2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 965 "No goals for this year".

The 2020 New Year's Day holiday was filled with chaos and turmoil.

Unlike the festive atmosphere of previous New Year's Days, although major manufacturers were still offering discounts and promotions, they were secretly making all sorts of preparations, and Tan Jincheng was constantly receiving phone calls every day.

Before coming here, Wei Lai modified the production line and stockpiled a large amount of core inventory, such as automotive chips. According to inaccurate information obtained by other manufacturers, Wei Lai's chip inventory should be enough to last for a year.

This information was compiled from Weilai's third-quarter financial report, the operating data of its subsidiaries, and some internal leaks. As for Weilai's specific core data, such as the quantity of core components in stock and how long they can last, nobody knows.

The calls Tan Jincheng received came from various sources. Wei Lai's actions before the incident seemed quite remarkable in the current situation, but not abrupt, because the timeline for tracing the source was pushed back to March overseas. Everyone simply assumed that Tan Jincheng had his own information channels and that this was due to his consistently cautious approach.

Indeed, whether it's Weilai or Chengzi, in the eyes of their peers, Tan Jincheng's style is cautious. To say nothing of anything else, in the operation of Chengzi, he didn't even engage in online lending, which shows how cautious he is.

Those who can call Tan Jincheng's private cell phone are either close friends or hold a certain position. They don't have any other business in mind when they call Tan Jincheng; they just want to find out some information or ask him for some advice.

Tan Jincheng had nothing to hide about these things; in any case, Wei Lai really didn't need to worry about the inventory.

"If an employee wants to go back to their hometown early, you HR staff shouldn't stop them, but we also don't need to promote or publicize this internally. Just let them go based on their specific circumstances."

On the last day of December, Jiangcheng authorities issued a formal statement regarding the incident. However, this statement not only failed to quell public doubts but also fueled existing anxieties.

Nowadays, there is more discussion about this topic on the internet, which has also led to a significant change in offline sentiment.

After the New Year's Day holiday, according to the lunar calendar, it is already the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. There are only a little over half a month left until the Chinese New Year. Some employees who are more vigilant or have other reasons have already applied to the company for leave to go back to their hometowns.

In the past, around the middle of the twelfth lunar month, such situations have occurred, especially on the production line of Weilai Automobile. For those who value the New Year, whether they have made money or not, they all want to rest for a longer period of time during the New Year.

Of course, there are also their own reasons. For example, employees from rural areas mostly go on blind dates or get married during holidays, and they usually have little time to deal with these things.

"The company did express its hope that employees would stay on the job so that our production would be less affected. But at the same time, a company also needs to show some humanistic care. If employees want to go home, don't stop them."

The HR director approached Tan Jincheng about the data anomaly, wanting to hear the boss's thoughts, but unexpectedly received this response.

Seeing the other party's surprise, Tan Jincheng said, "There's nothing strange about it. Although we have made all sorts of preparations to maintain our advantage in production capacity during and after the Chinese New Year, you can't force people to do things they don't want to do."

"Young people today have a different attitude towards work than before, and your mindset needs to change as well."

The oldest of those born in the 90s are already 30 years old, and the oldest of those born in the 00s are already 20 years old. Employees are no longer as easy to manage as before. In addition, the changes in the social wealth model are also a major reason.

"To put it bluntly, many young people today are not so short of money anymore. In addition, changes in housing prices and other factors will definitely affect the mindset of employees. If necessary, you can go to the grassroots level to take a look."

The attitudes of frontline employees are no longer something that can be fooled by motivational platitudes. To put it bluntly, it's a cognitive awakening. Of course, the situation is still better now, but it will be even more exaggerated in a few years.

"Let's proceed with this arrangement. There's no need for deliberate publicity or obstruction. Also, keep a close eye on online public opinion and develop strategies to appease the employees based on the specific circumstances."

In fact, Jiangcheng gave its employees plenty of time to go home for the Chinese New Year. The chaos in January didn't end until the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, when the historic moment finally arrived. On that day, almost all manufacturing companies had already closed for the holidays.

"How's the situation over there?"

This year is destined to be difficult. Li Xiang is a responsible CEO. Throughout January, Tan Jincheng urged him several times to go back to his hometown or come to Ningbo for the New Year. However, after much consideration, Li Xiang still decided to stay in Jiangcheng.

Tan Jincheng wasn't worried about Li Xiang's safety, but he still admired Li Xiang's actions.

Lotus is one of Wei Lai's strategies. Its core assets are all in Jiangcheng. Li Xiang's ability to stay is definitely a crucial part of stabilizing morale and arranging production.

"Because we made some preparations in advance, everyone's mood is relatively stable for the time being. During the Spring Festival, the company's dormitories and office areas will be open. We will make proper arrangements for the employees, so please rest assured, boss."

