We were back in Hina’s office, laying on the bean bags and staring at the ceiling again.

I duly obliged and soon we were both laying on our back in our respective bean bags and staring at the projected slides on the ceiling.

“You know, this cinema-quality projector’s pretty good, but I think I might ask Gika to get a proper screen installed on the ceiling like I have one in my room”, Hina blurted just as I was about to give her some briefing before our scheduled afternoon visit to the R&D Centre.

“Excuse me?”

“I have this 77 inch OLED screen on the ceiling in my room. It’s beautiful”

How lavish. I don’t envy excessive lifestyles much, but this was something I wish I had.

“Do you play games with it? Movies? Animes?”

“All of them. But for games it’s more for the slower-paced games I play with a pad. I use my desktop when I play FPS. No G-Sync 144hz OLED monitors yet”

“Right, of course”

“You play any games?”

“Yes, ma’am, have done for most of my life”

“Wicked! You are not so bad for a boomer”

“Miss Biaz, your generation’s getting it wrong. ‘Boomer’ is my parents’ generation, not my generation”

“Ok boomer”

Let’s not bite this bait...

“So…. Anyways - we will have a visit to our R&D Centre in about an hour. Normally this would be a symbolic gesture. In the past, some presidents - I mean presidents of our government - made a visit to NDDC - National Defence Development Centre - as their first visit to any military-related agency after starting their term in the office. This is to show that the government is placing great interest and commitment to developing for the future. Like a PR stunt so to say”

“Right. I guess you are trying to say that could work the same way at a company level”

“Exactly. But I propose that we make your first visit something more genuine rather than symbolic. The idea is that you go visit a specific team working on a specific technology, product or service, to show that you find that particular technology ‘personally’ interesting.”

“Isn’t that also a PR stunt?”

“Yes, it is. I didn’t say PR stunts are bad. It’s just a matter of which one works better for which goals”

“So you want me to be genuine for a PR stunt”

“Now you get it”

Hina shook her head and then gestured with her hand that I continue.

“Well now, I told you earlier that our company makes products at the platform, system level. Such as tanks, aircraft, Navy vessels, etc. But of course, we have particular strengths in certain technologies. They are a very small portion of our business, but they are important nevertheless, especially for us to keep a good relationship with NDDC.”

“Please do explain”

“Our country’s defence industry, no actually, development of new defence technology, is very much driven and controlled by NDDC. NDDC receives requests from the Armed Forces, and sometimes comes up with their own concept to fill a gap or make an advance in a particular technology. This is strongly tied with the on-field requirements of the military. For example, let’s say our Navy ships can achieve 50 knots as the maximum speed, while the aggressors have ships that can reach 60 knots. We are obviously going to fall behind in our maneuvers and response time. So that creates a ‘gap’ in our defence coverage that the aggressors can exploit. The same simple concept can be applied to anything. Another obvious example would be ‘range’. Our artillery can reach 50km while they can reach 60km, this means they can comfortably sit outside of our range and bombard us into pulp”

“Makes sense”

“Yes, it’s an easy concept when put it this way in simple terms. You just need to remember this pretty much applies to all military technology, not just in terms of speed or range. For example, quantity and quality, longevity, scalability, downtime, etc. Any shortage in these areas creates a gap. Think of boxing. Your opponent will want to hit you where it’s not guarded by your arms and fists. Those are the gaps you want to cover and the defence product and technologies are your arms and hands”

“Which can also punch back”

“Exactly. And sometimes punch first before they punch you”

“Hey, isn’t that like an attack? Not a defence?”

“If you see your enemy moving his hand to reach for a gun in his holster, you want to take yours out first and shoot him before he shoots you. You are already later than him because he started to reach for the gun first. How you interpret what a ‘reaching for the gun’ action is in the modern military concept is a moot point, but more advanced military technology, or doctrine, or predefined response protocols should aim to overcome this ‘later start’ disadvantage”

“Hm. I guess that’s where also ‘speed’ comes in again”

“Correct. Anyways, just bear in mind, for now, that we develop defence technology to fill the gaps, and to have superiority over your opponent, like having longer arms, having a faster response, etc. When you think about it in these terms, you can easily see that possession of advanced military technology is actually the best deterrent in modern warfare. They will not take their gun out 20m away from you if their shot can travel 10m only but you can reach the full 20. They will want to get 10m or nearer before they show any sign of aggression. However, if you had some ways, let’s say an x-ray camera like the ones they use at the airport, to detect the gun in their pocket from 15m away, then they will find it hard even just to get within the firing range of their guns. So this means they will want to disable your x-ray camera first, but your x-ray camera is covered with some protections that will take 10kg of explosives to destroy. That means they need to invest money in advance to produce that 10kg of explosives. And you see how it starts to tie in with economics and defence ‘industry’. If we also want to destroy their camera, but if we can do it with 9kg of explosives, we have a financial edge and can use that to buy another tool to defend ourselves even better”

“Hang on, but surely a 9kg material that has the same power as a different 10kg material will not cost the same?”

“Yes! That’s where you start to see how interesting everything clicks. 9kg material may be more expensive, but then you think about the storage and delivery cost. It will take up less space to store, and it will be easier - lighter and/or faster to deliver. The bomber airplane that carries such a bomb can be smaller, or use less fuel, or fly faster, or even better - it can be the same bomber but has better or extra equipment because you saved the weight and size by using smaller bombs”

“You must be such a geek to get excited by that, but I see what you mean”

How can you not be excited by this!

“Well, you SHOULD be excited Ma’am, and I’m sure you will be in due course. Anyways, at least I think now you understand why advanced defence technology is as important as having a massive quantity of things like weapons, bombs, soldiers, etc.”

“Gotcha”

“So visiting and showing interest in the R&D Centre as your first destination after taking the CEO position will signal to others that you understand this core aspect of military dynamics and industry”

“ :shrugs: I think it will only show that YOU have arranged some internal propaganda trip for me”

“Of course. That’s what everyone will think. But please bear in mind from now on, every decision you make is your credit and your fault. If you were a child and just did what your parents told you to do, then maybe your peers will not be impressed. But if you are a CEO, listened to various proposals and made a decision to go with one of them and it turns out to be a success, even if you did not come up with the proposal yourself you will get the credit for having made the right decision, and it will be the same when things go wrong. If I suggest something and you accept it, and it goes wrong, of course, I am to be blamed for suggesting stupid ideas. But people will also blame you for not seeing that it was a stupid idea.”

After all this talk Hina seemed to sink deep into her own thoughts, just like how she was half sunk into the plush bean bag. Just for that short moment, I could suddenly see how she was just like Mr. Biaz with the same sort of expression that was vacant, aloof, amused, and serious all at the same time.

“Ok, Poos. Please don’t go stupid on me”