Building roads might seem at first glance to be a thankless task, hard work without aning.
Huge sums of money are invested, and vast amounts of human effort are put into maintenance and managent, providing convenience for others without knowing when the cost of building the roads will be recouped.
But once there are roads, impassable gorges beco smooth paths, goods flow, people move, and the benefits created far outstrip the toll fees collected.
"Channels," in a way, are like roads.
Channels themselves don't generate value, establishing and maintaining them requires all kinds of investnt, but once channels are stable, they can be more effective than money can buy, or rather, they can produce much better results with minimal input compared to the massive amount of money that would have been needed without them.
Suming had previously spent a great deal of ti, effort, and resources on various channels for information release and feedback.
Including Weibo, online platforms, TV stations, newspapers, and other information channels—even his official girlfriend, Nangong Yan, ca from a TV background and now manages all of Taoyuan Group's news publicity.
Putting Nangong Yan in charge of news segnts was not simply a matter of giving her a seemingly easy job. Besides the fact that Nangong Yan was a professional in this field, news publicity was indeed crucial.
Under Nangong Yan's managent, Taoyuan Group established a good cooperative and symbiotic relationship with local television and newspaper dia. The Weibo following of Taoyuan's interests continued to grow, nearing the impressive milestone of eight million followers—an astonishing number for a zoo.
With efforts on several fronts, it didn't take long for the news of Taoyuan Group's newly established cinema to spread throughout Yangchuan City.
"Taoyuan Cinema? Huh, that address looks familiar."
"Isn't Changhe Cinema right around there?"
"It's the old Changhe Cinema, didn't you know? Taoyuan Company acquired Changhe Cinema, and I heard they didn't keep a single old staff mber, they replaced everyone with new hires."
"That drastic? But it makes sense. I went to Changhe Cinema once, and the attendants all had sour faces, as if I owed them money. I never went back..."
"I wonder what changes the new cinema will have?"
"What changes could a cinema have? It's still just playing movies and selling popcorn..."
"Are they going to have cats sell popcorn again? That gimmick was fun once, but using it over and over gets old, doesn't it?"
"I'm looking forward to it, Taoyuan Company often surprises us with the unexpected, hopefully, this ti will be no different."
"Looking forward to what? Nowadays everywhere you turn there are bad movies. If a bad movie plays in a different cinema, does it stop being bad?"
"It's not all bad movies, Taoyuan Company makes its own movies too. Terror Animal City was pretty good."
"Buddy, do you think if a movie lasts an hour and a half, making it also takes only an hour and a half? Even if Taoyuan Company did nothing all day but make films 24/7, they wouldn't have enough to show, okay?"
...
In the dostic cinema circuit, Baoke Group can comfortably enter the top five, with an early start, solid background, ample funding, and the strong financial support of Baoke Group, they have a presence in major cities across the country. Even in a second-tier city like Yangchuan City, there are three Baoke Cinemas.
Weekly routine eting of Baoke's Yangchuan City branch office.
"Alright, that concludes the routine discussion for today's eting. Any departnt heads have anything else to say?" Mr. Qian, the regional general manager, closed his notebook and looked up to ask the attendees in the eting room.
The heads of finance, human resources, and other departnts remained silent, indicating they had nothing to add.
The head of the marketing departnt coughed and said, "Mr. Qian, a new cinema has popped up in the city."
The marketing departnt is a large one, not only responsible for market expansion and maintaining relationships but also for keeping an eye on every move of the 'competitors'.
Business is like a battlefield, only by knowing both yourself and your enemy can you be invincible in a hundred battles. One should not adhere to the old routine whether dealing with friends or foes; decision-making must rely on the marketing departnt to collect information accurately and promptly.
"A new cinema?" Mr. Qian frowned slightly, "The movie market in Yangchuan City is nearly saturated as it is, adding another will just take away from the others' box office. Which theater chain is planing to set up shop in Yangchuan City now? Wanda, Baoli Jin? That's not right, these chains have already invested heavily in Yangchuan City, investing more would be less effective than consolidating what they already have."
The head of the marketing departnt coughed again, "Mr. Qian, it's not a major chain. Taoyuan Group bought the old Changhe Cinema and is reopening it."
Although the companies under Taoyuan had not yet been integrated, everyone in Yangchuan City's business circle knew that any enterprise with 'Taoyuan' in its na belonged to the zoo director, Suming, either as his property or where he was a major shareholder. Hence, they were accustod to referring to Suming's businesses collectively as 'Taoyuan Group'.
This newly rising group, although not yet comparable in size to the big players, was developing so rapidly that it had beco a force to be reckoned with in the business circles of both Yangchuan City and the province. Of course, Mr. Qian knew about Taoyuan Group, he said, surprised, "Since when did Suming start to run a cinema? Wasn't he busy shooting films a while ago? Oh, and there's the reserve..."
Several older heads in the eting room shook their heads and chuckled upon hearing this.
Those in the business world knew a basic rule: no matter how strong the capital was, in the initial phase, they must go all out in doing one thing well and cannot spread themselves too thin to succeed.
Taoyuan Group's rise indeed was astonishing, but there was a common opinion in the circle: they thought that Taoyuan's helm, Suming, was still too young and too ambitious, trying to get involved in everything.
This led to Taoyuan Group's rapid developnt but with significant risks: firstly, with so many business lines, it was impossible to delve too deeply into each one; secondly, being spread too thin made the company appear to be advancing on all fronts, but should issues arise, the whole operation could easily collapse.
The sa weight of steel is certainly stronger as a ball than as a sheet of tal.
Suming had actually thought about this issue before.
"How much did he invest?" Mr. Qian asked.
"According to our investigation, it's just the Changhe Cinema so far, and it seems he doesn't even have the money for renovations," said the head of the marketing departnt.
"That's what I thought; he's spread himself so thin. Where's the money supposed to co from if he's not even listed?" the head of the finance departnt said.
"However, he seems to have launched a gimmick, screening 'good movies'? I checked, and it should an art films, including classics," added the head of the marketing departnt.
"Oh, now I see. The young man is cynical, he's spending money to satisfy his own snobbish tastes," Mr. Qian laughed.
"So, should we take action against him?" the head of the marketing departnt asked.
Cinema wars, chains of equal size battling each other, major chains joining forces to suppress the small ones, smaller chains making a coback... these dramas happen every day in the industry.
"There's no need, he's not worth our effort right now. It's better to avoid causing any sensitive backlash from the other chains."
Mr. Qian finally set the tone, "Making movies and running cinemas seem related, but in practice, they are entirely different industries. He hasn't even figured out filmmaking, and now he wants a slice of the cinema market? When he opens, we'll just send a congratulation basket and then quietly wait for him to fail. Yes, Taoyuan's brand isn't bad. When he can't keep it up anymore, we can consider acquiring it, taking a bite out of sothing ready-made."
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