"Okay, that's good. You should also take care of yourself and keep in touch with me at all times. If you need anything, please let headquarters know in time, and headquarters will do everything it can to make arrangements."

"The headquarters will issue some statements later, and I will also arrange some basic actions for my network of contacts to protect the company."

Ensuring the smooth operation of Lotus is the most important task for the Weilai Group at present. Compared to Lotus, which is at the center of the storm, Weilai's headquarters in Ningbo is much more peaceful, and a number of protection plans have been formulated.

How is the staff situation at headquarters?

"It's not too bad. With our reassurance, 60% of our employees are still staying in Ningbo. Of course, most of them didn't leave; we brought them back."

In previous years, on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Boss Tan would either go back to his hometown to celebrate the New Year, spend the day in various social engagements, or prepare for the New Year at home. But this year, he is still busy traveling between various factories.

Wearing a mask, Tan Jincheng appeared relatively calm, and his mindset positively influenced the group's management and employees. Although they couldn't go home, everyone remained calm under this top-down atmosphere.

In addition, Tan Jincheng ingeniously hired a number of psychologists, who were scattered across factories in various locations.

Whether it works or not is irrelevant, but it's at least some consolation.

"Let everyone stay in the dormitory if they have nothing to do. The dormitory also needs to be well-ventilated. I will give the employees more red envelopes this Chinese New Year. This will make them feel more at ease."

The latest statistics show that the total number of employees in Tan Jincheng's various companies is close to 20, including the newly added National Technology. After National Technology was privatized and delisted, it is still managed by the original management team headed by Sun Yingtong, but there have been some changes.

Cheng Linfeng concurrently served as the chairman and legal representative of National Technology. In addition, he arranged for Tan Jincheng's own people to handle both financial and personnel matters.

Currently, ByteDance holds 98% of the shares of National Technology, with the remaining 2% scattered elsewhere. It is currently being collected piecemeal, but this shareholding is bound to change.

In the highly specialized semiconductor industry, spending a lot of money is essential to attract and retain talent. In addition to salary and benefits, ByteDance will also launch an employee stock ownership plan after the formal completion of corporate restructuring.

Tan Jincheng has no plans to relist National Technology. The so-called employee stock ownership plan is modeled after the Huawei model. In high-tech industries, if you want the horse to run, you have to feed it well.

Not only should people eat their fill, they should eat until they are stuffed. Only in this way can the nation's technological efficiency be improved and it be able to catch up with peers like BYD.

Many companies learn from the culture of the Chrysanthemum Factory, but never from their profit-sharing system. The reason why the Chrysanthemum Factory's overtime work model rarely receives criticism is because they are genuinely willing to pay.

January 24th, Lunar New Year's Eve.

The Weilai Group, including Weilai Auto, Yuechi Auto, Lotus Auto, Yangzi Auto, and Jinshidai, has officially issued a notice to its dealers canceling the performance assessment for February 2020 and setting no sales targets for February.

At the same time, the Flash Group's various brands also issued similar notices to provide subsidies totaling over ten million yuan to dealer staff, aiming to alleviate dealers' performance and financial pressure.

Weilai and Shanchi are the first companies in China to announce measures to reduce the burden on dealers. In addition, Weilai also announced that it will launch online car viewing services and offer VR showroom and online car purchase options through its existing APP.

At the same time, Weilai also announced a series of policies in customer service, such as launching a three-month deferred repayment and a comprehensive subsidy of 15000 yuan, and extending the validity period of after-sales rights such as warranty and quality assurance.

Meizu phones did the same thing at the same time. In short, all the companies under Tan Jincheng's control took the same action on Chinese New Year's Eve.

These measures were pushed to distributors and customers through multiple channels, including official accounts, internal software, emails, and SMS, in order to ensure that everyone received the information as soon as possible.

"Let's at least make sure everyone has a good New Year."

Whether it's Flash or Weilai, dealers and customers are the foundation of the company. Without dealers and customers, no company can survive.

"I wonder what the situation is like back home."

Last year, Tan Jincheng encouraged his employees to go home for the Spring Festival. This year, he is encouraging them not to go home. The same applies to his family. This year, Tan Jincheng's entire family and Gu Qingqing's entire family are spending the Spring Festival in Beicang.

Tan Jincheng was experienced and could arrange things in an orderly manner, but Tan Lihua and the others were experiencing this kind of scene for the first time. In addition, they were getting old and their feelings for their hometown made them not very peaceful during the New Year.

"It's not a big problem. I've made some arrangements back home, so you all don't need to worry. Just stay put and relax."

