2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 468 "Slow Down"

"The car has arrived?"

"Yes, 20 vehicles have already been delivered. Dongfeng's production capacity has increased, and the batch for the Olympics was delivered half a month ago. However, our order should be among the priority delivery categories."

"Go, have a look."

Tan Jincheng, who spends his days at Orange Technology, was stopped by Zeng Jixiang. The 20 Dongfeng vehicles had been delivered ahead of schedule. Tan Jincheng thought it would be at least New Year's Day. This was really great.

So sometimes you shouldn't say that state-owned enterprises are heartless. As long as you have enough strength, you can get a lot of favors from them.

In this way, the Flash Group's plan to return home for the Chinese New Year will be much more convenient this year. Electric vehicles can't go too far, but they can deliver to nearby areas. In addition, they can also exchange vehicles with the bus company.

It also saved a lot on car rental costs, which was a real help.

"When the other party was handing over the goods, they said that they supported Mr. Tan's plan for his employees to return to their hometowns, so they adjusted the orders with some other customers who were not in a hurry."

Tan Jincheng nodded. The car was handed over ahead of time; the other party was doing him a favor.

I did just mention it casually when I ordered the car, I didn't expect them to remember it, it must have been hard for them.

"Have you coordinated with the bus company? Let's pick a day with good weather for the donation ceremony; also, please clear my schedule on the 24th of this month."

"Understood, we're already in contact with them." Zeng Jixiang nodded.

Tan Jincheng's schedule is now mostly handled by Zeng Jixiang. Since becoming the head of the president's secretariat at Flash Group, Zeng Jixiang has basically cut off the opportunity for external transfers. However, Zeng Jixiang prefers this job.

Although he often has to travel with his boss, his work location is always in Beicang, while his girlfriend works at Orange Technology. This allows them to spend more time together. If he is transferred to another city, living apart will become a problem for the two of them.

Most couples who have just graduated break up because they can't stick to their career choices, and Zeng Jixiang feels very lucky.

He's essentially taken the "wife route" now. Without his girlfriend's introduction, he probably wouldn't have had such a great opportunity to join Flash and become the boss's assistant.

Finding a job isn't difficult, but finding opportunities is much harder. FlashCheer only has a place in the early stages of a high-growth process. If you come now, at best you can become a programmer at Orange Technology, where the salary will be decent, but the benefits and career prospects will be much worse.

Nowadays, apart from frontline employees, FlashCare's recruitment is no longer so casual. The middle and senior management trainees in its branches across the country are all recruited through direct cooperation with universities, and the level of the universities they cooperate with is getting higher and higher.

A few days ago, the branch office in Luzhou started cooperating with Hefei University of Technology. Even for ordinary front-line workers, it's not easy to get in because the benefits are much better than those of their peers and the average benefits in other regions.

On the one hand, the turnover rate of each branch of Flash is very low. On the other hand, General Manager Tan strictly prohibits the human resources department from cooperating with intermediary agencies. They can cooperate with local universities and official labor departments, but as long as it is found that someone is cooperating with an intermediary, they will be dismissed without any reason once it is confirmed.

“We should treat the frontline employees better. All the products are produced by them, not managed by any management team. Any factory that partners with a human resources agency will have its reputation ruined.”

This is a sentence that General Manager Tan always mentions when he speaks in the Human Resources Department.

According to Mr. Tan's theory, Flash Motors' success today is not due to his or the management's brilliance, but rather to the hard-earned money of millions of electric vehicle buyers and countless clothing customers.

It was the result of countless grassroots employees working day and night, earning meager wages, and working tirelessly from dawn till dusk. It was also thanks to the support and policies provided by the government. Tan Jincheng and the management team have already earned enough, so there is really no need to exploit the employees too much.

Old Ma got carried away and thought he was awesome, eventually forgetting his original intentions and focusing his attention on capital and power. Ali's management also became addicted to PUA infighting, and the grassroots employees naturally lost their motivation to work.

On the side of Flash, where the pace was deliberately slowed down, the employees' tasks were much easier than before. When Tan Jincheng arrived at the scene, he could not see many employees watching.

Twenty electric buses, all painted pure green, are neatly arranged in the square of the Flash Motors Industrial Park, creating a rather spectacular sight.

"Hello, Mr. Tan. It's been a long time."

"Mr. Tan, is this car purchased to pick up and drop off our company employees for get off work?"

Tan Jincheng's behavior towards frontline employees was quite harmonious. Outside the workplace, frontline employees were not particularly afraid of Tan Jincheng's attitude. They found it difficult to feel pressured by this authority figure who had surpassed many levels.

On the contrary, he didn't dare to speak like that to his own team leader.

"Are you off work?" Tan Jincheng asked casually, not caring.

"Yes, they're changing shifts."

