Chapter 332: Sprout strikes hard at home to record the birth of Xixi!
Tuesday, July 31st.
On the second day after returning to Binhai City, Zhang Shuo hosted a monthly strategy meeting.
The theme of the regular meeting is not very friendly.
Last month, in view of the large number of problems exposed within Zhanxun and Ruidike, Zhang Shuo took the opportunity to make a fuss and asked Jiang Yue to take the lead in conducting a top-down inspection of the Germination Department and cleaning up the house.
A month later, the inspection finally yielded results.
To this end, Jiang Yue made a special report at the regular strategic meeting.
“After a month of supervision, a total of 157 cases of various financial problems including kickbacks, opaque purchase prices, falsified accounts, setting up private treasury, private use of official vehicles, having interests with external cooperative companies, false reporting of R&D funds, etc. were found, involving
There are as many as 572 employees, causing direct or indirect economic losses of 128 million to the group."
"Which company is the hardest hit?"
Zhang Shuo's face was expressionless. He really didn't know if he didn't check. He was shocked when he checked.
The CEOs of the subsidiaries sitting here also subconsciously straightened their bodies, their eyes wandering, because this verification was led by the group headquarters, and they did not know the details.
Especially in the case of sibling subsidiaries.
"The group headquarters and various subsidiaries are involved. The Qingcheng Group and the Maili Group have the most problems. The former is mainly in the procurement link, and the latter is mainly in the research and development expenditure link."
This is not surprising.
Among the various subsidiaries, Qingcheng Group has the largest number of employees, the most complex business, and handles the most people, property, and materials, so it has become the hardest-hit area.
Especially in the first half of the year, the mold groups merged one after another, and the internal factions became even more complicated.
As for the Maili Group, with R&D funding of up to 800 million per month, how many pairs of eyes are staring at it, and dozens of laboratories set up around the world, it is inevitable that there will be mistakes in management.
Other subsidiaries are actually not much better.
For example, Sprout Investment found out that an investment company was established by the wife of an investment director, and invested in the projects that Sprout Investment was interested in, thus poaching Sprout Investment in disguise.
The problems of Jade Bird Interactive Entertainment mainly arise from the game studios located all over the country. Problems such as opaque financial accounts of the studios and the establishment of private treasury are common.
Qingyun Data and Qinghe Technology also have similar problems.
All in all, as the size of the sprout swells like a balloon, the number of employees has increased dramatically, branches are spread all over the country, the organizational structure has become more complex, and more and more problems have arisen internally.
I'm starting to suffer from the big company disease.
Thanks to Zhang Shuo's timely vigilance, if this situation is allowed to spread, God knows how many moths and vampires will appear inside the sprout, eroding the foundation of the sprout's existence.
This is by no means a nice thing to say!
"Did you hear everything?"
Zhang Shuo's gaze swept over the faces of the bosses one by one. Although they were still so gentle, the bosses subconsciously avoided Zhang Shuo's gaze.
Feeling guilty!
"After coming down, everyone must write a profound and comprehensive review. The most important thing is to come up with effective solutions to the problems that have been exposed and plug the loopholes in the system."
It was rare for Zhang Shuo to show no mercy.
There is nothing to be afraid of when a problem arises; the solution is to be afraid of not discovering the problem.
"How do you deal with employees who have identified problems?"
Zhang Shuo asked again.
"Depending on the severity of the circumstances, if the circumstances are minor, the focus will be on exhortation, and at the same time, varying degrees of consideration will be given to performance appraisals, rank evaluations, and year-end bonuses. If the circumstances are serious, employees will be dismissed directly."
Jiang Yue is also selfless.
"Now there is a question: do those who have serious circumstances and have violated the law need to be transferred to the judicial authorities for processing?"
"of course yes!"
Zhang Shuo is more stubborn than Jiang Yue.
"In this case, it may have some negative impact on the company's image, and it may also be used by competitors to make a fuss." Jiang Yue expressed her worries.
