Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

At ten in the morning, a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK came from the door.

”Come in!”

Chen Yansen replied softly, his hands never stopping as he flipped another two pages of ”Speech and Language Processing.”

He didn’t put down his book until Gao Weilin led a middle-aged man to the seat across from him.

”Boss, this is the man I mentioned last time, Fan Junyan from Hong Kong Island Polytechnic University. He’s an expert in accounting, fiscal taxation, and international business law. He was previously the financial director at Nanfeng Group and has a great deal of hands-on experience with Hong Kong stock market listings.”

Gao Weilin introduced him in detail.

”Mr. Chen, hello. I’m Fan Junyan. I’ve heard so much about you. You can call me Joseph.”

Fan Junyan stood up again, speaking very formally.

Gao Weilin facepalmed with a wry smile. He had specifically told his old classmate not to mention his English name in front of the boss, since it wouldn’t be used anyway.

But this guy just wouldn’t listen!

”Old Fan, you don’t mind if I call you that, do you?”

Chen Yansen nodded slightly, motioning for him to sit down and talk.

’Old Fan?’

Thirty-two-year-old Fan Junyan’s expression stiffened. This was the first time in his life anyone had ever called him ’Old Fan’.

He looked at Chen Yansen, then glanced at Gao Weilin out of the corner of his eye, only to see him covering his mouth, struggling to hold back a laugh.

”I don’t mind, as long as the boss is happy with it.” Fan Junyan finally understood Gao Weilin’s warning. ’By that logic, does the boss usually call Dylan ’Old Gao’?’

At this thought, Fan Junyan couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

”Although Fast Taxi is a subsidiary of Senlian Capital, its importance to me is no less than that of Orange Technology. Since you’re the person Old Gao recommended, I trust him, and I trust you.”

Chen Yansen said this casually.

In reality, he had already investigated Fan Junyan’s resume and comprehensively evaluated his abilities and character. He had only agreed after being satisfied with the results.

’After all, if I can’t even trust myself, how could I possibly trust Gao Weilin?’

”Thank you for your trust, Boss. I will definitely do my best.”

Fan Junyan nodded emphatically and readily agreed.

Compared to his salary in Hong Kong Island, his new role as Chief Financial Officer of Fast Taxi came with a 25% increase in base salary alone, plus a monthly housing allowance equal to 20% of his salary and a quarterly bonus every three months.

Therefore, Fan Junyan was very satisfied with the new job. He had even seen Gao Weilin’s Porsche Cayenne downstairs earlier.

Although it was only for his use, to put it bluntly, as long as he kept working at Senlian Capital, the person using the car wouldn’t change.

”Work hard. The boss said there’s a company car benefit at the end of the year,” Gao Weilin had told him with a smile.

’A two-million-yuan luxury car... of course I want one too!’

”Alright. Report to Hang City as soon as possible. Cheng Weixing’s abilities in financial management and risk control are relatively weak. I’m sending you to Fast Taxi to help him shore up those shortcomings. I’m not afraid to spend money, but the purpose and destination of every single cent must be traceable.”

Chen Yansen looked directly at Fan Junyan, his tone grave.

This was both an instruction and a warning!

”Boss, I understand,” Fan Junyan quickly responded.

Chen Yansen picked up his book again and casually opened it.

Gao Weilin and Fan Junyan exchanged a look, instantly understood, and quickly stood up to take their leave.

Once outside the office, Fan Junyan couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. He whispered to Gao Weilin, ”The boss gives off such a strong, oppressive feeling. I felt like I could barely breathe.”

”Is that just you not feeling well? Maybe you should go to the hospital for a full check-up? I have meetings with the boss every day, how come I don’t feel it?”

Gao Weilin scoffed, not taking Fan Junyan’s words to heart at all and instead teasing him a little.

At the same time, he could understand Fan Junyan’s feelings. It was inevitable to be nervous when facing a young boss worth tens of billions.

Even for him, on the rare occasion he made a mistake at work, a simple frown from Chen Yansen was enough to make his heart pound.

