2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 470 The Hidden Dangers of a Flashing Future (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
imperial capital.

Compared to the still relatively comfortable weather in Hangzhou and Ningbo, the average temperature in the capital has dropped to between 10 degrees Celsius and below zero, and it has already entered early winter.

Under normal circumstances, heating in Beijing will begin in mid-November.

When Sun Tongyu arrived, the heating season had already begun in the capital. Tan Jincheng had planned to come to the capital to wait for Sun Tongyu before he arrived. However, Sun Tongyu was not very comfortable in Hangzhou. He felt too awkward being under President Ma's watchful eye all day.

Finding an excuse, Sun Tongyu arrived in the capital city ahead of schedule, which was much easier than in Hangzhou.

The capital city is where their dreams began. This group of people returned to Hangzhou after failing to start their businesses in the capital. It seems like it wouldn't be bad to end it here now.

Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing were planning to come to the capital early to wait for him, but that was obviously impossible now.

Since that day when he sold the house, Boss Tan has also set aside a day to become a real estate salesman, persuading employees within the company to buy houses, especially the grassroots employees, to participate in the promotion.

In terms of employee income at Beicang Flash's headquarters, it can be roughly divided into three tiers. The first tier naturally consists of Hangxin New Energy technicians who were lured over from the Imperial Physics Institute and employees of the newly established S1 laboratory.

These people have top-tier incomes. Boss Tan is very generous to top-notch technical talents; the fact that he even sends his personal secretary to take them to get foot massages speaks volumes.

Hangxin's employees don't have to worry about housing. Whether they are in their original jobs or have their current income, they can afford to buy a house no matter how much the housing prices rise. So it was just a casual remark; whether they buy or not is up to them.

The second level of income is for employees of FlashTech, a subsidiary founded from scratch by Boss Tan. It can be said to be the most loyal of the loyalists, so both the friendliness and income are very good.

Excluding senior management, based on the existing employees of FlashTech, the housing prices in Beicang, and the additional preferential policies, all employees, unless they are newly hired, have a monthly income that is enough to cover one square meter or more.

An annual income that can buy 12 square meters is definitely enough to buy a house. Even if the income increases in another year, it won't be enough to buy that many. It would be a real pity not to buy one.

The third income level consists of employees of Jinpeng Industrial, mostly female garment factory workers. Overall, their income is relatively low, making it difficult for them to buy a house.

Furthermore, asking a woman to buy a house? That's even more difficult. In the traditional mindset of women, the concept of buying a house simply doesn't exist. Even the Li Yanning and Li Jinglan sisters wouldn't have the idea of ​​buying a house if it weren't for Tan Jincheng's influence on their thinking.

As for Jinyi Industrial, this subsidiary, which is purely engaged in foreign trade, most of its employees earn a basic salary plus commission. The salary varies from person to person, but buying a house is not difficult.

Needless to say, if the income of employees of other companies is divided into three levels, A, B, and C, then this group of people would be in the S level.

In addition, employees of Orange Technology don't need to worry about not being able to afford houses. So this time, Boss Tan's house sale is mainly aimed at employees of Flash Technology. The focus is on persuading them to take out the money in their pockets to buy the residential buildings developed by the company.

The employees of Flashpoint Technology, which are predominantly male, are a major force in buying houses. Since the group of employees on the bus went back to promote the idea that day, the subsequent promotion has been quite effective, and most people are somewhat interested.

Buying the property now and bringing my family over to live together, while also finding a job here to earn money together, and then selling it later if I want to go back to my hometown to develop my career, is indeed a good reason.

"I'm not kidding them. They'll thank me in the future. Besides, if they don't buy a house, they might lose their wages when they go home for the New Year."

Regarding the rumors that some employees felt the boss was trying to make money off them and take back all their wages, Tan Jincheng shrugged indifferently.

Tan Jincheng doesn't know what the Spring Festival customs are like in Henan Province, but he does know the customs of Anhui Province, especially in southern Anhui. In summary, they are characterized by extravagance and a strong gambling culture.

Migrant workers who work away from home usually can't bear to spend a pound of meat, being extremely frugal with themselves. But when they go home for the Spring Festival, they really dare to spend money, and they spend it on high-end items.

In his previous life, Tan Jincheng returned to his hometown and was astonished to find that the cigarettes these people smoked were better than his own—all of them were Huazi cigarettes.

Another major form of entertainment in rural areas during the Spring Festival is playing mahjong. As income increases, the stakes for mahjong also rise, and it's common for many people to lose all their annual income in just a few days during the Spring Festival.

How do you know they'll thank you in a few years?

"How many single people have you seen who have a lot of money saved up? Instead of spending money recklessly, it's better to buy a house. At least you have something there. Besides, having a house in the city is a huge bargaining chip for them when they're looking for a partner."

Gu Qingqing chuckled: "I've never seen anyone like you who can make such a noble excuse for taking money from an employee's pocket. There's a reason they say you're shameless."