"Which is more important, the temporary impact or the long-term image of the company?" Zhang Shuo asked with a smile.
"I understand!"
Jiang Yue is not stupid at all, she is very transparent.
"That's right. When a company develops and grows, problems of one kind or another arise internally, and a few white-eyed wolves are raised. These are all normal things. There is no need to hide their complaints. They are all adults. They have done something wrong and violated the law.
If you follow the law, you have to take responsibility for your actions and pay the bill. You can also kill them as an example to others and act as a deterrent."
Zhang Shuo is very tough on this matter.
"In addition to dealing with those who have made mistakes, the accountability mechanism must also be initiated in a timely manner for the supervisors of those who have made mistakes, and they must be considered in performance appraisals, year-end bonuses, etc."
This requires joint and several liability.
"For those who have been dismissed because of their mistakes, they must not only be put on the blacklist of Germination, but also be notified to the industry so that they will not be able to survive in this industry."
"good!"
Jiang Yue and others also secretly sweated. It was rare to see a big boss being so cruel.
It can be seen that he was moved and really angry.
"Moreover, such inspections should be established as a regular mechanism, preferably once every six months, or in the form of patrol inspections. Everyone must be on the same page and not reach out for things they shouldn't."
Zhang Shuo, however, was still unfinished and took advantage of this supervisory excuse to continue using the topic.
"I suggest that an inspection department be established at the group level as the group's normal supervision agency, and that inspection teams be dispatched to each subsidiary to form a normal supervision mechanism."
This is about to get serious.
It’s not that Zhang Shuo is making a fuss out of a molehill or being merciless, it’s just that the sprouts have grown to such a scale that if they can’t put the brakes on in time and do a good job of internal supervision, there will be big trouble in the future.
Beware of subtle changes!
"Mr. Jiang has done a good job this time. The Supervision Department will be put under your charge."
Zhang Shuo said it was a suggestion, but in fact, he kept his word and directly handed over the task of establishing the inspection department to Jiang Yue, the executive vice president in charge of the group's administrative affairs.
"good!"
Jiang Yue accepted the appointment, but she was also under a lot of pressure. This was a job that could easily offend people.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Just like this investigation, the people who were found to have problems will not talk about it. Even if no problems are found, it will inevitably lead to the death of rabbits and the sorrow of foxes. Before, Jiang Yue
I'm afraid that the goodwill I had has been exhausted.
Some people even call her Jiang Menshen in private.
As the saying goes: "Pigu determines the head."
When it comes to internal inspections, ordinary employees in the Bubu Department have different opinions from group executives, and even executives have different opinions from the big boss like Zhang Shuo.
But since Jiang Yue has reached the position she is in today, and has been promoted and treated favorably by Zhang Shuo, as well as receiving a high annual salary, there is naturally no reason to back down and she can only enforce the law impartially.
A little bit of notoriety is what you have to bear.
As long as Jiang Yue still wins the trust of Zhang Shuo, the big boss, then he can rest easy.
on the contrary.
If it is for the sake of a little reputation below, and Zhang Shuo is doing this in a secretive way, he will do it in a secretive way.
That would undoubtedly be self-destruction.
"In addition to supervising employees, senior executives, including me, also have to tighten their belts at all times."
Zhang Shuo's exhortation talk continued.
"Don't engage in high consumption just because the company has made some achievements. When flying, you must fly first class, and when staying in a hotel, you must stay in a five-star hotel. In a word, Suiya does not have such rules."
That's what Zhang Shuo said, and he did the same thing.
When traveling on a business trip, first class is certainly okay, but sometimes when you have to catch a flight, you can also fly in economy class, or even on a train.
To him, there is no fundamental difference.
The main thing when staying in a hotel is convenience. I always choose one near my workplace, and I never stay in a presidential suite. Do you have the money to burn it?
This is not to say that with the current financial resources of the sprout, it cannot support the high travel expenses of the executives, but once we deliberately pursue these, emphasize these, and enjoy these, our ideological realm will become corrupted.
