After Chen Yansen left, Cao Dahua took out his phone, scrolled to a number, and dialed.
"Brother Hua, what’s up?"
Zuo Hongyu smiled as he saw the familiar caller ID and pressed the answer key.
"Old Zuo, you still getting used to things at Daboluo?" Cao Dahua asked with a chuckle, leaning back on the sofa.
"They’re just knock-off phones, all assembly and production. Nothing difficult about it. But the last couple of years haven’t been as good as ’08 and ’09."
Zuo Hongyu assud his old friend was just calling to check in on him, so he chatted casually.
"Thinking about jumping ship?" With the pleasantries out of the way, Cao Dahua got straight to the point.
"Brother Hua, are you getting back in the ga?" Zuo Hongyu was stunned. After a mont’s hesitation, a thought struck him, and he quickly pressed,
"What do you think this is, a movie? I don’t have the energy to stage so epic coback for you! I have a student who wants to get into the mobile phone industry. He’s looking for a purchasing director who knows the supply chain inside and out. So, are you interested?"
Hearing the excitent in his old friend’s voice, Cao Dahua grumpily poured cold water on the idea.
"Oh! Is that right? Brother Hua, is this student of yours so rich kid?"
Zuo Hongyu neither accepted nor refused, continuing to fish for information.
"I told you about him before. It’s that kid, Chen Yansen."
Cao Dahua grinned proudly. To others, he always referred to Chen Yansen as his star student.
"Oh, but isn’t he in e-comrce? Why the sudden jump into making phones?"
Zuo Hongyu was confused. The leap between those two industries was huge.
"Lei Jun used to be in software, and now he’s making phones, isn’t he? Anyway, this kid is loaded. He won’t treat you poorly. So, are you in or out?" Cao Dahua pressed.
"Brother Hua, I’m getting on in years. I don’t want to go through all that hassle again. If it were you wanting to start over from scratch, I’d risk these old bones to back you up."
After so thought, Zuo Hongyu still turned Cao Dahua down.
The knock-off phone market wasn’t as explosive as it had been a couple of years ago, but the potential in the dostic market was still huge. If they couldn’t sell in first- and second-tier cities, they’d just sell in third- and fourth-tier cities, or even in remote, backwater counties. There was always a way to make a living.
But following Chen Yansen was a step into the unknown. For a middle-aged man in his forties, the risk was too high. It just wasn’t worth it.
"Old Zuo, you’re being dense! The knock-off phone market only bood because diaTek provided the turnkey chipsets and operating systems. But diaTek has lost its edge in touchscreens and smartphone technology. It’s a dead end now."
Cao Dahua’s tone was resolute. Even though he was at the university, he wasn’t just slacking off every day.
His entrepreneurial failure back in the day had always bothered him, so he naturally kept himself well-inford about the industry.
"It can’t be that bad, can it?"
Zuo Hongyu wasn’t convinced. From his perspective, Daboluo was still quite popular in the low-to-mid-range market.
"Hmph! That e-waste your factory churns out can’t even compete with the free smartphones carriers give away with a new plan. What are you going to use to compete against the likes of Huawei, ZTE, and Coolpad?"
Cao Dahua felt a pang of frustration for his friend’s lack of foresight. ’Old Zuo is a born supporter, not a leader,’ he thought. ’Put him in charge, and things will just fall into chaos.’
"Brother Hua, how about this: you be the purchasing director, and I’ll be your deputy?"
Zuo Hongyu proposed after a mont of thought.
"Why are you so insistent on dragging into this?" Cao Dahua was exasperated. ’I spend my days drinking tea and watching shows, living a life fit for a king. Why would I want to go suffer through the startup grind with Chen Yansen?’
"Heh heh, without a master like you overseeing things, I wouldn’t feel secure," Zuo Hongyu said with a wide grin.
"Master my ass. If I was so capable, I wouldn’t have scurried ho from Shencheng City with my tail between my legs. Just give a straight answer: are you doing it or not?"
Cao Dahua said, his patience wearing thin.
"In that case, I’ll need to make a trip to Xucheng and et this student of yours," Zuo Hongyu said, his smile fading as his expression turned serious.
"Fine. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten together anyway. We’ll have plenty of Diguo chicken," Cao Dahua sighed, then readily agreed.
"Deal. This Saturday, then. I happen to be going to Huian for a business trip anyway." Zuo Hongyu glanced at his schedule and confird the eting ti with Cao Dahua.
After hanging up, Cao Dahua stood and gazed out the window at the gradually darkening sky. A sudden impulse washed over him. ’Old Zuo’s suggestion isn’t half bad.’
That kid Chen Yansen was mature and steady, thriving in the e-comrce industry to the point where he had venture capitalists eating out of his hand. But the manufacturing world was treacherous. Cao Dahua worried that, like him all those years ago, Chen Yansen might take one wrong step and lose everything.
’Whatever. I’ll go ho and talk it over with my wife.’
Cao Dahua felt tempted. After mulling it over for a while, he made a decision.
The next day before work, he made a special trip to the president’s office and ntioned to Tang Qingshan that Chen Yansen wanted to expand his team by hiring from outside the university.
As expected, when Tang Qingshan heard that FoxTao wanted to hire an additional sixty people from off-campus, he frowned and looked troubled.
"President, I don’t think we can agree to this. FoxTao is already valued at over two billion, yet they’re still hiding behind the ’student startup’ banner to take advantage of the university. It’s just not right. We might as well make them move their team to the nearby Science and Technology Park."
