Writing a corporate coup d'etat

So my character is considered nouveau riche because he is the first of his family to attain a significantly higher economic status.

The thing though is that he didn't establish a success business that hit big on a certain product or service. Rather he seized the opportunity to essentially "overthrow" the previous owner of the company that he worked for. So how should this go down?

I was also think of making the last owner having attempted to raze the company in an attempt to "go Galt" when his candidate of choice didn't win the latest US presidential election. This could be that moment of weakness for my "protagonist" to exploit.

I think that for this to work, especially when bearing in mind the legalities and laws regarding ownership of properties such as a company, you need to first figure out what exactly that puts the original "owner" character in such a position of power that he calls the shots (e.g. does he necessarily have to be the owner or can he not be some other important company figure), since it has to be able to be taken away against his will. Moreover, it would also need to make sense why he'd rather collapse the company than continue to own it, simply because he backed the wrong presidential candidate. Every election, many many people do that yet don't commit such drastic action.

Also, a possible suggestion for your protagonist's method would be for it to somehow involve the presidential election itself. This helps better integrate the two halves of your story idea together and allows more opportunities for each character to interact with everyone else rather than just a select few.

Hope that helps.

Okay, so the storyline with this character is that he is willing to lie, cheat, and metaphorically backstab his way to power and influence whenever he feels it is necessary. Of course he prefers there not be any violence or threat of violence involved, he isn't willing to stoop that low.

So yeah we have ourselves an Anti-Hero Corrupt Corporate Executive.

edited 31st Jan '14 8:24:04 PM by Worlder

Typically the way to gain control of a large corporation is to buy up a majority of the stock. This may or may not be hard to do.

All your character has to do is to discover the owner's plans to "go Galt" and present proof to the board, making a case on how your character would make a better CEO, or at least much better than this crusading a-hole. After all, unless your entire board is also in on this ideological crusade, I don't think they want to lose their investments. Your character doesn't even need to be morally ambigious in this case.

If it's a private or family owned business, then the protag has to force the other guy to sell it to him, or else take the company public, so that he can arrange to buy a majority of the shares (presumably through secret proxies).

Are there any other possible moments of weakness and/or last straw scenarios that would allow my character to seize control with near unanimous agreement from other high level management members in the company?

If the owners have done something shady or illegal, your hero can go to the authorities. If it's a state law, and the company is a big employer in the state/province/town, the local prosecutor might allow the hero to take control to keep the business open after the "villain" is arrested.

A federal prosecutor won't care if a cookie bakery in a small town goes under after the CEO goes to jail. A local DA would care because a large employer going under would affect her chances of running for high office.

As a matter of fact the company is a big in the state where the HQ is located and some neighboring states as well.

Would be nice to have a Nobody To Nightmare scenario with this company. Some small time science and tech firm, located in the middle of the continental US far from any coastlines or rivers, ends up influencing countries all over the world.

But even in such an event, I'd imagine the prosecutors won't just hand over the company to one person; especially as a permanent arrangement. The reason being this one person could wind up just as corrupt or be simply unqualified/unprepared to handle the new responsibilities (which would have been previously held by multiple people, I might add).

If anything, the government would likely pass the company over to whatever upper/middle management remained who weren't implicated in the crime. Alternatively, they would arrange for an outside group to act as an interim administrator until a more organised succession could be arranged.

Yup, I'd assume that the hero would have to wait before getting control of the company.

Or an "angel investor"/ escrow would have to be set up.

And this could set up the sequel.

The villains do the time (if they plead out). They return a la Gordon Geko and want the company back...

edited 1st Feb '14 9:21:13 PM by TairaMai

For this character's storyline, there aren't really good guys or bad guys, just friends, foes, and targets.

Also, remember my character is willing to line a few pockets if it would get the job done.

edited 1st Feb '14 9:32:01 PM by Worlder

The courts wouldn't hand over ownership. They can't. They might (and it's a very big "might") establish a trustee board to run it.