Chapter 253 Mid-spring
March 1994, 3, a Sunday, was the Waking of Insects.

It is the month of mid-spring, a sign of growth and development. Thunder has already exploded, and drizzling rain is floating between heaven and earth.

Liansheng on the 4th floor of Yanquan Building is extremely lively.

After Longjingyuan resumed work, various business units of Liansheng began to recruit employees on a large scale. Many former dealers also came here to discuss business and place orders. The office was crowded every day, but the chairman's office in the innermost room was very quiet.

Ji Ling was sitting on a large sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. She was wearing a white sweater, a black hoodie and black leggings. Her long, straight legs were curled up on the sofa, and she was doing her homework with a workbook. Occasionally, she would hold up her delicate chin with a nonchalant look, watching the spring rain falling outside the window and the rosy river.

Zhang Yunqi sat in front of the brown-red desk, doing nothing, looking at Ji Ling. He came to Liansheng today to attend a meeting, and this girl was bored and insisted on following him to the company.

Ji Ling suddenly turned around and said, "Xiao Zhang, fresh bamboo shoots are about to grow in my hometown. I want to go there to dig wild bamboo shoots."

Zhang Yunqi was stunned: "Sure, let's go after Qingming Festival."

Ji Ling squinted her eyes and smiled.

Zhang Yunqi asked: "By the way, why haven't I seen you go to learn guitar and practice singing on weekends recently?"

Ji Ling said: "I don't want to practice anymore."

Zhang Yunqi said happily: "You are an art student, you have to make a living from this, how can you just say you don't want to practice?"

Ji Ling curled her lips: "Xiao Zhang, please stop being so vulgar, okay? Who says that hobbies have to be eaten? Hobbies are just hobbies. Besides, even if I can't afford to eat in the future, with our close friendship, you are such a rich man, don't you know how to support me?"

Zhang Yunqi laughed in silence: "Okay, no problem, but since you don't want to make a living from music, what's the purpose of learning to sing?"

Ji Ling held her delicate chin with her hand, thought for a while, tilted her head and smiled, "Sing for myself, sing for someone I like in the future. If possible, I would like to be a music teacher in a mountain primary school and sing for the children there. Oh, and I also want to learn painting, and teach those children in the mountains who can't afford it."

Zhang Yunqi smiled: "The dream is great."

He raised his hand and checked the time: "We'll talk about this later. I have to go to a meeting. Wait here for me. I'll take you to eat something delicious later."

Ji Ling waved his hand and said, "Go ahead."

When Zhang Yunqi left the office and came to the conference room, more than 40 employees were already in place. Except for Li Jilin and Zhang Qiulan, the rest were employees of the marketing department. At present, the Longjingyuan canning factory has been successfully put into operation, and the Yunxi Village crop planting professional cooperative has also been established. Zhang Yunqi is now concerned about only one issue - how to sell the newly launched Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce series canned products.

Last year, Longjingyuan dumped its overstocked canned food at a discount price through various promotional activities with prizes, and recovered more than 2 million yuan of hard-earned money. It was a huge loss, losing money to gain publicity. But it had to be done this way. If it was not sold, once it expired, it would be fed to rats, and not a penny could be recovered. On the other hand, Longjingyuan had a debt of nearly 10 million yuan, which did not include the wages of employees and the resettlement fees of some laid-off employees. If it did not do this, Liansheng might not be able to survive for a month.

As for the current situation, there is still more than one million yuan in Liansheng's account. With such a large business, the expenses of nearly 300 employees and the tiered repayment of the historical legacy payments from suppliers cannot withstand a few months of tossing. Of course, the bank's debt can still be forcibly suspended through negotiation with the district government. After all, the bank will not really force Longjingyuan into bankruptcy. It is too late for it to pay for it. The more money it owes, the more trouble it has.

