Chapter 2286
This answer was a little beyond Zhang Jinbao's expectation, but it sounded very reasonable. After all, with Furifeng's scale of operations, it is completely normal to have several warehouses in the port area here. If you install a large sign on the roof of your warehouse, you can of course use it however you want.
However, this gave Zhang Jinbao an idea. He carefully looked at the Fulifeng advertising sign above the warehouse. Although it was quite large, it only took up part of the roof of the warehouse. There was still a considerable area. It is empty and can easily accommodate another advertising sign.
Now that Qiongxi Academy is cooperating with Fulifeng on opening a Guangzhou branch, Zhang Jinbao thinks it is worth a try to include publicity methods such as outdoor advertising signs in the cooperation between the two parties. If Li Nai can be persuaded to use the roof of the warehouse here to make a big sign for Qiongxi Academy, then maybe more than half of the money can be saved.
Li Nai didn't know that his partner was racking his brains to squander Furifeng's business resources. He looked through the accounts of the local store and listened to the business reports of his subordinates.
Since Haihan began to develop Hong Kong Island, Fulifeng settled here as soon as possible, built commercial warehouses, dock warehouses and other facilities, and made plans for long-term operations. Over the past few years, Fulifeng's operations on Hong Kong Island have involved various fields, including merchant houses for entrepot trade, shipping companies for transportation, service intermediaries, restaurants, inns, etc. There are affiliates of Fulifeng in all walks of life. industry. While earning huge profits, it also promoted local economic development. Therefore, every time Li Nai visited Hong Kong Island, he was almost always received by You Yihan personally.
Although Fulifeng has a first-mover advantage because it entered Hong Kong Island early, as more and more businesses begin to realize the commercial value of Hong Kong Island and increase their investment in operations here, Fulifeng's market The share is actually being eroded little by little.
Especially the businessmen from the north, many of whom have backgrounds in the Fujian Xu family or the Zhoushan colonial area. These businessmen not only have sufficient funds, but also have strong backends. It is not easy to compete with them in business. Furifeng's operating conditions in the waters north of the Pearl River Estuary do not provide much competitive advantage to these peers, so a decline in performance is naturally inevitable.
As Furifeng's young boss, Li Nai certainly understands the current situation very well, but he cannot allow this trend to continue to develop. At least he must make his subordinates aware that the decline in performance on Hong Kong Island will affect them. An individual's future future and destiny.
"I have read the accounts. The performance so far this year is at least 20% worse than the same period last year." Li Nai said slowly, his eyes scanning the faces of his subordinates one by one: "Everyone You may say that you have tried your best and can only achieve this level, but if that is the case, I think you are not qualified to receive generous remuneration from Furifeng every year and enjoy the various preferential treatments provided by Furifeng. There are almost three months left in this year. I hope you can seize the little time and do something decent. Otherwise, when the accounts are settled at the end of the year, you will go to Guangzhou to report to my father! "
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The people in the row who lowered their heads in front of Li Nai all looked bad. They were all the heads of Furifeng's various local industries, and they were usually well-known people outside. However, under this man who is known for his shrewdness, They didn't dare to play any tricks in front of the third young master. In the past, someone tried to deceive Li Nai who was on inspection by modifying his performance, but after being exposed by Li Nai, he packed up and left on the spot.
According to Furifeng's rules, shopkeepers who are stationed in other places do not need to return to Guangzhou to report to work at the end of the year. Those who are required to do so will be entrusted with important tasks by the big boss Li Jifeng in person if they are about to be promoted. The alternative is to perform poorly, return to Guangzhou to hand over the accounts and matters at hand, and then leave.
Judging from the current operating conditions of the industry on Hong Kong Island, if you are notified to return to Guangzhou to report on your work at the end of the year, what will happen next will obviously not be the former. This means that if there is still no improvement in the next few months at the end of the year, some of them may have to disappear from their current positions.
For these people, it's more than just losing a job. Most of them started from the bottom of the business and spent several years climbing to where they are today. It can be said that it was hard-won.