"Half of these are for your use, and the other half will be donated. If you're not sleepy, come and experience it. This vehicle is purely electric, not gasoline-powered." Although the technology of electric vehicles is already quite mature, it is still relatively rare to actually apply them to the market, even though Dongfeng's electric bus production capacity has reached the point of mass production.

To most people, electric cars are still a novelty, and some have never even heard of them.

One bold employee immediately asked curiously, "Electric? Like the electric two-wheelers we produce? They all use batteries?"

"Yes, you can think of it this way: four wheels powered by the same battery, just with a larger battery."

"Then I'd like to sit in it and try it out, to see how it differs from our factory bus."

"Alright, those who want to try, come on up. We'll take a drive around the Beicang city area and then take you back to your dorms."

It was shift change time, and the industrial park was quite lively. It was a rare sight to see Boss Tan. Upon hearing that they could test drive the car with him, quite a few of the more daring employees signed up, and soon enough, they had a car full of people.

Boss Tan is no longer the Boss Tan who was seen every day two years ago and was no longer a novelty. Now, these employees have no more chances to see Boss Tan than outsiders.

Aside from the occasional factory visit, even when he was in Beicang Tanjincheng, he rarely had time to be in the factory. If he wanted to see the boss, he could only do so on television.

This is where the quality of a company's benefits becomes apparent; if a company offers poor benefits, the boss won't even bother with it.

Boss Tan was much more popular. In addition, he was young and handsome. In the words of later generations, Boss Tan was the "male god" in the hearts of the grassroots employees, and this was not only the case for the female employees.

Men also like handsome men. Take Tan Jincheng himself in his previous life as an example. In the later stages of the search engine giant, he couldn't find anything and all he could find were ads. In such a disgusting situation, Boss Tan could only curse the company.

Their boss, Mr. Li, is refined and handsome, and he is quite low-key, so it's really hard to scold him for no reason. But Old Ma is different.

Whether we admit it or not, it has something to do with looks; handsome men always receive certain preferential treatment.

"Handsome men are called scumbags, ugly men are called hooligans."

There were quite a few employees signing up for the test drive. Zeng Jixiang realized that if things continued like this, it would really turn into a crowded bus. This wouldn't do, as it would endanger the boss's safety. So he immediately came out to dissuade them.

Standing at the car door, Zeng Jixiang shouted, "Alright, alright, there are enough people, no more room. People behind, don't get on. If you have nothing else to do, go back and get some sleep. A shift is tiring enough."

The car was still driven by Lai Yiu-fai. Lai Yiu-fai's work has been very easy lately. Since returning from the National Day holiday, Boss Tan has rarely gone out. He only lets him drive when he goes to the city to participate in activities.

He was too lazy to ask him to pick him up and drop him off at get off work, so he drove his boss's wife's BMW to and from get off work with her, and they enjoyed a rare period of easy living.

However, even when he wasn't driving for his boss, Lai Yiu-fai was still quite adept at handling things. He also held the title of the company's security manager, and instead of driving, he would go to the security department to lead the employees in training and physical exercises.

It wasn't just marketing that slowed down; it seemed as if the entire Flash Group had slowed down under Tan Jincheng's deliberate influence. After two years of rapid growth, the Flash Group, from Tan Jincheng to the lowest-level employees, had been on edge for the past two years.

This deliberate slowdown allowed all employees of Flash Group to have a rare period of rest and recuperation.

For Sun Tongyu, who had already slowed down, returning to Hangzhou from Hong Kong seemed to make him busy again. His term of office ended on the day before New Year's Day 2008.

The resignation contract has already been signed and cannot be changed. As for the shares he holds, two days after the Hong Kong stock price plummeted, Mr. Ma spoke to him privately, saying that if he was in a hurry to cash out, he should not do so on the secondary market, and he could accept the transfer of shares.

Mr. Ma didn't mention the transfer price, but he wouldn't treat him unfairly over something like this; he's quite generous when it comes to money.

Let it be transferred. Mr. Ma probably has his own reasons for having more shares.

Sun Tongyu returned to work citing the reason that he needed to monitor the performance of Orange Products, which began internal testing on November 11, and to fulfill his final duty as CEO.

OrangePin's main focus is on branded clothing sales, which in some ways puts it in serious competition with Taobao. These days, clothing is a major part of online shopping, especially since clothing was the least likely item to be damaged in the past when logistics were not very developed.

"Double Eleven? Singles' Day? Mr. Tan's angle is quite interesting."

Sitting back in Taobao's CEO office, Sun Tongyu chuckled to himself as he browsed the ubiquitous Orange Products Club advertisements across the internet. "Young people are so creative," he thought, "they even create a holiday for us when there isn't one."

Singles' Day? What the hell is Singles' Day?

(End of this chapter)