However, Gao Weilin attributed this strange feeling to a sense of awe for the powerful.

”Maybe it was just my imagination,” Fan Junyan said, not thinking too much about it and quickly putting it out of his mind.

”When are you leaving?” Gao Weilin asked.

”This afternoon.” Fan Junyan was a decisive person. In his last job, in order to push the company’s IPO process forward, he had worked for a whole year without a break. Every day, he was either on a business trip or on his way to one.

This was also why Gao Weilin had so strongly recommended him. He was a hard worker, had an abnormal amount of energy, and could help shoulder a lot of pressure.

”Alright. See you at the campus cafeteria in half an hour. I’ll give you a farewell meal.” Gao Weilin raised his hand to check his watch, then headed toward the finance department.

Fan Junyan still had to make a trip to the HR department to sign his employment contract and stock option agreement. By the time he was done, it would be just in time for lunch.

”You’re so cheap!”

Fan Junyan laughed and cursed after hearing this.

”Tch!” Gao Weilin didn’t turn around, simply raising his middle finger.

「Meanwhile.」

After finishing the book, Chen Yansen walked over to the sofa by the window and sat down. Orange Technology’s current strategic layout in the mobile phone industry was mainly focused on the fields of batteries, screens, operating systems, and artificial intelligence.

To defeat Apple and Mountain Star, it wasn’t enough to just work on the software; the art of extreme supply chain management was also essential.

As sales of the Orange Mobile Phone increased, Orange Technology’s bargaining power with suppliers grew stronger and stronger.

On one hand, this allowed them to reduce material costs and increase gross profit margins. On the other hand, by integrating their own unique supply channels, they could also earn an additional margin on electronic components when acting as an OEM for third-party phone manufacturers.

Take Xiaomi, for example. Lei Yijun had agreed to hand over their manufacturing orders to the Orange Phone Factory starting in Q2. After some discussion, he discovered that the procurement prices for Xiaomi Mobile Phone’s batteries, memory chips, and screens were far higher than those for the Orange Mobile Phone.

But he knew in his heart that the quotes he was seeing were definitely higher than Orange Technology’s own procurement prices. He had no choice, however, as Xiaomi’s sales volume determined the suppliers’ attitudes.

Last year, when he negotiated with Mountain Star, they had quoted an absurdly high price, showing what could be described as a complete lack of sincerity.

Left with no alternative, Xiaomi had chosen Sharp as the supplier for its first-generation phone’s screen.

So, after thinking it over repeatedly, Lei Yijun still decided to switch the suppliers for batteries, memory chips, and screens to the Orange Phone Factory’s channels.

As for the issue of supply chain management, it could wait until Xiaomi broke into the top three in shipment rankings and had enough clout.

Otherwise, all their efforts would be for nothing. The final prices they’d get would be even worse than Orange Technology’s ”secondhand” prices, rendering all their initial investment of manpower and resources a complete waste.

The next morning, news that Xiaomi Technology had signed a contract with the Orange Phone Factory instantly sent shockwaves through the industry.

The media scrambled to report on it, speculating whether the two companies would become deeply intertwined in areas like technology R&D, production capacity allocation, and supply chain integration.

But to everyone’s surprise, aside from licensing the memory cleanup algorithm and battery management technology, the contract was purely for manufacturing cooperation.

’Could we partner with Orange Technology on a special edition phone?’

An idea flashed through the mind of 360’s Zhou Hongyi. He wanted to ride the coattails of the Orange Mobile Phone’s popularity. The failure of the Haier W910 had taught him a lesson: he had to choose a professional mobile phone manufacturer as a partner.

He had recently disabled the comments section on his Weibo. Otherwise, whenever he posted a product promotion, hundreds of people would flood the comments to curse him out.

’Haier really screwed me over!’

Zhou Hongyi felt he had been wronged. ’Haier designed the phone, and Haier manufactured it, so why are they blaming me?’