How can such a management team have cohesion and combat effectiveness?
Only by never forgetting your original intention can you always succeed!
"In addition to restricting high consumption, we must also be wary of related households. After the inspection department is established, the first thing to do is to conduct a thorough inspection to see if any related households have been stuffed into the company."
Zhang Shuo was also very sincere.
"No matter whether they are senior executives, middle managers, or even lower-level managers, they cannot violate the company's employment principles and recruit related employees into the company. If this kind of thing is discovered, we must investigate and deal with it, and there must be zero tolerance."
"good!"
Faced with the big boss's advice, Jiang Yue and others did not resent it.
The reason is that as the big boss, Zhang Shuo has always set an example. Since the establishment of the Bu Ya Department, we have never heard of any Zhang family members entering the company and pretending to be powerful.
Even if they are classmates, they are all recruited seriously.
"I will add one last thing."
Zhang Shuo, however, still had more to say, "The outside world says that Moya is an Internet company, so in terms of supervision, can we also take advantage of the Internet and make some innovations? For example, develop an anonymous reporting platform for employees and mobilize the power of employees.
To supervise the management throughout the entire process.”
"This is not difficult."
Even though Jiang Yue doesn't understand technology, he has great confidence in the group's technology center.
"That's it, the meeting is over!"
It was a regular strategic meeting, but it was unexpectedly turned into an inspection meeting by Zhang Shuo. It was foreseeable that after the meeting, the inspection storm inside the sprout would not stop there.
………
After the regular strategic meeting, time quietly came to August. On the morning of August 2, Zhang Shuo had another pile of grant applications on his desk that needed his signature, mainly including——
Allocate 1.2 billion operating funds to Maili Group, of which 800 million are special funds for research and development;
Allocate 500 million R&D funding to the Fertile Soil Research Institute;
Allocate 300 million R&D funding to Mango Automobile;
Allocate 500 million R&D funds to Daosui Semiconductor;
Allocate 1 billion investment funds to the Particle Fund under Sprout Investment;
Allocate 600 million operating funds to Germinal Real Estate, of which 500 million is project funds.
The total total is 4.1 billion in special allocations. Although it has been reduced from last month, the allocation of more than 4 billion in a single month is still a huge burden for Germination.
The capital chain is still dancing on the tightrope.
In the past July, Sprout received a new bank loan of 2.5 billion, an overseas loan of 2 billion, and a direct profit of 900 million from the equity transfer of Auto Network.
In terms of profits, the main ones are the 1.68 billion profit handed over by Jade Bird Interactive Entertainment, and the overseas agency fees for the two mobile games "Hearthstone" and "The Strongest Snail", totaling 850 million.
One month later, Germination's cash flow bucked the trend and increased by 3.83 billion.
The performance can be said to be very impressive.
The liquidity of more than 8 billion yuan has undoubtedly given Zhang Shuo the confidence to continue to flex his muscles.
Entering August, the production of Maili X1 has been officially put on the agenda. In addition to stocking up on core components such as chips, it is also necessary to pay advance payments to upstream and downstream suppliers.
Therefore, the allocation to Maili Group in August includes not only R&D funding of 800 million, but also operating funding of 400 million.
More funding is expected next month.
It can also be seen from this that in order to launch the Maili X1, how much money has been invested before and after Germination? Taken together, it is at least 30 to 40 billion.
If Zhang Shuo hadn't played the trick first, it would have been a bit of a desperate move.
In addition to Maili Group, a major money-drawer, the capital pool of Germination Investment has also bottomed out, and a new investment fund needs to be established to continue investing in the fields of smartphones, semiconductors and electric vehicles.
If you don't do this, you won't be able to build a moat.
………
The next day, Zhang Shuo summoned Lu Kai, Zhao Mingchuan, senior brother Wang Yan and Wu Sheyuan for a meeting.
discussed.
But it is a problem of Pinxixi test operation.
