2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 454: Exceeding 20% ​​of Full-Year Expectations

"Seeing how happy she is, I really wish I could send her to kindergarten as soon as possible."

The weather in September was still very hot. The atmosphere on campus during the start of the school year was just like the weather—enthusiastic yet mild. The new students and seasoned veterans were clearly distinguished.

Those followed by their parents, or dressed in a rather old-fashioned way, are basically freshmen.

In the bustling campus of Ningbo University, a little girl with a small backpack and a water bottle slung across her shoulder was surrounded by a crowd. She seemed very excited, shouting that she wanted to go to school too and that she wanted to enroll.

Seeing her jumping so happily, Tan Jincheng, who was wearing sunglasses and holding her hand, couldn't help but say in an annoyed tone.

Go ahead and dance around now, but when you actually reach kindergarten age, you'll be completely silent.

Today, Tan Jincheng came to see Gu Qingqing give her opening speech, but he arrived a bit early. There's still more than half a day before the party. But it doesn't matter, Boss Tan isn't too busy today. Besides, he's also considered an unofficial student at Ningbo University.

It was Tan Jinyue's first time on a university campus, and she was curious about everything. Unlike the uniform work clothes in the factory, the clothes here were brightly colored. Some female students would even stop and tease her because of her cute and adorable appearance.

However, Lai Yiu-fai, who was standing next to her, had a very imposing presence, and Tan Kam-ching, who was holding her hand, was wearing sunglasses and looked cool. Their aura was quite different from that of students, so they didn't dare to go forward.

Tan Jinyue has seen the world; she's not only been surrounded by these young ladies still in their ivory towers, but she's also been photographed by the media quite a few times. These are just minor incidents for her.

Tan Jincheng was also consciously introducing her to more people and broadening her horizons. As the younger sister of the CEO of a company with assets of over a billion, she couldn't be fooled by that young punk in the future.

From a young age, her knowledge should be cultivated. As of now, Tan Jincheng has been to more places than most people in these ivory towers. She will have many more such experiences in the future, which will become a kind of accumulation as she gets older.

Unlike Tan Jinyue in her previous life, who grew up in a relatively stable business but only had modest wealth, Tan Jinyue in this life grew up in an ivory tower.

Although she is not yet three years old, she knows much more than her peers.

Lunch was eaten in a private room on the second floor of the Ningbo University cafeteria. Tan Jincheng's early arrival was obviously not just to join in the excitement of the opening ceremony; relevant leaders from Ningbo University were already waiting for him in the cafeteria.

To be precise, Tan Jincheng is here to give money. In addition to some professional course cooperation with Ningbo Vocational College, Flash Group and Orange Technology plan to have more cooperation with Ningbo University starting this semester.

The most cost-effective and efficient way to attract talent is to collaborate with universities. To a certain extent, employees who are trained in school tend to have higher loyalty.

To put it bluntly, those who go straight into the corporate world after graduating from university are easier to manipulate than those seasoned professionals recruited from the general public.

Besides coming to Ningbo University, Tan Jincheng will also be attending an event at the Textile College tomorrow, which is also to cultivate more successors for Jinpeng Industrial's clothing design program. This matter was originally arranged by Zhang Xupeng.

However, this year is destined to be an exceptionally busy one for this kid. Tan Jincheng hasn't seen him for a long time. The last time they met was before the inspection, when he was preparing to go to the northern region to expand the market.

Nothing much has changed. This kid will probably be active in the north in the second half of the year. Zhang Xupeng feels a little bitter whenever he thinks about having to develop the market in the north during the dead of winter.

Although GXG has completed its store opening plan today, market expansion has not stopped. Advertising needs to be invested, and events need to be held. The initial marketing investment for clothing brands is relatively large, and these are all things that Zhang Xupeng needs to manage.

In addition, Zhang Xupeng will also go to the United States next year to secure the domestic operating rights for the outlet mall. He didn't go this year because Tan Jincheng wouldn't allow it. There will be a financial crisis next year anyway, and we can't just let foreigners benefit; we should also benefit.

Huawei wanted to sell 49% of its mobile phone business, but because it took too long and the financial crisis hit, foreign companies drastically reduced prices. So we're maintaining contact with outlet stores now, and we can try to get a better deal from them next year.

Similar to their collaborations with universities in Luzhou, FlashDrive and Orange Technology have also fully partnered with universities in Ningbo. The universities in Ningbo are indeed lacking, and this is true even for universities in Zhejiang province.

However, one advantage is that they are genuinely wealthy. Even colleges and universities are very well-funded. Relying on local business resources, students don't have to worry about employment opportunities. Therefore, colleges and universities are very willing to cooperate with large enterprises.

