50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 625 The Unruly Pinkerton Intelligence Division

It took Sun Zhiwei and his team half a month to take over the headquarters of Pinkerton.

To his surprise, the second-generation detective, Allen, whom he had initially thought was useless, was actually quite popular within the company.

This played a significant role in his smooth takeover of the company and stabilizing morale.

Perhaps it's because he's not short of money, or perhaps it's because he's a shareholder of the company that the former president, the late Rex, rarely had any constraints on him.

Many people in the company like Allen, especially the long-time employees, who affectionately call him Detective Allen.

Because of Allen's defection, many veteran employees also began to cooperate with Sun Zhiwei's takeover efforts.

Of course, the main reason is probably that the first thing Sun Zhiwei did after arriving was to announce that there would be no layoffs for the time being, which reassured the employees.

After taking over the company's network of contacts, weapons procurement channels, technological achievements, personnel information, and criminal database, Sun Zhiwei finally gained a complete understanding of the current Pinkerton Corporation.

Although there are not many people left, and those who remain are mainly logistics personnel, the historical heritage is truly invaluable.

Pinkerton has left behind more than a dozen training facilities across the United States. Although many of them are abandoned, the land and buildings are still there, and they can be easily restored if you have the money.

The key point is that these training bases also have dozens of coaches, the least of whom have worked for the company for seventeen years.

The last batch of personnel was recruited by Robert Pinkerton II in 1967.

According to Allen, because of their affection for the company, they did not leave to seek better opportunities elsewhere, even as the company was declining.

Sun Zhiwei did not fully believe this.

It's also possible that they didn't leave because the overall economy and the detective industry in the United States have been in a bad state in recent years.

Moreover, they are all older and don't have the same ambitions as young people, and they all have families to support, which is why they haven't left.

A stable job is important to any middle-aged person.

Especially in a money-driven society like the United States, people are used to overspending, and very few ordinary people save money.

But everyone has a lot of fixed bills to pay every month. You don’t feel it when you’re working, but once you lose your job, most people can’t survive more than three months before losing everything.

As we've mentioned before, the monthly expenses associated with a house include mortgage payments, property taxes, property management fees, maintenance funds, water and telephone bills, and so on.

These fees are fixed monthly charges, and if they are overdue, the house risks being auctioned off at a low price.

This refers to those who own a house; those who don't own a house aren't much better off.

Although renters are exempt from mortgages and property taxes, they still have to pay rent, and their property management fees, utilities, and other expenses will not be reduced.

If you pay attention, you'll find that in any company, middle-aged employees in the lower and middle levels rarely resign, and their re-employment opportunities are also very limited.

Sun Zhiwei still had some expectations for these people. Coaches are more valuable as they get older, and many of these coaches had retired from positions such as detectives, so they were still very experienced.

Their weakness is probably their limited ability to use high-tech equipment.

There's no need to worry about that. With technology developing so rapidly these days, other security companies aren't updating their equipment much faster, so Pinkerton isn't lagging behind by much.

He intends to continue using the Pinkerton brand in the future, which will inevitably require expanding the company's scale. The training base will also need to be utilized, as a few dozen coaches are certainly not enough.

Therefore, not laying off employees is not just talk; for the time being, all these people will be retained, and the weeding out of underperformers can be carried out later when there are enough staff. In addition to the training base and its affiliated real estate, Pinkerton also has privileges inherited from the past.

For example, Pinkerton has intelligence-sharing agreements with intelligence agencies such as the FBI and CIA.

This permission originated from the Pinkerton era, in which time Pinkerton was at a disadvantage.

When these intelligence agencies were first established, they were practically penniless, relying on Pinkerton for personnel, training, and intelligence.

Back then, Pinkerton was a large and powerful company with good relations with the government, so it naturally didn't care about this. This intelligence-sharing agreement could be seen as Pinkerton's support for these intelligence agencies.

But times have changed. Decades have passed, and now Pinkerton is in decline, while intelligence agencies like the FBI have become behemoths.

This intelligence-sharing agreement is now a very important asset for Pinkerton.

Sun Zhiwei was also stunned when he learned of the agreement.

This means that from now on, he can directly obtain intelligence from the FBI's intelligence database, and it will be legal and legitimate.

Of course, this intelligence sharing is not without limitations.

The FBI isn't stupid; their intelligence databases are definitely tiered, and the intelligence that Pinkerton can share won't be too classified.

Even so, this is still a terrifying level of access.

Pinkerton has at least free access to most of the raw intelligence collected by the FBI; as for intelligence analysis, they have their own people.

The Pinkerton Crime Database maintenance team is also an intelligence analysis team, and Sun Zhiwei visited their office.

It was located in the suburbs of Chicago, on a estate-like property, with a huge intelligence agency underground.

Every month, a designated person goes to the intelligence departments of agencies such as the FBI to obtain the latest intelligence and brings it back, where a team here analyzes, organizes, and finally archives it.

This work has been going on for over 100 years, and it will continue in the future unless there are major changes.

Because there is a ring of farmland outside the manor, which is rented out to the families of the employees to cultivate, the manor is almost self-sufficient in terms of basic supplies.

Pinkerton only needs to pay a small amount of wages each month to keep this place running.

The staff here are not recruited from outside, but are retained through internal referrals.

After learning about the situation here, Sun Zhiwei knew that this was not a good sign.

Back in the Pinkerton era, this self-sufficient management style maintained the stability of the intelligence management system, which was naturally an advantage.

But after so many years, all the positions here have been occupied by five fixed families, and no outsiders can get in.

Before his visit, Alan told him something.

When Rex took over, he also tried to place people here, but the people he sent there resigned after only a few days.

Allen had inquired about it, but had not obtained any useful information.

Upon hearing this news, Sun Zhiwei's brow furrowed so deeply it looked like flies were trapped between them.

That's definitely not right. What company's intelligence agency would disobey the company chairman's orders? What are they relying on?
(End of this chapter)