Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On top of that, with a full benefits package, overtime pay, and inclement weather subsidies, these people felt no guilt about jumping ship. They even took Speed Peak’s clients with them to Cloud Speed.

”Fuck! I should’ve just run that son of a bitch Liao Wei over when I had the chance!”

At the Speed Peak Express headquarters in Tang City, Chen Feikang was cursing up a storm. He never expected that life wouldn’t be easy after taking the big boss’s seat.

In just one day, the staff of four franchise locations had been completely poached by Cloud Speed, leaving behind nothing but the dumbfounded franchise owners.

Worse yet, some franchise locations whose contracts had expired were directly absorbed by Cloud Speed.

At this rate, Speed Peak wouldn’t last a few months before it would have to shut down for good.

The franchisees below had told him that if the headquarters couldn’t solve the problem, they would sue Speed Peak Express, demanding to terminate their contracts and get their franchise fees refunded, which endlessly annoyed Chen Feikang.

’This won’t do. I have to think of something.’ Chen Feikang shot up from his seat and paced back and forth in his lavishly decorated office, but he couldn’t come to a decision.

「At the same time.」

Chen Yansen drove to the Science and Technology Park, entered Building 8, and went to the multimedia conference hall on the second floor.

When he pushed the door open, the heads of each department were already in their seats, laptops open, waiting for him to arrive.

”Boss!” a dozen or so voices called out in greeting.

Chen Yansen walked to the seat at the head of the table and sat down. He looked at Yan Peng and said calmly, ”Let’s start with the E-commerce Department.”

This was Orange Technology’s first quarterly review meeting. Hearing the sales results first would be a good way to boost the other departments’ morale.

”Of course, Boss. In Q4, sales for the Orange Mobile Phone reached 7.18 million units, a 76.4% increase from Q3. The growth was mainly due to increased production capacity, which allowed us to shift from a pre-order to an in-stock model, boosting user enthusiasm for purchases. We also added four external sales channels: Taobao, Pinbei, Jingdong, and Sunning. Currently, the cumulative sales for the Orange C1 have reached 11.25 million units.”

Yan Peng nodded, set up the projector, opened his PowerPoint, and began to speak slowly.

”Hardware sales totaled 21.84 billion, with a gross profit of 1.26 billion, for a gross profit margin of 5.8%. Software profit points include app store commissions, advertising, joint game operations, and pre-installed app fees, with a total profit of 315 million.”

”The four most successful marketing campaigns for the E-commerce Department in Q4 were the Taobao Singles’ Day promotion, the Orange Mall’s Fan Festival, Pinbei’s 10,000-person group buy, and Jingdong’s ’Double 12’ promotion. Together, they contributed 860,000 units in sales.”

”Additionally, in Q4, we improved member benefits by introducing exclusive discounts, priority purchase rights, and double points services. We also organized three training sessions for the customer service team, which greatly improved response speed and service quality.”

”However, the E-commerce Department also had some shortcomings. First, the targeting of some marketing campaigns was not precise enough, leading to a waste of marketing resources...”

As expected of a high-level operations manager from an Ah Li supplier, Yan Peng really knew how to present a report. His logic was tight and his points were clear.

He started with sales performance, moved on to marketing campaigns, then to channel expansion, user operations, and service improvements, and even touched upon market dynamics and competitor analysis. Only at the very end did he mention a few minor areas that fell short.

’Since the Orange Mobile Phone launched, the total gross profit was only 1.575 billion. After deducting administrative costs, taxes, and technology licensing fees, it was probably less than 1 billion.’

’No wonder phone manufacturers like Coolpad, Meizu, and OPPO were still unwilling to lower their prices even as hardware costs were falling. Relying on hardware profits alone, selling phones was less profitable than running an e-commerce platform.’

’However, over the next three years, these 11.25 million Orange Mobile Phones sold would gradually contribute at least 2 billion in additional profit from the software side.’

’This was the main reason Lei Yijun was targeting the mobile phone market!’

’The pre-installed apps, the app store, and other features on each phone were like small money-printing machines, capable of generating a continuous stream of revenue for the company.’

”Next, the Brand Department.”

Chen Yansen called on them directly.

”With 11.25 million units sold, the Orange Mobile Phone has already secured a firm foothold in the domestic mid-range market. According to iResearch Data, total domestic smartphone shipments in 2011 were 84.6 million units. Orange ranked fourth, beating Apple by 1 million units.”