The superior living conditions they now enjoy in their homes, families, and servants in Guangzhou and other places must be maintained by the income from this job. Once they lose their jobs, their living conditions will inevitably change drastically, and such Change is certainly something they are unwilling to accept.
Several people exchanged glances with each other, and finally one of the most senior shopkeepers said: "Third Young Master, please tell me what we should do to change the current situation?"
Everyone is clear about the reasons for the decline in business on Hong Kong Island, but it is obvious that these people in charge do not have a clear plan on how to deal with this unfavorable situation. They can only hope that Li Nai, who is known for his shrewdness, can come up with a feasible solution. Otherwise, just saying a few harsh words to them will not actually change the current situation.
Li Naidao said: "What are the advantages of our peers and what are our advantages? Have you figured it out? You might as well think carefully about what we can do to get more benefits from our advantageous industries."
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Furifeng's greatest operating advantage is, of course, its control over various local resources in Guangdong, which is difficult for foreign businesses to compete with. By the same token, Furifeng's advantages no longer exist outside of Guangdong, so its business competition in the area north of the Pearl River Estuary is not as competitive as its northern counterparts.
Even a company as powerful as Fulifeng cannot completely overcome such geographical restrictions. Li Nai also does not want to use some unconventional means to compete with his northern counterparts, so the part of the revenue lost in northern-related business may only be made up from the industries where he has obvious advantages.
This may not be a perfect solution for Fulifeng, but if it is to reverse the decline in profits of Hong Kong Island's industry in the short term, it may only be used as an emergency measure.
Of course, Li Nai's abilities are more than that, but the problem is that he also knows that the qualifications of these people are limited, and it may be difficult to execute an overly complex business plan.
These persons in charge were all trained by Furifeng himself, and some were even distant relatives of the Li family, so there was no concern about their loyalty. However, due to Furifeng's rapid expansion in recent years, the number of experienced managers was far from meeting job requirements. Li Jifeng had to make do with promoting a group of people with acceptable abilities and sending them to various locations to take charge of management projects. These people can cope with business activities under normal circumstances, but when faced with the complex environment of external competition, their shortcomings of lack of experience and ability will be immediately exposed. Although Li Nai still had some means, considering the execution ability of these people, he still chose to be cautious and only set tasks within his capabilities, so as not to cause more trouble if the goal was not achieved.
As for whether such an arrangement can improve Fulifeng's operating conditions on Hong Kong Island, Li Nai is actually not entirely sure. But trying is better than doing nothing. If performance continues to decline, the only option is to transfer people from Guangzhou to take over the business here.
It was precisely because of this situation that Li Nai became interested in Zhang Jinbao's proposal for cooperative education. During his inspection in Danzhou, he also paid attention to the related majors of Qiongxi Academy. Although the lectures were relatively superficial business knowledge, most of what they learned were actual cases in various industries, and Zhang Jinbao often used his own With his personal connections, he invited business people to the academy to give lectures to these students, and the training effect was naturally much better than that of Yeluzi.
Li Nai believes that in order to solve the problem of insufficient professional management personnel in Fulifeng, it is not enough to rely on internal training or poaching people from outside. At most, this can meet the personnel replacement needs of the traditional business model, but now Fulifeng is In a period of rapid development, a few smart people are promoted from the clerks every year, which is far from keeping up with the demand for employment. However, the training model of Qiongxi Academy may be able to solve Fulifeng's problems in a foreseeable period in the future. Effective relief.
After reviewing the local business conditions today, Li Nai became even more convinced of this idea. Even if the plan to open a Guangzhou branch in cooperation with Zhang Jinbao cannot be implemented soon, he plans to select some personnel and send them to Danzhou to receive relevant professional training in order to quickly improve the professional level of these managers.
The next day, Li Nai and others boarded the ship again and set off from Hong Kong Island. Originally, You Yihan planned to keep them for lunch before leaving, but Zheng Zhu and Zhang Jinbao were eager to go to Guangzhou to complete their plans and did not want to stay in Hong Kong Island any longer. Li Nai finally followed their wishes and asked You Yihan. Farewell and set off.
