here tonight to debate the recent issue of a union for our lovely employees here at The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc.

Let's begin. Recently, it seems that temp office workers, interns, janitors, mediocre accountants, and various other middle-managers have been rallying, calling for the creation of a union for guys like them, who are stuck in deadend jobs and tedious officework. Pammy, Chet, what do you think about this?

Both: Well, if you ask me- er

*A burble of voices*

Elaine: One at a time! One at a time!

Pam: -No, allow me, thanks! Heheheh, it's, like, so TOTALLY awesome to be here on this show today! Anyhow, I think that a union - any union actually - would be, like, so totally uncool. According to my economist friends that I made when I attended, like, Economics School, a union would, like, totally, like, raise prices and make it harder for, like, ALL of us! Because-

Chet: Now wait a minute, Pammy. You've got it all wrong, dude! This is, like, a definite good thing. Like, do you have any idea how hard it is to get ANYTHING done in an office setting? I mean, dude, you need like a college degree to learn how to operate all the copiers and printers and stuff these days! And what are these guys getting paid? 40 grand, maybe 65, max, per year! That's, like, inhuman, dude!

Pam: Yeah, like, uh-huh, right. Look at it from like the producer's point of view? If a union forces the managers to raise salaries like, they'll have to, like, pass that on to consumers. And that'll be, like, totally sucky, because then, we wouldn't be able to afford all our nice shoes, our cool cars, our makeup, and all those accessories - I could go on forever!

Chet: Dude, you're, like totally missing the point, dude. It's the system that's the problem. If wages go up, then that's just adjusting to the normal. Right now, they're being underpaid. All the temps and stuff want is just fairness.

Pam: Are you, like, a communist?

Chet: Like, no. How could I afford to live on the beach 350 days a year if I didn't like money?

Pam: You sound like a communist!

Chet: Hey, Elaine, there's like, a really bad vibe in this room right now, dude...

Pam: Commie! Commie! Commie!

Elaine: Shut up! Hey! Stop that! This is a show for intelligent public political debate, not stupid ranting and name calling! *sighs heavily* Alright, we'll be back after this short Beg-A-Thon with James Torchulli.

[bre \ ak]

The Deluge Group: An OOC perspective

Theory and Structure

The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. exists in name and legislation only. It is not, in fact, an actual corporation, but the name under which an alliance of eleven gigacorporations (a mega-mega corporation) exist. These eleven gigacorporations have one vote each on the Board of Directors, which is the central group whose actions dictate corporate strategy and policy, and addresses national issues. The members of the Board of Directors are chosen by referendum passed over the shareholders of each of the gigacorporations, and must report to the Board of Trustees, which represents all of the shareholders in all the corporations associated with The Deluge Group & Associates.

Citizenship (or shareholdership) is determined by shares owned. If an individual purchases at least 0.001% of the shares of one of the eleven corporations, he or she is granted a number of votes equal to the number of shares owned, over the minimum required for shareholdership. A shareholder can then delegate his or her votes to a fiduciary representative, typically called a shareholder association, which charges a fee for representation. Fees can be higher or lower, depending upon how many shareholders are represented by the association. Thus, citizenship is determined not by birth or residence, but by wealth.

The Board of Trustees holds the power to vote on matters of corporate law and disputes between the eleven corporations, by national referendum. Both houses of government, The Board of Directors or The Board of Trustees, hold the power to create and veto legislation, by a 2/3rds supermajority. The Board of Directors also drafts a national budget, subject to the approval (requiring a simple majority) of the Board of Trustees. Should the Board of Trustees reject the national budget, the Trustees can relinquish the budget back to the Board of Directors for re-creation, or the Trustees can draft one of their own, in which case it'd be subject to a simple majority approval by the Board of Directors.

It is illegal, however, for individuals to buy shares of corporations outside of the ones they are employed in. To do so would be considered extending their fair votes, effectively, by doubling their representation on the Board of Trustees. Hence, to legally gain more votes, the individual must work for more than one corporation, a practise which, while not generally disdained, is extremely difficult. Thus, it is not uncommon for extremely wealthy individuals to incorporate themselves and divide up labour amongst many employees, working for most or even all of the eleven corporations, in addition to the wealthy individuals, themselves.

Although the shareholder system is at least somewhat democratic, this practise has encouraged many of the upper-class in The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. to gain a powerful stranglehold on public policy, both in controlling the veto/legislative powers of the Board of Trustees, as well as in having immense influence in electing Directors. This has also encouraged The Deluge Group's middle-class to tend to form corporate coalitions of their own, often tying themselves under the banner of large shareholder associations or powerful financial investment groups, in order to gain a foothold in Deluge policy.

The poor and disenfranchised have virtually no say in politics whatsoever, and unions are strictly illegal. Working-class and blue-collar workers have little or no influence in their own lives, their jobs, or their politics. However, workers in lower-end white-collar jobs, such as minor accountants, clerks, secretaries, and temp workers, have the ability to directly elect their own managers and supervisors in minor office elections.

These managers and supervisors then report to their officers, and can elect from their ranks, those above them. In this way, the lowest of white collar workers can have a slight influence in their working conditions, at least, in their immediate surroundings. This form of bottom-up management has had low to moderate success in gaining some rights for workers who are deprived of unions and any chance of citizenship, but progress in the realm of social equality and justice remains disappointingly slow.

Next follows a detailed account of laws, customs, and history, as well as a basic framework regarding the 'economy'

Law Enforcement

Corporations in The Deluge Group are entirely responsible for their own laws and security. Most, however, will outsource the job of crime prevention to specialised police and espionage firms, and the job of prosecution to private courts, it being far more profitable and financially efficient to let specialised businesses handle the job of oppressing the populace. Thus, whatever system of 'laws' (as The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. does not have a formal 'constitution', nor does it have a 'coda of laws', as it has essentially abolished all government) is entirely enforced by a competing multiplicity of court and security firms.

Laws themselves have become commodified items to be bought and sold upon the free market.

The first step in the law process The Deluge Group & Associates, Inc. is the creation of laws by law firms. Law firms offer codified packages of laws, written in precise legal language, and sell these laws to firms willing to pay for such precise, expertly written legislation. As this information represents a significant investment of capital, law firms defend their confidentiality with extremely comprehensive copyright laws, under which they sue anyone and everyone who so much as touches their law packages. Law firms also can be hired out to write specific laws for corporations.

The second part is law enforcement. This is divided into private court-corporations, which hold trials and give rulings to the parties involved, and the private security firms, which hire out their services to go out in the city and actively prevent crimes and apprehend criminals in the jurisdiction of whatever companies hired them. The security firms and court-corps are closely linked, and many will often merge to form bodies which can act with greater efficiency. Indeed, entire blocs have formed around the merging of security firms, court-corps, and law firms, which offer comprehensive law packages to many corporations within The Deluge Group.

Given the relative monopolisation of literal, armed force in The Deluge Group, the coalitions representing the security, law, and court firms has significant influence on Deluge politics. These, however, can still be checked by the buying power of many of the larger corporations within the Deluge Group.