Chapter 176: The problems of Jieke Company (Part 1)

Zhou Ming and Tang Ran drove to Otto Building, a relatively famous office building on the streets of Palo Alto. Palo Alto is located between San Francisco and Santa Clara. originally just an ordinary farm, but later, due to the establishment of Hewlett-Packard here, it triggered the subsequent great development of Silicon Valley. Today, there are many high-tech companies located here, so Palo Alto is also known as the centre of Silicon Valley.

California Street is the central street of Palo Alto, and the centre of the centre of Silicon Valley. Zhou Ming and Tang Ran went up to the 19th floor of the Otto Building, where Tang Ran's soon-to-be-taken-over company, Jieke, is located.

As the largest company on this floor, the Jieke company sign is directly in front of the elevator, so you can see it as soon as the elevator door opens. In front of the sign, there is a young man waiting, tall and thin, with glasses.

Zhou Ming and Tang Ran stepped out of the elevator. The young man saw them and paused for a moment, then took two steps forward and asked uncertainly, 'Are you Ms. Tang Ran and Mr. Zhou Ming?'

Zhou Ming nodded and replied, 'She is Tang Ran, and I am Zhou Ming.'

Having received the answer, the young man let out a sigh of relief: 'Hello, my name is Cheng Qian, and I was the previous head of Jieke. I'm sorry you came so suddenly, it caught me off guard. Otherwise, I would have picked you up at the airport and taken you to the company together.'

'The previous person in charge? You are the current CEO of Jieke, right? There is no need to be embarrassed about admitting it, after all, you did not cause Jieke to become what it is now.' Zhou Ming waved his hand and continued, 'Besides, I don't think there is anything to prepare for. It will be whatever it will be. Even if you prepare for it as best as you can, the actual situation will not be like that. It seems that it is not useful, is it?'

Zhou Ming's words made the young man named Cheng Qian first stunned, and then nodded and said, 'Indeed, no matter how you whitewash the situation, you cannot hide the truth, especially after I leave Jieke in the future.'

At this point, Cheng Qian seemed to realise that he had said something he shouldn't have, so he immediately took Zhou Ming and Tang Ran into the company. Originally, Cheng Qian had meant to go to the meeting room and ask the company staff to come and meet each other in a group meeting, but Zhou Ming told him to take them to each office. Cheng Qian did not understand Zhou Ming's request before the meeting, but since they were sent by the Tang family, he, a man with a different surname, could not say much and could only follow orders.

They walked from the outside to the inside, so the first place they entered was the Marketing Department office, which was the outermost office.

It was a very large office, about half the size of a basketball court, but only a handful of people were sitting at their desks, talking on the phone, or buried in paperwork.

Cheng Qian explained: 'This is the company's largest office, and it originally had many marketing staff. However, as the company's situation continued to worsen, and layoffs continued, only these people were left. Compared to the others, their performance is still quite good.'

After saying this, Cheng Qian clapped his hands, and the five salesmen all stood up from their seats and came over. Cheng Qian then introduced them: 'This is Ms. Tang Ran Ms. Tang Ran and Mr. Zhou Ming. They will take over the company in the future on behalf of me. They are professional managers appointed by the board of directors. As long as you work hard with them, I believe Jackel Company will be even better!'

'Please rest assured, Mr. Cheng, we will cooperate sincerely with our new superiors and do our best to do every job with a positive attitude!' One of them stepped forward and took the lead.

'This is our marketing manager, Fu Tao. He became manager step by step thanks to his marketing skills and the recognition of our customers,' Cheng Qian introduced to Zhou Ming and Tang Ran.

Following Cheng Qian's introduction, Fu Tao came forward and said, 'Hello Ms. Tang Ran and Mr. Zhou Ming, I'm Fu Tao. I'm very happy to meet you here. Please forgive me for being blunt, but I think our marketing department is the best part of the company. whether it was during the company's glorious past or later on in its decline, I think our marketing department has never given up on the company. It can be said that we will always support the company, in the past, present and future!'

In response, Zhou Minghe and Tang Ran just nodded without saying anything, which made Cheng Qian a little surprised, because he originally thought that since Zhou Minghe and Tang Ran had come, they would give a passionate speech to motivate the staff. That was the purpose of their initiative to visit each office. But he didn't expect that they had no desire to speak at all. Why?

But surprised as he was, Cheng Qian didn't know Zhou Ming and Tang Ran very well, so he just had to go along with what they were doing. He patted Fu Tao's shoulder to indicate that he should continue working with his colleagues.

The second place that Cheng Qian took Zhou Ming and Tang Ran to was the technology and research and development office. From the sign on the door of the office, it was clear that this was a department that had just been merged, and Cheng Qian's introduction also proved this point very well.

'To be honest, this was originally just a technical office that provided technical advice to all the company's clients. However, due to continuous layoffs, it has now merged with the R&D office have merged, and there are only three people left. However, although the number is small, they are all the elite retained by the company. I personally appreciate their abilities, and I believe that as long as they are there, no matter what difficulties there are, they can solve them.'