After the fleet left Hong Kong Island, it sailed westward through the Ma Wan Strait and entered the Pearl River Estuary. The three of them were sitting on the deck chairs on the deck, enjoying the sea breeze and drinking cold drinks, which was very comfortable.
Li Nai raised his hand and pointed to the west and said: "Eighty miles to the west of this place is the Macau Port operated by the Portuguese. Originally, the Portuguese's plan was similar to Haihan's, and they wanted to take advantage of the geographical advantage of the Pearl River Estuary to carry out trade activities, but After the opening of the port in Hong Kong, the business level is obviously higher than that in Macau Port, so many businessmen are now more willing to come to Hong Kong, and Macau Port is gradually being left out. ”
"Wouldn't the Portuguese be resentful of the emergence of Hong Kong? However, they have always been afraid of Haihan, so they can only express their dissatisfaction verbally and cannot do anything extraordinary." Zheng Zha listened to Li Nai's introduction. , couldn't help but make his own speculation.
Li Nai nodded and said: "It's hard to say whether it's because of fear, but the Portuguese do not have any overreaction. Some Portuguese businessmen will also take the initiative to go to Hong Kong to engage in trading activities. After all, there are much more commercial resources there than in Macau."
Zhang Jinbao said: "The Portuguese suffered a lot in Hoi An City in Annan and knew that they could not defeat our Haihan Army, so they later took the initiative to form an alliance with our country to avoid another military conflict. No matter how much they covet the prosperity of Hong Kong You can only look at the scene without daring to reach out, otherwise you will be left without food.”
The Portuguese's defeat in Hoi An City was actually not too serious, but that battle had already made the Portuguese realize that the strength of the Haihan Army was not something that their colonial armed forces in East Asia could compete with, and it would be wise to cooperate with them. Lift. This decision indeed saved the East Asian trade route that Portugal had finally opened up. In the past ten years, Portugal's trade volume in East Asia has increased several times, and Haihan has replaced Daming as Portugal's leader in this region. main trading partner.
In addition, the Portuguese's active cooperation also gave them an advantageous position in the competition with their European counterparts. The Netherlands and Spain, which had also established maritime spheres of influence in East Asia, chose to cooperate with Haihan due to missteps. If you go against it, everyone will know what happened next.
Zheng Zha couldn't help but feel a little sad when he heard Zhang Jinbao's words. When the Haihan army attacked Hoi An, Annan was still in the middle of a civil war. At that time, Portugal was just a trading partner of Annan. He never imagined that ten years later it would become a country united by Haihan. Allies around.
Although in name, Annan is still a territory of the Ming Dynasty, but now few people in Annan regard themselves as one with the Ming Dynasty. Zheng Zhao was called the Young Prince, but he was actually the prince of Annan Kingdom. This was a situation that he and his son could not have imagined when they decided to start an army.
From the current point of view, it is difficult for other forces to challenge the status of this military alliance in the South China Sea in the short term. Annan, who was still trapped in the civil war a few years ago, has now been able to free up its hands and feet and begin to expand outward. .
In Zheng Zha's plan, the office established in Guangzhou was based on the office established by Haihan in Guangzhou in his early years. Although it was in the name of trade, it would also secretly undertake certain diplomatic and intelligence functions. However, judging from the history of grievances between Annan and the Ming Dynasty, the two sides will definitely not establish diplomatic relations at this time, so the diplomatic target of this organization will definitely not be the Ming Dynasty court.
Although the plan to carve up Guangdong and Guangxi was completely rejected by Haihan, Zheng Zha believed that there would still be opportunities to try to encroach on the southern territory of the Ming Dynasty in the future. Haihan does not agree to carve up the Ming Dynasty now, but who can say how the situation will change in the future?
Zheng Zha believes that when the Ming Dynasty is about to come to an end, Haihan will not sit back and watch the world become chaotic, and will inevitably compete in the Central Plains. However, Haihan's military strength is limited, and military operations carried out overseas at this stage often require the assistance of Annan Army and other allies. In the future, if we want to fight on larger battlefields, Annan will definitely need to send troops, and there will be opportunities then. .
(End of chapter)