Ye Qiuping reported in a steady, unhurried voice.

Even though it was only the domestic market, fourth place was still a significant achievement, and everyone’s spirits were lifted.

The top three were Mountain Star, Nokia, and Huawei. Following Apple were ZTE, Lenovo, Coolpad, OPPO, and Gionee.

As for Xiaomi, it naturally didn’t even make the top ten.

’It had to be said that before the exploding phone incident in 2016, Mountain Star’s mobile phones were a dominant force in both the Asian and global markets.’

Noaki was still holding strong this year, but with the majority of global smartphone manufacturers choosing the Android system,

Noaki, which stubbornly stuck with its Symbian, MeeGo, and Windows Phone systems, would fall from an industry giant to a minor player within two years, eventually being acquired by Microsoft.

’Once you fell behind the times, defeat could come in just two or three years.’

was the year of Nokia’s last glimmer of glory, and the N9 became its last influential product.

”The Brand Department’s work in Q4 focused on product marketing and promotion, user interaction, and community building. We coordinated with the Design Department through new product launches, viral marketing, the official community, customer service hotlines, and built-in product feedback channels to optimize product features.”

”Furthermore, based on the spread of 4G networks overseas and the popularity of smart AI language assistants, I suggest that the company needs to devote more energy to AI in 2012.”

Ye Qiuping spoke with eloquent confidence, and it was clear from her tone that she was bullish on AI technology.

’In fact, Orange Technology had already begun investing in AI. For example, the photo imaging optimization for the Orange F1 and Orange F2 utilized AI image processing algorithms.’

Chen Yansen nodded slightly. He didn’t plan to invest too much capital or manpower in the AI field before a significant increase in computing power became available.

’Sometimes, the timing of market entry is extremely important.’

’It was just like with Eleme and Meituan. The former spent more than six years and over a billion yuan to cultivate the market, only to have Wang Xin swoop in and steal their thunder before they could even enjoy the fruits of their labor.’

In Chen Yansen’s view, the best time for him to bet on AI chips and large language models would be after 2015, when cloud computing had reduced the cost of AI training.

After Ye Qiuping finished, Wang Teng reported next, presenting the Q4 output of the R&D and Market Departments, as well as a general plan for 2012.

Next was Wang Xueting from the HR Department. Orange Technology’s current employee count was 673. The initial phase of the recruitment plan would be completed in the first quarter of 2012, at which point the total number of project staff would reach around 1,000.

Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze, as the heads of the Design Department, then gave a detailed presentation on the design plans for the Orange D1 and Orange C2, as well as recent hardware and software test results.

”On the day of the new product launch, release a batch of engineering prototypes first to see the user feedback. Ye Qiuping, Wang Teng, Yan Peng, the three of you need to coordinate well.”

Chen Yansen instructed in a serious tone.

’He wasn’t worried about the sales of the Orange D1. The main concern was the Orange C2. Positioned as a flagship model with a price tag of no less than 3,000 yuan, whether it could break into the high-end market was still an unknown.’

”Yes, Boss,” the three of them quickly replied.

”I’ll finish approving all the Q4 performance reviews this afternoon. I hope every team continues to strive for excellence in the new quarter. Let me reiterate: there is no ratio limit for Orange Technology’s quarterly bonus. I personally hope that everyone can earn the maximum three-month bonus.”

Chen Yansen said with a smile.

Orange Technology’s quarterly bonus followed the system used by FoxTao, with a maximum of three months’ salary and a minimum of one.

Hearing this, Gao Weilin, who was tucked away in a corner, felt his eyes light up. ’I helped the boss secure financing from Digital Sky Technology and Penguin, and I also acquired Cloud Speed and Kuai Pao,’ he thought. ’I should definitely get the three-month bonus, right?’

Gao Weilin’s base salary was 80,000, so three months would be 240,000.

At this thought, the corners of Old Gao’s mouth stretched into a wide grin, and the expressions on the other department heads’ faces were much the same.

Meanwhile, far away in Yanjing, Lei Yijun stared at his business report and let out a long sigh.

’Considering Xiaomi’s performance, it wasn’t actually bad. After all, they had sold nearly 1.5 million units of a single product, which could be considered a best-selling phone of the year.’

’But compared to the Orange Mobile Phone, Lei Yijun couldn’t help but feel deflated. Having only a fraction of their sales was simply disgraceful.’