After recovering from his momentary shock, Pei Qian regained his composure and decided to act as if he had not seen them! He could not allow pre-decided things to affect him and his train of thought now!
Although there were less than two weeks to settlement, the situation was looking sufficiently positive already.
Pei Qian waved his hand at the waiter, and the latter immediately understood what he wanted. He brought Pei Qian his personal laptop.
Pei Qian liked to ponder about life at this branch especially. Thus, he had left his laptop here so that he could work whenever he wanted.
Of course, he called it ‘work’, but he was only recording simple notes in a document.
It was often nothing urgent. In fact, he would normally delete the document once he had organized his thoughts. That saved him from worrying about his secrets being leaked.
Pei Qian opened the laptop, created a new document, and began to write his thoughts out.
Although the next cycle would only start in April, it was never too early for Pei Qian to prepare for rainy days. Coming up with a new plan now would save him from being flustered come April.
At the moment, he had several avenues to spend money: Distributing prizes to top players of GOG four times a year…
Distributing bonuses to employees based on their projects’ ratings on TPDb, according to the normal rules. On top of that, he could provide various benefits like paying different types of allowances and arranging for physical examinations…
Holding regular celebration parties so that employees could help spend a portion of his money…
Lastly, investing huge amounts of money into Thriller Hostel…
After thinking for a long time, Pei Qian still felt that this was not enough.
Although it was more or less sufficient for now, they were less than two weeks from settlement. What’s more, Glory of Gods’ client-side game would be released soon. That would generate even more revenue, which Pei Qian had to account for as soon as possible.
Thus, Pei Qian added another avenue.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, ROF Computer-Installation, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Zhongdian Chinese Network, and Upwind Logistics… he could burn a week’s worth of money for all of those businesses!
He could distribute allowances, whether people helped him with incurring losses or not.
Take Zhongdian Chinese Network for instance. He could give readers a subsidy for reading books and give writers an additional allowance. That would be achieving double the happiness at a single go! All of his money would disappear in no time!
This would be viewed as publicity efforts by the System. It would be allowed.
Of course, while doing this would increase his chances of incurring losses during this cycle, it would make his life much harder at the beginning of the next cycle.
Thus, Pei Qian had to think of ways to eliminate all hidden threats! He would have to employ new measures from the next cycle onwards!
Pei Qian started a new line in his document and then continued brainstorming. The first-place-elimination system could not hold the fort any longer.
However, Pei Qian had no intention of getting rid of it. The system could help him eliminate some hidden threats after all. Without it, Tengda Games would probably earn even more money than it was earning now.
What he had to do was supplement and perfect the system.
Pei Qian wrote the words ‘Cyclical Shock Therapy’ on the document.
He had many businesses to take care of now. There was no way he could take care of them all.
Even if he handed them to others, he would have no time or effort to check in on things. Everything could easily go haywire.
Thus, Pei Qian decided to use Cyclical Shock Therapy on the businesses!
In every cycle, one portion of Tengda’s businesses would be operating while the rest undergo shock therapy.
Of course, the System prohibited employees from remaining passive or slacking at work. They had to release new products every once in a while.
So… Pei Qian decided to negotiate with the System. According to his understanding of the System, there was room for negotiation.
“System, if a certain company has made outstanding contributions to the development of the entire group of companies, it would be perfectly reasonable to give that company a few months off so that employees can upgrade their skills, right? Not only would their knowledge improve, but they would also be able to contribute more to the group of companies in the future.”
Soon, Pei Qian got a positive answer.
However, there were limitations. Only one company could take a few months off during each cycle. What’s more, while he had to continue paying the necessary expenses for the company, he could not make any investments.
In other words, he could pay the employees their salaries, but he could not invest in any projects.
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied. He could do that!
There was no need for any more discussion. Fei Huang Workspace would go into shock therapy first! Judging by their current speed, they could produce three or four films each year. If each film earned tens of millions of yuan, wouldn’t the income be incredible?
On top of that, Pei Qian had learned one thing. The first-place-elimination system was effective, but there were still shortcomings. For example, it could encourage employees to work even harder.
Thus, Pei Qian had to offer consolation to what he thought were ‘outstanding companies’, the companies that incurred sustained losses.
He would supplement the ‘first-place-elimination system’ with a “last-place-reward system’!
Pei Qian had already thought about whom to give this reward.
Upwind Logistics…
Ever since it had been established, Upwind Logistics had been steadily incurring losses for Boss Pei. Lu Mingliang had not turned the losses into profits, and he had thus gained Boss Pei’s deep trust.
Pei Qian had even thought about what the reward would be.
It would be called the ‘Tengda Cornerstone Award’.
He could forcibly explain the award by saying that Upwind Logistics had fought hard to serve the other companies and was thus the ‘cornerstone’ for Tengda Corporation’s rapid growth.
Of course, they would be rewarded solely because they had been incurring the most losses.
Through this award, Pei Qian hoped to hint something to the other companies: even if you’re incurring losses, you would be rewarded instead of punished!
He could not delay this. Pei Qian would award Upwind Logistics with the ‘Cornerstone Award’ before the end of this cycle.
Lastly, Pei Qian would spend more money on the companies and departments that had worked together with Tengda. All along, Tengda had been working with many other companies. Those companies helped to provide the game departments with art resources, the internet cafe with equipment, the restaurant with ingredients, the cell phone department with a supply chain, Thriller Hostel with decorations and props, and the like.