In the end, after being on the market for just one week, the Haier W910 sold only 2,000 units before being hastily pulled.

The remaining 8,000 units were piled up in a warehouse. He couldn’t sell them, and he couldn’t even give them away. Zhou Hongyi had no idea what to do.

360’s first special edition phone ended up with a loss of 10 million yuan.

But Zhou Hongyi hadn’t given up. After finalizing a partnership with Huawei, he set his sights on Orange Technology.

”Hello, President Chen? It’s me! It’s Zhou Hongyi! You didn’t save my number?!”

But when Zhou Hongyi got through to Chen Yansen, he was first stunned, then so angry he stomped his foot.

’That punk Chen Yansen is too damn arrogant!’

”My apologies, President Zhou. I got a new phone last time and lost all my contacts.”

The corner of Chen Yansen’s mouth tilted up as he spoke with a mischievous smile.

Zhou Hongyi knew the kid was talking nonsense, and Chen Yansen knew that Zhou Hongyi could tell. But he just wanted to needle him a little. Who told that bastard to put on such a condescending, sneering face the first time they met?

”President Chen, I’d like to discuss a collaboration with Orange Technology on a special edition phone,” Zhou Hongyi said, getting straight to the point, too lazy to beat around the bush.

A special edition phone?

Chen Yansen sneered and refused decisively, ”President Zhou, the Orange Phone Factory only accepts manufacturing orders.”

If it were anyone else, he might have agreed, but not 360.

He had studied the Haier W910. Zhou Hongyi had pre-installed a whole suite of 360 software on the phone, like 360 Mobile Security, 360 Browser, 360 File Manager, and so on.

Every day when users woke up, they were greeted by 360’s system pop-ups, weather widgets, and wallpaper ads. It wasn’t a phone; it was clearly an ad player.

”What if we use the 360 brand name?” Zhou Hongyi gave a dry laugh. He was a smart man; how could he not know what Chen Yansen was worried about?

”That could be considered, but 360 would still have to handle the phone’s industrial and hardware design itself.”

Chen Yansen replied cautiously.

In short, he was willing to cooperate and earn the money, but Zhou Hongyi could forget about using Orange Technology as a shield.

”Alright, President Chen. I’ll contact you again later.”

Zhou Hongyi wasn’t exactly satisfied with this result, but he wasn’t disappointed either. Chen Yansen’s rejection had actually sparked the idea of making his own phone.

The 3C certification, the radio transmission equipment model approval, and the mobile phone production license—things that were a hassle for others—were a piece of cake for him.

He hadn’t been wasting his years in Yanjing. He had connections with the big shots at the Information Industry Association. Getting the paperwork done was just a matter of a few business dinners at most.

The design was even simpler!

’Where couldn’t I poach people from? Xiaomi, Meizu, OPPO, ZTE, and Huawei are all fair game.’

’Didn’t Orange Technology’s R&D department poach all its people from competitors?’

After hanging up, Chen Yansen smiled faintly.

’Looks like Lei Yijun has pushed Zhou Hongyi to the brink. He’s determined to go head-to-head with Xiaomi.’

Ten minutes later, Yu Chendong from Huawei called. He asked bluntly, ”President Chen, I’ll give the Orange Phone Factory a manufacturing order for 10 million units, but Orange Technology has to license its latest version of the memory cleanup algorithm patent to Huawei.”

Compared to Zhou Hongyi, Yu Chendong’s negotiation style was much more direct and clear.

He laid out the terms of cooperation plainly!

”I only want manufacturing orders for smartphones.”

Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

”No problem,” Yu Chendong immediately agreed.

Huawei’s total global smartphone shipments were over 50 million units a year. 10 million units was less than 20% of that.

Besides, phone manufacturing wasn’t exactly a high-end business. It was fine to hand over some of their low-to-mid-range models to the Orange Phone Factory.

And for Chen Yansen, the memory cleanup algorithm patent wasn’t a core technology patent either. If he could give it to Xiaomi, he could give it to Huawei.