In the first few days of September, Boss Tan spent his days visiting various colleges and universities in Ningbo, signing cooperation agreements, and sponsoring schools and impoverished students with funds, which was quite a prestigious job.

In addition, Flash Group recently received another honor: the General Administration of Customs released the 2006 list of red and black lists of export enterprises, and two companies, Jinpeng Industry and Jinyi Industry, which mainly engage in export business, were both on the list.

Furthermore, FlashTech's electric vehicles are also on the list of top-performing export products. Among the 195 listed export companies and products, there aren't many brands from the electric vehicle industry. The reason is simple: the quality is too poor. In a surprise batch inspection of electric vehicles conducted by Tianjin last month, 44 batches passed, while 15 batches failed, resulting in a pass rate of only 74.6%.

Meanwhile, spot checks on lead-acid batteries showed that the pass rate was only 84.2%.

Tianjin is the largest base for the electric vehicle industry in the country. In terms of market environment and policies, it is the best. However, in such a city with excellent policies and services, the failure rate of random inspections remains high, which shows what kind of environment the national market is like.

It's not that the cars from the Skoda ...

In the second half of the year, the raw materials for lead-acid batteries also experienced another round of price increases, and many electric vehicle manufacturers followed suit by raising prices, just like last year. Good products are not lacking, but they are particularly expensive.

Consumers also have their complaints. When a company with such high cost-performance and excellent quality suddenly appears on the market, it's hard for it not to sell well.

In addition, FlashCar has another clever trick: when other companies raise prices, it doesn't. However, it also won't be taken advantage of; it will cancel some of the corresponding preferential policies, which is actually a disguised price increase.

But consumers perceive it quite differently.

Compared to the booming sales period during the exhibition, the sales of the Flash Motors declined in July and August, but still remained firmly above 10 units per month. Sales in July were 10.13 units, and sales in August were 10.71 units.

By the end of August, the total sales volume of the year had reached 90.95 vehicles. In September and the three months of the fourth quarter, the company only needs to sell an average of 7.26 vehicles per month to reach the annual sales volume of 120 million vehicles.

This is 20% more than the internally projected sales of 100 million vehicles. The sales target of 120 million vehicles is already a sure thing. Even if sales decline in winter, they are unlikely to drop below 7 vehicles.

If we were to release the data publicly, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Flashcar sold 150 million electric vehicles this year; that would only be an overstatement of less than 30 vehicles.

I remember some A-share listed export companies did this; it was very difficult for anyone other than the General Administration of Customs to find out the specific products they sold abroad.

If you exaggerate and make the data look good, the stock price can be driven up.

Should we do it this way?
Forget it, let's wait until Chipday's annual sales figures are officially released before making any decisions. Just make sure we outperform them. FlashChi has also compiled sales data for some of its leading competitors, and based on feedback from various regions, Chipday remains FlashChi's biggest competitor.

This electric vehicle company, which was later surpassed by Yadi and Aima, was really popular in the early 2000s. Although the company's CEO was often jokingly said to have brought it to bankruptcy as its spokesperson, it has to be said that he really did drive sales.

Whether abroad or in Hong Kong and Taiwan, his influence is enormous; otherwise, his endorsement fees wouldn't be so high.

In reality, the reason why the companies he endorsed often went bankrupt was not so much his fault, but rather due to problems in the company's management and outdated products.

In an era when computers and game consoles were not widespread, products like the Subor learning machine, which were reasonably priced and addressed the pain points of parents and children, were the best products on the market.

However, with the increasing popularity of computers and the growing variety of entertainment products available, Subor failed to keep up with the times and was inevitably eliminated by the market.

No matter who endorses it, it won't work. Another well-known brand, Bawang shampoo, seems to have had a fatal marketing incident. It slowly faded away because it didn't manage the public relations to mitigate the impact in time. This has nothing to do with the big brother, Cheng.

In Tan Jincheng's view, the BaWang shampoo incident is more like a strategy used to promote cooking oil and chicken essence by advertising that eating pork is unhealthy and eating MSG causes cancer. It was a blow from multinational capital.

As times change and new competitors emerge, previously best-selling products face a test, as exemplified by Nokia.

Two-wheeled electric vehicles will also face a period of sales difficulties in the future, which is when the government starts to promote new energy vehicles again after the policy tightens, just like the ban on motorcycles that started a couple of years ago.

The transition from two-wheeled electric vehicles to four-wheeled electric vehicles, in a sense, is also a benefit that Tan Jincheng received from his past life's memories. Any business can only be successful and profitable if it aligns with trends.

Lei Jun's saying that even a pig standing in the right place at the right time can fly is exactly what he meant. FlashCheer needs to be a company that stands in the right place at the right time in order to become a national enterprise.

(End of this chapter)