After more than half a year of intensive development, the technology center has finally come up with the internal beta version of Pinxixi. As per the old rules, it is going to be handed over to the operations center for internal testing first.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! When the closed beta is over, Du Qingqing will return from training and be ready to take over.
The problem now is that Pinxixi is different from Panda Live, Tiantian Toutiao, and Frog Browser that were previously incubated by the technology center. They not only emphasize the interaction with users, but also the interaction between users and merchants.
That is to say.
If you want to launch Pinxixi for online testing, you must first find a group of merchants to settle in.
If it were just a quantity requirement, it would not be too difficult. A group of big merchants could be attracted from Mobao and Jingdong to open brand flagship stores in Pinxixi.
After all, with the endorsement of Moya’s reputation in the industry, many big brands are still willing to give Pinxixi a try. Anyway, there is nothing to lose if it fails, and if it succeeds, wouldn’t it be an unexpected surprise?
In addition to the budding endorsement, Pinxixi has had many innate advantages since its birth, such as being able to log in directly with a Weixin account, pay with Weixin, etc.
You can even directly obtain a secondary entrance to Weixin.
It can be said that Pinxixi has already solved the most difficult aspects of e-commerce in advance.
He is truly the chosen one.
The problem is that from the beginning, Pinxixi’s positioning was not an ordinary e-commerce, nor a vertical e-commerce like Jumei Youpin, but a brand new comprehensive e-commerce.
What's new?
First, it pays more attention to social attributes and intelligent recommendations.
The most striking feature is that Pinxixi only has a mobile app version and does not have a PC version at all. Users who want to shop on Pinxixi can only place orders through their mobile phones.
Intelligent recommendations and social attributes are the core strategies of Mobao in its mobile transformation. Mobao itself has not yet completed this step of transformation.
Pinxixi’s ability to go online at this time undoubtedly gave it a head start.
Second, Pinxixi’s core target users are not white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, but young people in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities, also known as small town youth.
This group has been very neglected before.
Like Ali, after launching Mobao, it launched a certain cat that mainly focuses on genuine and high-end products. However, the support for Mobao's previous knockoff products has been greatly weakened.
This then gave Pin Xixi the opportunity to rise.
Young people in small towns are able to accept new things, chase the mobile Internet wave, and are proficient in using smartphones. However, they do not have strong economic strength and are more sensitive to product prices than product quality.
at the same time.
Compared with migrant workers in first- and second-tier cities, young people in small towns have more spare time and are more willing to spend more time in exchange for price concessions.
Based on this, Pinxixi is destined to miss those first-tier brands when it comes to merchant selection.
At least that's how it was initially.
Those suitable for opening a store in Pinxixi should be vendors similar to those found in Yitung Commodity Market, with affordable prices, low profits, and decent product quality.
Or maybe it’s the various weird products that appear at temple fairs like those in small counties.
Then there are the copycat products.
I also know that these merchants either don’t know how to open online stores yet, or they are too scattered and small in size and require an operation team to connect them one by one.
Only by laying the groundwork in the early stage can Pinxixi be officially launched online.
Fortunately, in the past six months, the operations center chaired by Zhao Mingchuan has not been waiting around. While the technology center is engaged in product research and development, it has formed an internal Pinxixi promotion team.
Coupled with the group's regional companies, a group of initial merchants have been gathered.
Some merchants have already been testing the Pinxixi APP online during the development process, and some are still waiting. Now they can gradually access Pinxixi.
In addition to merchant issues, there is another hurdle for Pinxixi’s online testing, and that is express delivery.
This sprout has absolutely no advantages.
"Mr. Zhang, is Pinxixi's express delivery the self-operated model of Zoujingdong, or the strategic cooperation model of Ali?" Lu Kai asked.
Originally, it was Lu Qi who was involved in Internet matters.
However, Lu Qi still had to stay in Shanghai, and meeting and discussing online was not as convenient as face-to-face meetings. In the end, Lu Kai, the rotating president, took over the job.
"In the early stage of cooperation, we must still be self-operated in the middle and later stages."