Cao Dahua said this deliberately, keeping a stern expression on his face.
’Move to the Science and Technology Park?’
Tang Qingshan was taken aback for a mont. If FoxTao wasn’t located on campus, could it still be considered a student startup?
His gaze fell on a docunt on his desk—it was an invitation to the National University Student Entrepreneurship Competition.
"Teacher Cao, you are the director of the Innovation Park and a faculty advisor. When students have difficulties, you’re supposed to help them solve them. What’s this talk about kicking them out? I approve their request. Have the security office handle the registration and tighten up safety protocols."
Tang Qingshan waved his hand dismissively, first criticizing Cao Dahua’s ’pass-the-buck attitude’ and then, with a grand gesture, he nodded his approval.
Cao Dahua put on an apologetic smile and nodded in agreent. The mont he lowered his head, a flash of triumph glinted in his eyes.
Humming a little tune, he arrived at the Innovation Park with the invitation, but Chen Yansen wasn’t there yet.
’If this kid were half as diligent as I was back in my day, FoxTao would be worth 4 billion by now,’ Cao Dahua boasted to himself.
He walked over to Xu Dan’s desk, dropped off the invitation, gave a few brief instructions, and then, with his belly puffed out, leisurely strolled back to his office to resu his slacking.
Chen Yansen didn’t show up until ten-thirty. After hearing Xu Dan’s report, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile.
’Old Cao is a reliable guy. Every ti he says he’ll give it a try, you can basically count on it getting done.’
He tossed the invitation to Zhuang Rui, telling him to have the product team pick an articulate product manager to represent FoxTao at the competition.
’I’m not wasting my ti on this,’ he thought. ’I’d rather take ng Jie for a walk in the woods by Pearl Lake.’
Next, Chen Yansen gave the keys to the new office spaces downstairs to Xu Xingxing. He told her to find so part-ti students to clean them, then get an authorization slip from Cao Dahua to move so desks, chairs, and a water cooler from the warehouse.
Xu Xingxing nodded and imdiately got to work.
Chen Yansen returned to his seat. As usual, he first reviewed the data, then gathered his team leads for a quick ten-minute eting.
"Brother Sen, regarding last night’s inventory issue, I’ve warned the Investnt Attraction team and notified them of the penalty," Zhang Yifeng reported proactively.
"Okay, got it," Chen Yansen replied, not paying it much mind.
’I’m not worried about the investnt attraction staff quitting,’ he thought. ’If soone leaves, an editor can just take over.’
After all, besides selecting products and setting commission rates, it was the editors who had the most day-to-day contact with the rchants.
Everything from setting commission percentages to finalizing main images and product titles was handled through contact between the editors and the rchants’ operations staff.
If soone from Investnt Attraction quit, an editor could take over and retain at least ninety percent of the rchant contacts.
At the end of the month, Chen Yansen planned to promote two or three new team leads for Investnt Attraction based on performance, and also hire a few assistants for the departnt.
Ostensibly, the assistants would support the team leads, but in reality, it was a move to dilute the leads’ authority, allowing him to maintain tight control over the entire Investnt Attraction team.
"Brother Sen," Yuan Wei said with a smile, "since Zhuang Rui’s web crawler and email system went live, very few rchants are listing on ili Shuo, Mogujie, and Chaojifan at the sa ti as us anymore. We have the traffic and the first-mover advantage. We can definitely crush those competitors."
"Have the Investnt Attraction team check the competitor sites every day. Prevent sneaky rchants from participating in our promotions using different links for the sa product, or by using their storefronts on other platforms."
Chen Yansen nodded and added the reminder casually.
"Understood. That’s already part of the Investnt Attraction team’s daily routine," Yuan Wei replied with a confident smile, then added,
"March is half over. I expect all of you to et your Q1 targets. This will be the first ti FoxTao issues quarterly bonuses. The money is all set aside, so don’t let down."
Chen Yansen dangled the carrot with a smile.
"No problem!" The team leads bead instantly.
The quarterly bonus was one to three tis their monthly salary, with a guaranteed minimum of one month’s pay. Everyone, except for the Investnt Attraction team, was ecstatic.
Chen Yansen smiled, called out, "eting adjourned," and led the way out of the room.
anwhile, Wang Teng submitted his resignation the mont he got back to Dongguan.
His departnt manager didn’t think much of it. After announcing its entry into the smartphone industry, OPPO, backed by the capital accumulated from its BBK days, was not short on talent.
Wang Teng had expected his notice period to be at least a month, so he was surprised when managent set his last day for just one week later. He felt a pang of disappointnt; he had worked at OPPO for three years, after all, and had grown attached to the company.
But then he rembered he would start earning a monthly salary of 36,000 this very month, and that trace of unhappiness vanished instantly.
At the sa ti, Xu Dan received the staffing plan Wang Teng had drawn up and imdiately resud recruiting efforts based on the R&D departnt’s needs.
Chen Yansen was willing to spend whatever it took. With generous compensation packages, excellent benefits, and quarterly bonuses, he quickly poached a group of system developnt engineers from companies like Xiaomi, OPPO, and izu.
On another ordinary weekend, Chen Yansen had just woken up when he got a call from Cao Dahua.
"An interview? Right now? Fine."
After hanging up, Chen Yansen got dressed and drove to a restaurant off-campus.
Interviewing soone in a restaurant was nothing new to him. ’After all,’ he mused, ’in my past life, I frequently interviewed female strears in hotels and private villas.’
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