Niu Xiaobai smiled politely, threw the backpack at his feet, and continued to face the window. The middle-aged man sat down, his fat belly looked round, and then he walked out of the window.
He took out 5 books from his briefcase and read them with interest.
Niu Xiaobai felt that this middle-aged man looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
Through the reflection of the train window glass, Niu Xiaobai noticed that this middle-aged man read a book in a very special way: he held a book in his left hand, first pointed at the table of contents of the book with his right index finger and carefully looked at it one by one, and then turned the pages.
Go to a certain page of the book to quickly check, and then go back to the table of contents... Repeat this several times, and then you have finished reading the book. In less than an hour, he has read these 5 books in this way.
"Look" in this way.
Niu Xiaobai turned around and glanced at him secretly, snickering in his heart: "How can anyone read a book like this? It's almost like a primary school student looking up a dictionary."
The middle-aged man put away the books and began to rummage through his briefcase again, but he couldn't find any books anymore. He sighed softly and took out a large book from his briefcase.
I folded the English version of "China Daily" and buried my head deeply in the pile of newspapers to read.
"English newspaper? This guy can really pretend! Could it be that he is a liar, pretending to be a cultural person to defraud?" Thinking of this, Niu Xiaobai looked around warily: Passengers sitting on the high-speed rail at this time, either with their heads down
With their heads engrossed in playing with their mobile phones or with their eyes closed, no one paid attention to this middle-aged man's every move.
"Haha, who else can you deceive?" Niu Xiaobai cursed.
At this moment, the middle-aged man's phone rang. He looked at the screen and answered it immediately, "Hello, Teacher Li! Yes... I'm on my way to Hangzhong City... Thank you and junior brother
Warm hospitality from the junior sisters! Okay... Okay... Welcome to Hangzhong City as a guest when you have time. Okay... Please take care of yourself!..." The middle-aged man spoke very politely, like a pious primary school student.
.
Just when the middle-aged man was about to hang up, Niu Xiaobai inadvertently saw the note on the screen of his mobile phone: Li Yihui, Xijiang University. Niu Xiaobai's heart skipped a beat: "Eh? This is not our class teacher.
Teacher Li? How does this guy know her?"
The middle-aged man hung up the phone and noticed that Niu Xiaobai was staring at him. He explained with a silly smile: "Haha, she is my MBA (Master of Business Administration) tutor."
The middle-aged man's chubby face, his eyes that narrowed into a straight line when he smiled, and his short hair, which was only three to five millimeters, reminded Niu Xiaobai of Maitreya who smiled when he opened his mouth and had a big belly.
Laughing Buddha.
"Mr. Li is your tutor? Oh! So, brother, you also graduated from Xijiang University?" Niu Xiaobai then realized that he had slipped up. He scratched his scalp and said with an embarrassed look: "I'm sorry, I happened to see you.
It’s the name displayed on your screen.”
"Haha, it's okay, it's okay! This is not a trade secret. What? Little brother, do you know Teacher Li too?" the middle-aged man asked in confusion.
"More than just acquaintance? She is the head teacher of our class, and I am a fresh graduate of this class. So, it turns out that you are our senior brother! Hello, my name is Niu Xiaobai." I heard such a relationship.
, Niu Xiaobai took the initiative to introduce himself.
"Ashamed, ashamed! I took advantage of my age. Hello, junior brother, my name is Leng Shi."
"Leng Shi?" Hearing the name, Niu Xiaobai asked in surprise: "Are you the Leng Shi that our college invited to give a special lecture a few days ago?" No wonder Niu Xiaobai thought he looked familiar. It turned out that he was in the college.
Saw it on the promotional poster!
"Haha, yes. At the invitation of Teacher Li, I had a very in-depth exchange with my classmates in my alma mater a few days ago." Leng Shi said modestly.
Who is Leng Shi? Niu Xiaobai learned from the promotional poster of the School of Economics and Management that he is currently the leading expert in the domestic management consulting industry. He is often active in various high-end training classes at home and abroad for executives.
, providing management diagnosis and management consulting to various enterprises.
Niu Xiaobai had long wanted to go to the lecture and ask Leng Shi for advice in person - especially after accepting Chen Wanshi's bet. Unfortunately, due to conflicts with other important activities of the college, Niu Xiaobai was unable to attend the lecture that day. For this reason
He regretted it for a long time. Unexpectedly, by chance, Niu Xiaobai met Leng Shi on this high-speed train and almost regarded him as a liar.
Niu Xiaobai's mood suddenly became excited, and he began to chat with Leng Shi. The two started talking about teacher Li Yihui, talked about all the teachers, and talked about every bit of the Xijiang University campus... and so on.