The biggest difference between Zhang Shuo's positioning of Pinxixi and the original time and space is that Pinxixi is not used to harvest young people in small towns, but to truly serve low- and middle-income groups.
To be precise.
It is to build a mutually beneficial e-commerce platform between small traders, family workshops, rural cooperatives, small and micro enterprises and other business types, as well as young people in small towns and the left-behind population in rural areas.
One has supply and the other has demand.
The former has actually eliminated many people due to the rise of e-commerce, and even lost their livelihood to support their families. Countless self-employed people have closed down in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities.
This is actually quite different from the uncle’s claim that Ahri has created so many jobs for so many people.
As for the products produced by some small workshops and small and micro enterprises, they have been artificially labeled as "copycat and defective products", which is very useful and unpleasant.
From Zhang Shuo's point of view, he opposes piracy, but does not reject counterfeit products.
Who doesn’t copycat?
Beautiful countries, Japan and other so-called developed countries, if you look into their history, it is almost a copycat history. Do you think that if they are whitewashed, they can criticize others from the moral high ground?
There is no reason for this.
China's current development situation determines that there are still more than 70% of the population, with an average monthly income of less than 3,000, and do not have the financial strength to pay for additional brand premiums.
Who doesn’t like big brands?
Isn't this not allowed by strength? Then things have to be done step by step.
Again.
Are big brands necessarily good?
Because the brand premium is serious, let alone luxury goods, even so-called high-end brands such as Pingguo have a profit margin of up to 50%, which is really a bit crazy.
On the contrary, many small commodities in the Yitungsten Commodity Market may seem unknown, but they are actually strong and durable. The most important thing is that they are affordable, which is rare for ordinary people.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Otherwise.
I can't even do it in the original time and space.
It's just that Pinxixi is driven by capital after all. Once it gets big, it will inevitably forget its original intention. It's undeniable that the food will become more and more ugly. When it comes to cutting leeks, there is no mercy.
This is what sprouts need to avoid.
"If you are self-operated, should you consider acquiring one or two express delivery companies?" Lu Kai also has deep pockets.
"Of course."
Mentioning this, Zhang Shuo still has a headache.
Among the express delivery companies that can be ranked in China, apart from Shunfeng, which is the only one, Durban specializes in large-scale express delivery, the postal service is a semi-legend, and Jingdong Express only serves Jingdong.
As for Four Links and One Link, they are basically Ali's strategic partners.
In the end, there is only one Jitu left, and its current development is not very good. The original time and space is crazy about seizing the market with the crazy support of capital and relying on ultra-low subsidies.
The method of cutting leeks with Ji Tudu is too obvious and is not the right way to go.
There are really not many opportunities left for germination.
"The Investment and M&A Department will first carefully check to see which express delivery company can be acquired. Well, let's focus on Baishi." Zhang Shuo has done some homework on express delivery companies.
Among all the connections, Baishi is an outlier.
Baishi was founded in 2001. In November 2010, it successfully acquired "Huitong Express" and subsequently changed its name to "Baishi Huitong" before it really started to develop its express delivery track.
It's a pity that the operation was not good in the middle. In October 2021, Baishi sold its domestic express delivery business to Jitu for 6.8 billion, which is considered to be a relatively miserable one.
It is precisely because of this.
Baishi will be listed as one of Zhang Shuo's priority acquisition targets.
"OK."
Lu Kai admired the big boss's foresight.
"In addition to acquiring the express delivery company, we also need to get in touch with Shunfeng. Not only for Pinxixi, but also for the delivery of Maili X1, it is best to reach strategic cooperation with Shunfeng." Zhang Shuo said.
In terms of service quality and standard, Shunfeng is still the most trustworthy.
Although it's a bit expensive.
"If possible, it would be best to participate in tailwind financing or strategic investment." With money in hand, Zhang Shuo couldn't hold back his desire to buy.
Now that the investment trend is favorable, it will undoubtedly be a very cost-effective deal.