2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 508 What is the name of the car brand?
February 9th, the third day of the Lunar New Year.

The city of Ningbo, which had been experiencing continuous rain, finally saw some sunshine.

From last December until today, rain and snow have never left Ningbo. It was Comrade Tan Lihua's first time spending the Spring Festival in Ningbo, and the city's weather gave him a real hard time.

"This snow should be almost over, right?"

Tan Lihua felt like he was going to get moldy. They had seen snow a lot when they were young, but they had never seen such a heavy snowfall for such a long time. It was quite an eye-opener for them.

"It should be about time. The snow in the south has stopped. Next is the post-disaster reconstruction, which will take at least until the end of this month."

These days, administrative efficiency, especially in the central and western regions, is relatively low. Another very important reason is the lack of smooth information flow. For example, the 40 people stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station were mostly unaware of what was happening at the station.

If this heavy snow had occurred during the era of short videos, it probably wouldn't have caused such great damage. In an age where everyone is a self-media outlet, people would know what's happening on the road in a timely manner and change their plans as quickly as possible.

"Your company must have made a fortune this time, right? With a two-month production period, your production capacity and inventory are much higher than your competitors."

This is actually the longest period of time Tan Lihua and his son have spent together since the son started his business. His son, who used to seem eccentric, now looks more like a charlatan.

However, if we look at it from the son's perspective, it is indeed a good thing that he is more astute as a businessman.

You might say he has a conscience and cares about his employees, and that's certainly true, but someone who can build such a large business must be looking at things from a purely business perspective.

Has a conscience, but not much.

Tan Jincheng also looked delighted: "Yes, especially in the mobile phone battery sector. We've received a lot more orders in the past two months, and our business has really taken off."

Many mobile phone battery factories in Shenzhen are operating below capacity and do not know when they will resume production after the Lunar New Year. Some factories are even hesitant to accept orders, but demand has not decreased due to the snow disaster.

In fact, demand has increased. Anyone who didn't bring a few batteries on the road is absolutely regretting it. When they run out of power, they have nowhere to charge and can't get in touch with anyone, which makes their family members extremely anxious.

The prototype of the power bank was first developed by Dexian Electronics. With its accumulated experience in battery technology, Dexian Electronics leveraged this production capacity advantage to rapidly enter the mobile phone battery field.

"I knew you weren't that kind-hearted. You said you were letting the employees spend the New Year on the spot for their safety, but actually you just wanted to be able to start work normally during the New Year holiday."

"You can't say that, Dad. Any fact is judged by actions, not intentions. Tell me, did they benefit from it or not?"

Tan Lihua had no way to refute this. He often strolled around the Flash factory, and few of the grassroots employees knew him. During his strolls, he truly felt the employees' sense of identification with the company.

Tan Lihua works in a petrochemical factory and has worked in private companies before, but he has rarely seen private companies where employees like those at Flashpoint identify with the company. In fact, many employees of state-owned enterprises do not have such a strong sense of identification.

Money is a major factor in fostering employee identification with the company, but it's certainly not the only reason. He also witnessed during the Chinese New Year overtime period that, despite the difficulties in transporting supplies, FlashChe was still able to ensure that its employees ate and lived well.

The staff dormitory is well-insulated, with hot water available 24 hours a day. For young employees who cannot go home for the Spring Festival, people are sent to comfort them.

I never would have guessed that this kid is so good at managing employees.

"By the way, where did you learn all these employee management skills? How do you know they'll fall for this approach?"

This kind of humanistic care is actually far more effective than constantly raising wages. Of course, this only applies to grassroots employees. Due to their level of education, grassroots employees actually trust good bosses quite a bit, unlike senior talents who only care about interests.

For high-level talents, although you may be called their boss, the relationship is more of a collaboration; simply because they can thrive without you.

"Just observe and learn more. Visit factories of all sizes to learn from them. Actually, when it comes to advanced management, you have to look to state-owned enterprises. Ours is more about manipulation and manipulation. In a few years, when prices rise, it won't work anymore."