There is no automotive industry in his hometown, but it is currently the largest production base for Flash Technology and Jinpeng Industry. How could Tan Jincheng not value it? In fact, internet companies like Orange Group are not greatly affected; the biggest impact is on manufacturing companies like them.

"Yes, there's no use worrying. Just have a peaceful and uneventful New Year."

"Too."

“There’s always a way out, Dad, don’t worry.” Almost 16-year-old Tan Jinyue said to Tan Lihua in a mature tone, which made everyone at the New Year’s Eve dinner table laugh and lighten the atmosphere.

“That’s right, Jin Yue is right. Life goes on, so you should just stay home.”

In his previous life, during the Spring Festival of 2019, Tan Jincheng had to go back to his hometown for some business, and ended up being left in the village for the New Year. That year was also the Spring Festival he spent the longest in the village.

He knew the village's situation perfectly, including what it lacked. He not only arranged the factory's production but also made arrangements for the village's overall operations.

In reality, although many people felt confused, they were still relatively calm during the 2019 Spring Festival. Most young people who went home for the holiday even felt that it was a rare opportunity to have a long vacation.

Including Tan Jincheng in his previous life, he was busy making a living every year and really rarely had the opportunity to spend time with his family.

Sometimes, stopping isn't a bad thing.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, the Tan Jincheng family sat quietly in the living room watching the Spring Festival Gala, as was their custom. This year's gala, apart from the usual midnight countdown, didn't have many special elements.

Wei Lai, as well as Shan Chi and even several brand ambassadors for Meizu phones, did not have any programs.

"How much should we give? I'm also planning to give some to the employees of Orange Group."

The elders were watching the show, and the children were playing, creating a peaceful atmosphere. However, Boss Tan wasn't in the mood to watch the show at the moment. Instead, he was contacting the company's technical staff to distribute red envelopes to all employees.

Gu Qingqing's question also aroused the curiosity of the whole family.

According to what we just talked about at the New Year's Eve dinner, this time Boss Tan is going to give out New Year's red envelopes to all his employees, which is nearly 20 people.

No company organized an annual party this year. Lotus even had a very uneasy New Year's Eve dinner, but the employees understood.

Do your employees know you're going to give out red envelopes?

"Haha, I didn't know. I made the decision just before the holiday. The technicians hadn't finished debugging it yet. Apart from Xiao Zhao and a few others, no one else knew."

In my previous life, I saw online that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, showed off how much money he had in his personal account on social media. The money in Tan Jincheng's account was also quite substantial. Orange Group doesn't pay out much dividend, but Weilai Shares and Flash Technology do pay out dividends every year.

These dividends are deposited into Tan Jincheng's account on time every year, and the accumulated wealth is quite substantial.

Gu Qingqing, this wealthy woman, also has a considerable amount of accumulated funds in her personal account. Even Tan Jinyue is a small-time wealthy woman, as Tan Jincheng placed some shares in her name a long time ago. Although not many, they are still a considerable fortune.

Tan Jincheng laughed and said, "Let's give out 3000 yuan. The total amount is about 6 million yuan, which can be considered as echoing the netizens' comments that I like the number 6."

The first rebate to customers was 6000 million yuan, and there were several subsequent rebates related to the number six, leading netizens to joke that Boss Tan liked the number six.

The amount of 600 million yuan is actually not that much. When SF Express went public, Wang Wei generously distributed red envelopes totaling nearly 1 billion yuan to all employees, ranging from 888 yuan to 10,000 yuan.

Compared to Wang Wei's way of distributing red envelopes, Boss Tan prefers egalitarianism, where everyone receives the same amount. This is partly because he's too lazy to go through the hassle of designing the process, and partly to avoid comparisons.

At 8:30 p.m., all employees of Tan Jincheng's companies, including National Technology and Meizu Technology, received red envelopes from their boss. In addition, several other companies, including Orange Group where the boss's wife works, also received red envelopes of the same amount at the same time.

Nearly 20,000 people received double red envelopes.

"Holy crap, the boss and his wife teamed up to give out red envelopes, wow, I just got 6000 yuan for free."

The staff on duty at Orange Group cheered. This was a truly unexpected surprise. All the companies had canceled their annual meetings this year, but the amount of money that was due was still the same. The employees actually received quite a bit, but the sense of ceremony was missing.

There was a lot of discussion about Boss Tan giving out red envelopes on the company's internal network, but there wasn't much discussion about it on the internet. It was all thanks to the public relations team. In this special period, what needs to be done must be done, but Tan Jincheng didn't want too much discussion.

This includes policies for dealing with suppliers and customers, as well as discussions on donations and modifying production lines, but everything is proceeding in an orderly manner. For example, Inco Medical is stepping up production.

In addition, following Wuling's announcement on February 6 that it would work with suppliers to renovate its production lines, BYD, Weilai, Geely and many other companies followed suit. Weilai's production capacity during this period was also used for this purpose.

