On Thursday afternoon, the Ivan family held an impromptu high-level meeting of the group at the Moscow headquarters. Since Vladimir was far away in London, he could only participate in the meeting through video conference.
Before the meeting, Andre reported to him the agenda of the meeting. This high-level meeting mainly focused on two topics, one was layoffs and the other was financing.
What seems like two problems is actually one problem, that is, no money.
At the beginning of the meeting, the group's CFO (financial director) disclosed the group's income and expenditure statement for the fourth quarter.
From a data point of view, it is very unsatisfactory.
Due to tax evasion, the Siberian Tourism Company was sold at a low price, causing direct economic losses of more than 2 billion U.S. dollars.
At the same time, the oil fields in the Middle East are also a black hole. Although the project is currently on hold, the cost is calculated based on the number of days. The daily cost is 300,000 US dollars. According to the two-month negotiation interval, the loss is also 2,000 US dollars.
This is about 10,000 US dollars, which is just the loss caused by the delay in the construction period. If the oil field reaches an agreement with the Middle East and the United States, a lot of start-up funds will be needed.
The temporary changes that occurred after the successful acquisition of the Imperial Hotel doubled the financial pressure on the group. In order to speed up the project progress, the group not only signed contracts with various decoration companies, but also paid hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits in advance.
After the hotel became the target of terrorist attacks, the renovation project was naturally shelved indefinitely, and the hotel's daily cost was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In particular, if the threat of terrorist attacks is not eliminated, they will face a greater financial crisis.
This kind of financial crisis has never happened to Maxim in all his years of business ups and downs.
Since I was invited to tea by the procuratorate last time, major banks have also reduced their loans to the group. The group's current cash flow is only a few hundred million US dollars, which is obviously not enough to maintain the normal operation of a huge group.
After listening to the CFO's financial statement report, a layer of dense sweat broke out on Maxim's forehead. He even picked up the wet wipes on the side and wiped his forehead back and forth.
After finally wiping the sweat on his forehead, Maxim slowly looked around the attendees at the venue, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, and then spoke: "Everyone, our group is currently facing an unprecedented situation.
Crisis, this crisis seems to be a cash flow problem, but in fact it is a crisis caused by our inadequacy in resolving risk problems. In the past, we always thought that financing was very simple, and major banks in Moscow were there to take care of us. But in this current situation, banks
It’s almost difficult to give us a complete answer, so we must have corresponding solutions. My personal idea is that we need to lay off employees and streamline administration. To this end, I asked the human resources department to formulate a layoff plan. According to the layoff plan, each employee
All departments are involved, and we need to streamline one-fifth of our employees; at the same time, the employees who remain are not necessarily safe. The group will also issue internal debt, and we plan to raise funds through internal financing..."
Maxim's words shocked many participants, especially the layoffs. Many senior executives did not know about this matter beforehand, and when it was mentioned at the meeting, they had no time to react.
The future heirs of the family, Vladimir and Boris, the senior senior officials, were aware of this situation, but they still had something to say.
Yeager, one of the veterans, spoke first: "Chairman Maxim, should the impact on society be taken into consideration for such large-scale layoffs? As far as I know, once a company lays off employees, the main reason is poor management.
Profits are declining. Otherwise, ordinary companies will not lay off employees. They will choose to expand the scale to appease employees. And if we are laying off employees on such a large scale, will it send a signal to the outside world that our group has begun to move forward?
Is it going downhill? If such an effect is achieved, I believe that whether investors or banks, they will take a more wait-and-see attitude towards the future development prospects of our group. This wait-and-see attitude will prevent them from participating, let alone
It will bring us any beneficial help, so my personal suggestion is whether layoffs are really necessary?"
Cho (Human Resources Director) immediately followed up and explained that according to the current position and staff ratio, although the current staff is in a normal state, this state is not a saturated state. Therefore, according to estimates, one fifth of the layoffs will be
The rate is quite appropriate.
Yeager continued: "Is it more appropriate to reduce the salary of all employees? I personally can take the lead in reducing salaries. At the same time, I also suggest that each of us should have a sense of thrift and have the concept of making the group our home instead of spending money.
Spend money lavishly,"
The human resources department has not considered the practice of reducing salaries for all employees. After calculation and analysis, they believe that the effect of reducing salaries for all employees is far less than layoffs, and it is difficult to ensure the enthusiasm of employees; layoffs are to stimulate employees' enterprising consciousness.
.
Yeager stopped talking this time.
Boris finally spoke: "Mr. Chairman, what our group is facing now can be said to be a crisis, not a difficulty. Sometimes we need to have the courage to survive with a broken arm. Layoffs are one aspect, and we must get rid of non-performing assets."
On the other hand, my personal suggestion is to sell the oil fields in the Middle East without hesitation. As for the Imperial Hotel, this may be a wrong decision in our investment direction. Unexpectedly, it was targeted by terrorists.
, if this news was known earlier, maybe we would not participate in the bidding auction. If possible, my suggestion is to sell it at a loss, otherwise the terrorist organization in Afghanistan threatens us today, and tomorrow the Philippines will
If they threaten us, we will not be able to continue this business at all. Of course, I personally support the salary cut that Mr. Yeager just said. Many times, we spend money like water without considering the cost at all. There is too much waste.
Already..."
At the end of the sentence, Boris looked heartbroken... Naturally, his words made many senior officials present couldn't help but nod.
Maxim had a wry smile on his face: "It's not that I haven't considered selling the Middle East oil fields, but the price quoted was too low. When we bought it, it was worth 5 billion US dollars, and those sellers only offered 2 billion US dollars at most.
We will lose at least 3 billion US dollars on the sale, which is very unreasonable and cost-effective; as for the Imperial Hotel, a few weeks ago, we have determined that the group's future development will be transferred to Europe, and we will sell it just after the auction.
It will have a great impact on the credibility of the group. I would rather the Imperial Hotel rot in my hands than sell it. As for the salary cut, the human resources department has just analyzed it. There is no need to argue on this issue. We are not cutting salary.
Instead of raising wages, we should lay off employees. If everyone has no different opinions, just do what I say."
"Boss, I still have something to say." Just when everyone thought the meeting was about to end, Yakov, one of the elders, also spoke.
Yaakov, like Boris, was a follower of Maxim when he was young. Within the group, he would only speak if he did not speak out. Once he spoke, he would definitely launch an attack.
Sure enough, Yakov unceremoniously targeted the future heir Vladimir.