What is PUA?

"Oh, it's like brainwashing; of course, while I'm using PUA, I'll still give you some bonus points, unlike some companies that just play this game." "Dad, have you noticed that most of the bosses who had a tough childhood don't treat their employees very well after they become successful? People outside praise our company's good benefits, and I have to thank you for that, because you made sure I didn't suffer much growing up."

Taking the electric vehicle industry as an example, the employees of Zhang Congxun's company, which is run by a rich second-generation, have better treatment than Yadi. Tan Jincheng also knows about the car factory, where the boss, Mr. Wang, who almost starved to death, has the worst reputation.

On the contrary, the employees of Future Factory, who have a bad reputation among netizens, generally said that their treatment was quite good. Although they came from ordinary families, they had been working as cattle dealers since childhood and had no worries about food and drink.

Tan Jincheng couldn't explain the specific reasons, but some companies run by rich second-generation individuals do offer very good benefits, regardless of how long they last, or perhaps it's because they have plenty of money.

"Is there any other way to say this?"

The son's point of view was novel, but Lao Tan found it quite agreeable.

Old Tan was very proud of his son, even though he didn't say it. Especially during the Spring Festival, when he went to work on New Year's Eve, all the guests who came and went at his house treated him with great respect. He felt incredibly proud.

"Inaccurate. This is a conclusion I reached through visits to various factories. It may not be based on actual evidence and only represents my personal opinion."

Old Tan nodded thoughtfully: "Don't say this outside, it will have a bad influence if it gets out."

"Of course I know that, and I don't dare to go too far. On the one hand, it's not in the company's interest, and on the other hand, it's easy to be targeted."

In the early stages of starting a business, there are only a few people. To be honest, even if you only offer 10,000 yuan a month, no one will say anything because there are limited positions. But if a factory with thousands of employees does this kind of thing, it will really be targeted.

In terms of salary structure, employees who join later are much less well off than those who join earlier. Their average salary plus benefits will be higher, but not excessively so.

"It's the New Year, does your company have any big plans? I've seen online that your company is going to do something big, and is it true that you're going to make cars?"

"It's true. We'll start planning to manufacture cars this year, and the ultimate goal is to make electric vehicles. However, we'll also produce some gasoline-powered cars initially to build brand awareness."

Tan Jincheng did not shy away from this issue.

In 2007, the sales of domestically produced gasoline-powered vehicles rose very quickly, but did not exceed market expectations. Major private car companies were actually trapped in a vicious cycle, which was that they only knew how to imitate.

They only know how to imitate, and without their own core technologies, they have no competitiveness. Moreover, the quality is really hard to describe. In order to carry out research and development, Flash bought a lot of cars, including models of various levels. The quality of domestic cars is really questionable.

It's quite interesting, actually. During this period, it seems that only Chery was seriously engaged in research and development. However, Chery's internal factional struggles were too severe. As soon as one of its models became a hit, another project team would immediately come up with a similar one to compete with it.

The company also suffered from significant staff turnover; many employees in the FlashCar project team were poached from Chery.

The price is indeed cheap, but the quality is subpar, after-sales service is inadequate, and there are frequent instances of shirking responsibility when problems arise, which more or less arouses some resentment among consumers.

Joint venture brands have already become deeply ingrained in people's minds. Domestic brands, especially private enterprises, still have a long way to go before they can completely replace joint venture brand cars.

"Really? What's your car brand called? It's not still called Flash or Windspeed, is it?" Tan Lihua asked excitedly.

This should be the first time this brat has seriously admitted to wanting to build cars. However, the brands Flash and Wind have already become deeply rooted in people's minds, and consumers' first reaction upon seeing them is that they are two-wheeled electric vehicles.

"Car branding is indeed a headache. There are advantages and disadvantages to using the current brand."

Mr. Tan was actually quite troubled about whether to continue using the existing trademark of Flash or to launch a new one.

The advantage of existing trademarks is that they have sufficient brand recognition, but the disadvantage is also that they have sufficient brand recognition.

(End of this chapter)