"This year's New Year celebrations have been really long."

On February 10th, the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, Ali, Geely, and Weilai, as key enterprises, were among the first batch of companies in Zhejiang Province to resume work and production. The employees who returned to their posts all expressed the same sentiment.

Since I started working and began working in the factory, I've never had such a long Spring Festival holiday.

Of course, the resumption of work in Weilai only applies to employees who remain in Beicang. Most employees have not yet truly returned to their posts, and the resumption rate is only about 30% to 40%.

"That's good. We're among the first companies to start operations, which is already quite good."

In fact, Zhejiang Province started relatively early. Factories of companies like Weilai and Shanchi in other provinces have not yet started operations. Shanchi has not started operations either. Weilai is a key enterprise, but Shanchi is not a whitelisted enterprise.

"If any employees from Flash Motors want to work here, let them come work here in Weilai. They will be under Flash Motors' ownership, and their salaries and benefits will be the same as those in Weilai."

If some people don't want to go to work, then others do. Those who haven't started work also need their anxieties addressed. Tan Jincheng remembers that in his previous life, several companies in Guangdong Province implemented a shared employee model to alleviate labor shortages.

This model can be fully promoted between Wei Lai and Shan Chi.

On the first day back to work, as usual, Boss Tan toured the factory, showed his face to appease the employees, distributed some start-up bonuses, and dealt with the backlog of work.

"This year? There are no targets for this year. Just ensure the company's stability."

Reporters from Beicang District arranged interviews with the first batch of companies to resume work, and Mr. Tan was among those who cooperated. When asked about Weilai's goals for this year, Tan Jincheng spoke frankly.

The car market performed poorly in 2019, but Weilai's overall sales were still quite good.

In 2019, Yuechi Auto, which was spun off separately, had a total sales volume of 81.5 vehicles, ranking third among domestic brands after Great Wall Motors. However, this only represents the total sales volume of Yuechi Auto and does not include Weilai Auto.

If we include the 32.17 units sold by Weilai Automobile, Weilai Group's total sales of 113.67 units far exceed those of Great Wall Motors, making Weilai Group the second-largest domestic brand automaker in terms of sales.

"Compared to Geely's overall sales decline, Weilai performed exceptionally well last year, especially in the new energy vehicle sector. Why doesn't President Tan have any targets for this year?"

The reporter from Beicang Daily was somewhat surprised. No one expected Tan Jincheng to have such an attitude. Moreover, in all aspects, Weilai had done a very good job in terms of response mechanism. Although the resumption rate was not high, it was relatively good compared with its peers.

"There has indeed been a lot of growth, but our advantages are getting smaller and smaller. If we have to talk about our expected goals, it would be to maintain sales of one million vehicles. Weilai is still a young company, and we are not in a hurry."

The goal for gasoline-powered vehicles is to maintain their advantage in the SUV market. Although the new energy vehicle market is growing well, the start of production at Tesla's Shanghai factory and the mass delivery of the Model 3 have seriously affected the market share of gasoline-powered vehicles.

With total sales of 321,700 vehicles, it still ranks first in the world, but compared to Tesla's global sales of 300,800 vehicles, it is only 20,000 vehicles behind. Weilai resumed work today, and Tesla also resumed work.

In addition, in terms of market share in the new energy vehicle market, BYD's market share in China has dropped below 30% for the first time, and its global market share has also dropped below 15%. Not only is Tesla growing rapidly, but BYD's growth rate is also very high.

BYD's annual sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 23 units, ranking third globally. The two strong competitors pose the biggest challenge to BYD's overall sales.

Is it really true that there are no goals?

The reporter was still somewhat unconvinced, or rather, somewhat disbelieving. This was a large company, after all; how could it not have any goals? Just as Boss Tan had said, Weilai Auto was indeed facing strong competition from rivals.

However, the performance of WooLong Auto in 2019 was also very impressive, especially in terms of exports. The ET5 and ES3 models successfully entered the European market and have become a certain threat to the Model 3 in terms of sales.

According to automobile export data released by relevant authoritative institutions, Weilai Automobile jumped to sixth place in domestic export volume with 6.6 vehicles exported, only 2000 vehicles behind Changan, which ranked fifth.

It's worth noting that Changan has several joint venture brands, while Weilai, apart from the gradually declining Mitsubishi and BMW MINI brands, consists entirely of domestically produced models.

The reason why Weilai's exports have surged is purely due to the popularity of the ET5 and ES3 models in the European market.

"Don't believe it?"

The reporter shook his head. Tan Jincheng smiled but didn't respond. Whether he believed it or not wasn't important, and sales figures weren't everything for Wei Lai.

(End of this chapter)