, the distance between the two people suddenly became much closer.
"Senior Brother Leng, I just noticed that it took you about an hour to read those books. Have you read these books before?" Niu Xiaobai expressed his doubts.
Leng Shi shrugged and said: "No. I bought them from the newsstand in the train station while I was waiting for the train. I originally planned to use them to pass the time, but unfortunately the writing content is not very good. I can learn from it.
There aren’t many things.”
"With just a few clicks, you know all the contents of these five books?" Niu Xiaobai was shocked when he heard this. Isn't this kind of reading too efficient?
"Yeah. I have a habit. Every time I read a new book, I check its table of contents first. Some people just skip over the parts that others have said. Only when I see something new or something that interests me can I read it.
I will read it carefully."
"Would you miss a lot of important content by doing this?"
"Haha! Don't force yourself to read through a book you don't like word by word. This will not bring out the joy of reading. Xiaobai, do you know? There are hundreds of millions of books in the world, you really
Don’t worry about what you’re missing.”
Leng Shi paused, stroking his round chin and continued: "Actually, the essence of each book is only three or five pages - a great book is only a dozen or so pages. Those
In order to reach the word count for publication, the author has to write a few pages of content into hundreds of pages. This is a dilution process; and when readers read, they have to turn hundreds of pages of nonsense into a few useful pages.
stuff, it’s a process of concentration.”
Niu Xiaobai nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "That makes perfect sense! People often say that the more you read, the thinner the book becomes. If you filter out the useless stuff, there won't be much left; then the more you read, the thicker the book becomes. The more you read, the thinner it becomes.
A few books with different viewpoints will accumulate more things in your head. Senior Brother Leng, it seems that you have read a lot of books, right?"
"Haha, it's not bad. I should read two or three hundred books a year."
"Wow! So many?" Niu Xiaobai was frightened by this number. No wonder he became an expert in the management consulting industry. He has such a large amount of reading to support it!
How could Niu Xiaobai miss such an important human resource? Thinking of his bet with Chen Wanshi, he quickly asked for advice: "Brother Leng, can you share with me some advanced experience in business management?"
Leng Shi said with a smile: "I can't talk about advanced experience. It's just that I have worked in several companies for so many years and suffered a lot of losses. I have learned some lessons..." He raised his head and smiled.
He stared at the top of the high-speed train car for a while, as if recalling the past. "In fact, for a company, whether it is a simple or complex company, we can regard its operation process as a black box. It should
There is input and there is output. What the managers of our company have to do is to find ways to make the output exceed the input and create value, that's all..."
"This passage is so familiar!" Niu Xiaobai suddenly remembered that what Leng Shi said was the famous "black box theory." "Brother Leng, how can a company create more value?
"
Leng Shi spread his hands and said with a relaxed expression: "I think value is equal to output minus input. Boy, this formula is very simple. I believe you have guessed the answer: to maximize value, either input should remain unchanged.
, increase output; either keep output unchanged and reduce input; or invest a little bit and greatly increase output... Just think about these combinations."
"Yeah, why didn't I think of that?" Niu Xiaobai suddenly discovered that what Leng Shi said seemed simple, but actually contained some very profound truths. He felt that he benefited a lot from this conversation with Leng Shi.
I wonder if the future communication with Leng Shi will be helpful to that gamble? Niu Xiaobai thought for a while, and finally made up his mind, and told Leng Shi in detail about the challenge he was about to face.
"What is the status of that company in the industry? Who are its main customers? Who are its suppliers?" Leng Shi seemed to have no concern for the bet between Niu Xiaobai and Chen Wanshi, and instead asked a lot of questions.
.
Niu Xiaobai shook his head blankly: "I don't know."
"What is that company's main product? How is their R&D capability? What is the annual production capacity? How much of the sales price does the manufacturing cost account for?"
Niu Xiaobai continued to shake his head.
"You said they are facing bankruptcy, what are their assets and liabilities? What are the root causes of bankruptcy?"
Niu Xiaobai spread his hands, shook his head and said awkwardly: "Senior Brother Leng, don't ask any more questions. I don't know anything so far. Didn't I tell you? I didn't know this until a few days ago.
A company, and then I agreed to this bet."
Leng Shi laughed loudly after hearing this: "Haha! The ancients said: 'Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.' You don't know anything, how can you agree to others casually? How can you win this bet? Xiao Xiao
Bai, your mental courage is commendable, but...haha!"
"Senior Brother Leng, think about it: in that kind of situation, how could I ask Chen Wanshi thoroughly and then think about whether to agree to it? If I do this, doesn't it seem too insincere?