Moriya is quite irreverent and rude to President Sawakida when he enters his office in the first episode. The way he walks in huffing and sighing, throwing his bag on the couch, slouching and just generally telegraphing that he doesn't want to be there, is very unusual behaviour in front of someone that is potentially going to hire you for a job. But on rewatch, it makes a lot of sense; Moriya knew Akane and was best friends with him in high school, and now Akane's disappeared and it's being reported everywhere as a potential suicide. Moriya is probably too depressed and worried about Akane to care about politeness towards a man he doesn't particularly like anyway, money be damned.
Akane being promoted to president in 2nd Stage is not explained, and it's baffling considering Akane has been an idol singer since he graduated high school and doesn't seem to have much business experience, so the viewer is left wondering how that could even come about. But the thing is, Queen Records was a successful company under Sawakida, as unscrupulous as he was, and now that he's gone the company is losing both money and respectability. It's entirely likely that the executives who worked under Sawakida blame Akane for what's happening to Queen Records, and so they intentionally promote him as president so that they can point the blame at him when the company goes under, both as a form of revenge and a way to wash themselves of blame.