Looking at the current situation, Boss Tan wants to use his employees' home purchase money to supplement the funds for building houses. This common practice in the real estate industry, while seemingly acceptable when applied to his own employees, will inevitably attract some gossip.

The gossips weren't from strangers, but from other real estate companies. With thousands of employees in the Flash Group, and the core homebuyers being taken over by Boss Tan himself, how could they not spread rumors about him?

That's how business competition works. No matter how powerful or influential your company is, if it comes to interests, they'll still try to undermine you. "You'll see in a few years," Tan Jincheng sighed.

Flash Group is currently developing well, but it is not without hidden dangers. Taking Flash Technology as an example, most of its grassroots employees are single men. There are both advantages and disadvantages to having single male employees.

The advantage is that single men, in this era with fewer forms of entertainment, generally have lower desires, and if the salary is higher, they will be happy to work for you.

However, low desires can become a bad thing as wages increase and money in one's pocket increases. When the concept of lacking money disappears from one's mind, laziness in work arises, since one can easily make ends meet each month by doing nothing.

Once you have some savings, you can quit anytime you're unhappy at work. Even if you don't quit, you'll learn to slack off, and your work efficiency will be greatly reduced.

This year marks the second anniversary of Flashpoint's establishment, and these problems are not yet apparent. However, in a few years, this phenomenon will become very obvious, and workshop management will become a very troublesome matter.

A major overhaul and replacement of personnel is not impossible, but it will also affect efficiency and the company's reputation. If the company becomes successful, it will drive out the old staff. This is fine for a small group of people, but for a scale of thousands of people, it is easy to cause a backlash and also become an unstable factor in the local area.

This is a common situation in the later stages of factory operations, where conflicts over income and mindset lead to disagreements between management and frontline staff.

Not all factories have a bad reputation at the beginning. The main reason why their reputation deteriorates later is because of this.

The best way to resolve this conflict is to encourage employees to spend money, get them to buy houses and take on mortgages. That's the biggest expense. Once they have a house, they'll start thinking about getting married. That solves the problem.

Only by spending money can one have the motivation to make money.

Another reason is something Tan Jincheng couldn't tell Gu Qingqing: he was someone who had experienced the information explosion of the future, and with the increase in income and the continuous rise in the reach of the internet.

Much previously unknown information, both good and bad, has been widely disseminated, greatly impacting the thinking of ordinary people. Issues such as advance consumption driven by internet finance and high bride prices have caused significant distress to most people's lives.

What seems like Mr. Tan's behavior of tricking his employees into buying houses is shameless in the eyes of his competitors, but when viewed in the long run, it is actually a rather noble thing.

At least, Tan Jincheng gave them a set of fixed assets at the lowest cost, which is a guarantee for the future no matter what.

Of course, Mr. Tan wouldn't force someone who really doesn't want to buy. Whether you can seize an opportunity depends on your own decision. It's not a huge loss if the house doesn't sell and just sits there.

"Don't talk about that. Those houses of yours aren't really yours. If you can sell them, sell them; if you can't, just leave them there. Keep an eye on Orange Products Club. I'm already so busy. What's with you selling houses like a giant every day?"

“You’re the boss of Orange Technology, and I’m the boss of Flashpoint. Didn’t we agree to divide our responsibilities?”

"Stop talking nonsense. Orange Products is launching today. Let's keep a close eye on it and make sure nothing goes wrong."

Just like the National Day holiday the previous year, Orange Technology launched a new website called Orange Products Club on Singles' Day in 2007. It was a vertical e-commerce website that focused on flash sales of brand-name shoes and clothing.

Unlike Kaixin001, which received extensive publicity during last year's National Day holiday but gained virtually no recognition, Orange Club's internal testing has garnered widespread attention from the internet industry.

The three major investment institutions of Orange Technology—Shen Nanpeng, who is based overseas; Kuang Ping, who is based in Guangzhou; and Xiao Ma Ge, who is based in Shenzhen—have also paid close attention to the Orange Products Club project and contributed money and effort.

Orange Products, which launched amidst the bombardment of news about Ali's IPO, leveraged Tencent's resources in its promotional channels, which gave it the opportunity to spread its message widely.

After establishing contact with Boss Ding, Pig Farm also put a lot of effort into promoting Orange Products Club. With the help of these connections, Orange Products Club's reputation is much greater than that of Kaixin.com last year.

This is the advantage of having a powerful backer; when it comes to leveraging influence, Tan Jincheng is quite adept.

"I wonder what the outcome will be after the official launch," Gu Qingqing asked herself somewhat anxiously.

2007年11月11日上午11点11分，橙子科技旗下第二家网站，专注于垂直电商领域的橙品会正式亮相互联网。

A very chuunibyou (delusional) point in time.

This is the second update; I'll try to do three updates today.

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(End of this chapter)