Cheng Qian said as he led Zhou Ming into the office. Inside was an old-young configuration, although the old one was actually just in his thirties or early forties compared to the two younger people.

The technology and R&D office is followed by the finance office. Unlike the two offices in front, there is only one middle-aged woman with glasses in this office. Cheng Qian introduced Zhou Ming, 'This is the company's accountant and cashier, Ms. Susan. She is also an old employee of the company. She is not only very conscientious and responsible at work, but also relatively able to express her own thoughts.'

It seemed seem to be trying to prove that Cheng Qian's introduction is typical. After Cheng Qian finished speaking, Susan looked up and said, 'Mr. Cheng, what about the promise to hire an additional accountant? You Jieke is not a small company. It has a lot of accounts every day. Even if I don't go for coffee, I won't be able to finish all this work in eight hours. If you can't keep your promise, I can guarantee you that I won't work overtime, no matter how much you pay me.'

Susan was a little embarrassed by Cheng Qian's words. He said, 'I'm sorry, Ms. Susan, but it's not that I don't want to keep my promise, but there have been changes to my work. The person who will take over the company next is this Ms. Tang Ran.'

'Okay Tang, I hope you can pay a little more attention to accounting, otherwise I guarantee the tax authorities will be knocking on your door tomorrow to help you with your books.' Susan then continued to work with her head bowed.

In response Cheng Qian shrugged embarrassedly and said, 'As I said, Ms. Susan is more capable of expressing her thoughts, but she is still very serious and responsible about her work. She is also very familiar with the company's accounts and has been with the company since it was founded.'

'So then if you don't hire her an assistant, will she really go on strike?' Tang Ran suddenly asked.

Cheng Qian shook his head and said, 'I'm sorry, I can't judge this, because I've never heard of such a situation before. However, given his personality, I am a bit worried.'

Zhou Ming silently noted: 'Not only is she serious about her work, it seems she is also serious about herself.'

'There is one last office, that of the company's vice president. She and I manage the company together, but she does more work managing the company's logistics.'

Cheng Qian knocked on the door of the last office while leading Zhou Ming and Tang Ran. They met the only vice president of Jieke Company. Contrary to Zhou Ming and Tang Ran's expectations, the vice president was not a balding middle-aged man, nor a young man with a lot of energy, nor a middle-aged woman, but a very young and pretty girl. If Cheng Qian hadn't said anything beforehand, anyone would have said that she was Cheng Qian's mistress.

From the vice vice-president's office, Cheng Qian said to Zhou Ming and Tang Ran, 'In addition to the company's offices in the Otto Building, it also has an electronics factory in the Dongpaluo District but after successive layoffs, the factory has almost stopped working, and there are only seven regular workers left. If there is any rush work, they have to rent it from other companies.'

As for the word 'hire', Cheng Qian also felt very embarrassed: 'There's nothing we can do about it. After all, the situation is very bad.'

Zhou Ming shook his head to show that he didn't care. He glanced at the time and asked, 'It's already half past four, and I'll be off soon. If you don't have any other plans, Mr. Cheng Qian, I wonder if I could invite you to have dinner with me?'

At Zhou Ming's invitation, Cheng Qian originally wanted to refuse, but could not resist Zhou Ming's invitation, and he finally agreed. So more than half an hour later, they were sitting in a private room in a Chinese restaurant on California Street.

After the food, Cheng Qian said, 'I would like to thank Ms. Tang Ran and Mr. Zhou Ming for your hospitality, but please forgive me for being blunt. As the future managers of Jieke, you should invite other people to dinner, or perhaps some of the middle management, because I am the one who is leaving Jieke soon, and I will not have much influence on Jieke.'

'I others I will also invite, after all, I have just met them all. We are all Chinese, and some superficial politeness is still necessary. But today, I think it is also necessary to invite Mr. Cheng Qian,' said Zhou Ming.

'This It's because Mr. Zhou Ming or Ms. Tang Ran, you have a lot of questions you want to ask me, right?' Cheng Qian asked.

Zhou Ming was not surprised that Cheng Qian was able to guess, and Zhou Ming was not surprised, because he had never hidden his thoughts. He just shook his head and replied, 'There are definitely questions, but not that many. I just want to ask you, what do you think is the biggest problem with Jieke? Or why do you think he has fallen to this point?'

Facing this question, Cheng Qian revealed a helpless smile: 'This is a big question, and it is definitely not something that can be answered in a single sentence.'

Zhou Ming shrugged, 'It doesn't matter, because we're in a restaurant, and I think I have enough time to hear you tell this story.'

Cheng Qian smiled again, and then he said, 'Well, I think that with your intelligence, Mr. Zhou Ming, you have probably guessed that Jackel's biggest problem is these employees.'