Modern society emphasized the need for specialization and division of labor. Tengda had had to work closely with various other companies to produce good products.
In accordance with the well-known Tengda spirit, Tengda had always insisted on paying the best price to obtain the best results when working with those other companies. All the expenses in those areas had been maximized.
Yet, that was precisely why Pei Qian had to think out of the box to continue throwing money in their direction!
Take the purchasing of ingredients for instance.
Pei Qian could add ten percent to the highest market price and request for the other party to supply ingredients of the highest standard exclusively to Tengda. Of course, the other party would only be able to pick the best ingredients from among their good ingredients. The difference in taste would not be huge, and most customers would not even be able to detect the difference once the ingredients had been cooked.
Yet, more money would be spent on purchasing those ingredients.
The same could be done for the other businesses. All in all, Pei Qian could try to throw more money at Tengda’s partners by creating an illusion of a ‘Tengda standard’ above the highest standards in the market!
After writing everything down, Pei Qian read the document from beginning to end and then nodded in satisfaction.
Yes, I feel much better now!
At once, he sent the document to Assistant Xin and instructed her to send the plan to the various companies so that they could make the necessary preparations.
After that, Pei Qian deleted the document from his laptop and handed the laptop back to the waiter who then put it away safely.
As he stood up and prepared to leave, Pei Qian saw Ruan Guangjian and the others walking across the street, smiling. They pushed open the door to the internet cafe and entered.
When they saw Pei Qian, their eyes lit up. “Boss Pei!”
Ruan Guangjian was smiling as well. “My workspace has moved across the road. Boss Pei, visit us regularly if you can! If you have any work for us, just say the word. You can rest assured and leave all of your concept art to our workspace!”
Pei Qian sniggered. “Of course. I have no doubt about your capabilities…”
The fresh blood flowing out from the wounds on my back is the best evidence…
“Alright, I have work to do. I’ll make a move first. Take care of Brother Guangjian for me, all of you.”
Pei Qian said this as he looked at Lin Wan, Chen Kangtuo, and the others. “I’ll arrange for a gathering at Ming Yun Private Kitchen tomorrow. Remember to bring Brother Guangjian along. We’ll ask the restaurant to set up more tables to welcome them.”
Although he did not like Ruan Guangjian that much, Pei Qian still invited him along. After all, an additional person was an additional mouth to feed, and each additional dish would cost Pei Qian more money.
How could Pei Qian afford to be petty when he was trying to spend as much money as possible?
Boss Pei was a magnanimous person after all.
After he had finished giving instructions, Pei Qian said goodbye to the group and left. He did not even have to think to know what they were going to discuss.
Of course, they were going to talk about how successful GOG and Be Quiet were. Even the shared phone booths that Ruan Guangjian had personally designed had become sacred spending grounds for all of Jingzhou…
If Pei Qian did not leave then, he would surely be kicked while he was already down.
Ruan Guangjian could not help but feel disappointed as he watched Boss Pei’s back view. He had been looking forward to enjoying a drink with Boss Pei, so that they could catch up.
Yet, Boss Pei had left in such a hurry. Lin Wan felt sorry, too. However, she still gestured for everyone to sit in the coffee area. They each ordered a coffee or a soft drink and then began to catch up with one another.
At that moment, Lin Wan’s cell phone vibrated. It was a message from Assistant Xin. She quickly opened it and saw a document written by Boss Pei himself. It contained a series of requirements for her work in the future.
It also set out details of rewards that would make any employee from another company drool in envy. However, none of them were surprising to Lin Wan because they were characteristic of Boss Pei.
That was until she read the last line.
“When working with upstream firms or outsourcing work to other companies, add an additional ten to twenty percent to our current purchasing prices, so that they would provide the best goods and services to Tengda Corporation.”
Lin Wan was stunned when she read this.
After reading the entire document from beginning to end once more, Lin Wan took a screenshot of that last line and then handed her cell phone to Ruan Guangjian.
“Eh?” Ruan Guangjian took the cell phone, evidently confused.
His eyes widened upon reading it. “This…”
Lin Wan nodded. “I think this was specifically added for you, Big Boss Ruan.”
Everyone knew that Tengda always picked the best companies to purchase art resources and other things from. Their purchasing prices could not be much higher to begin with.
Yet, Boss Pei was now insisting on a ten to twenty percent increase in purchasing prices, in exchange for a negligible increase in quality.
Why was Boss Pei setting this policy, then? Of course, improvement was a part of the reason. That was in line with the Tengda spirit. However, it was intriguing that Boss Pei had set policies like that at a critical juncture when Big Boss Ruan moved his workspace to Jingzhou.
Obviously, Boss Pei was worried about Halo Workspace now that it had moved to Jingzhou. This was a foreign land, and Halo Workspace’s employees had undergone a major change. Of course, the beginning of a new life would be tough. That explained the advantageous policy. Boss Pei was offering help and support to Ruan Guangjian’s Halo Workspace in a very subtle way!
That was… a deep friendship! Everyone could not help but grin. Boss Pei was busy at work, and he had no time to eat with Big Boss Ruan. However, he obviously had not forgotten about his old friend. In fact, he was expressing his genuine concern in such a subtle and humble manner.
Ruan Guangjian grinned. The disappointment he had felt earlier had dissipated. Now, he was grateful and moved instead.
“I understand. I’ll urge everyone in my workspace to keep improving so that we don’t let Boss Pei down! Next time, we’ll deliver even more outstanding artwork to Boss Pei!”