You know, many enterprises in Jiangchuan, especially state-owned enterprises, are debtors of local banks, and many are on the verge of bankruptcy. They cannot repay their loans, and their loans have become bad debts. In order to ease the contradiction between unemployment and layoffs, and to increase the loan balance so that it does not quickly become a bad debt, banks know that the enterprises are doomed, but they cannot let them go bankrupt, liquidate and auction to recover the loans. They even have to bite the bullet and continue to lend money. This is like a dying person who owes you money. You know that there is no cure, but you still continue to lend him money for medical treatment.

These thorny problems are already deeply rooted and entangled. How can they be solved? There are many solutions. The restructuring of the property rights system of state-owned enterprises is spontaneous and decentralized, so the reform methods are also rich and diverse, such as shareholding reform, shareholding cooperative system, foreign joint ventures, operator acquisition, transfer of part of state-owned shares to employees, etc., but any solution will erode the interests of some people, not to mention the interests of the real shareholders, the Chinese people! If you want to reform, then you can try to save the dead horse, but if you really want to kill this "dead horse" with many blood-sucking worms lying on it to suck blood, you will be criticized in the future!
Zhang Yunqi also knew that as the first pilot of state-owned enterprise property rights reform in Jiangchuan City, which Yang Jiarong strongly advocated, Longjingyuan Canning Factory was acquired by a private enterprise. Whether Longjingyuan could survive this test and become a typical example of state-owned enterprise property rights reform in Jiangchuan City was related to the overall situation and environment of state-owned enterprise reform in Jiangchuan City. Once it failed, negative public opinion in society would be overwhelming, the confidence of the reformists would be severely damaged, and the reform ideas of state-owned enterprises would regress and continue to revolve around the reform of internal management mechanisms and the contracting of operating rights. This was a fatal problem for Jiangchuan City's economic development, the clearing of triangular debts, the protection of people's livelihood and employment, and the relief of local finances from difficulties and burdens.

Of course, the road is tortuous, but the future is bright. After several months of rectification and upgrading, Longjingyuan has completed the separation of production and sales, and divided it into three major sectors: raw material supply, production and processing, and marketing. In terms of production and processing, Longjingyuan has launched a series of new canned products of black bean chili sauce, and the raw material supply has created the Yunxi Village Crop Planting Professional Cooperative Project. The overall direction should be fine and on the right track.

For Zhang Yunqi, the core issue facing Longjingyuan Cannery right now is how to rectify its marketing.

As a state-owned enterprise, Longjingyuan had many problems in the past, and the most prominent problem was its weak marketing ability. This was a problem caused by the management system and there was no solution, because Longjingyuan's canned food had a targeted sales channel before, so what was the point of marketing?
Now that Longjingyuan has completed privatization, all canned foods must be circulated and sold in the market, so it is necessary to build a complete marketing system. Compared with state-owned enterprises of that era, this is also the advantage of private enterprises. After the Longjingyuan canning factory resumed work, Zhang Yunqi set up functional departments such as the sales department, channel operation department, customer service department, marketing planning department, and logistics distribution department under the general framework of the market operation department. Sales is responsible for the establishment of the market distribution system and the development of agency sales points, channel operations are responsible for assisting national distributors to explore terminal sellers, and customer service is for canned users. On the one hand, it solves quality and safety problems such as product deterioration and taste change for customers, and on the other hand, it collects product opinions in order to improve product quality and taste.

Many of the people attending today's marketing meeting were newly recruited employees, and it was Zhang Yunqi's first time to hold a meeting with them. The rest were elite soldiers transferred from Lianzhong and old employees of Longjingyuan. Everyone was talking and laughing, but when they saw Zhang Yunqi walk in, they all stood up and greeted him, "Hello, Chairman." Then the meeting room fell silent. On weekdays, no one had any contact with this boss who rarely showed up. Most of the basic employees had never said a word to him, and he looked so young, which inevitably created a sense of mystery and seriousness in their hearts.

After Zhang Yunqi sat down at the head of the group, he smiled and said, "Everyone please sit down. It's better for the company to be a little flatter. I'm also a young man and I don't care about those red tapes. I should be serious when I should be serious and relax when I should be relaxed. If there are any problems, I will talk about them. It's best to be direct and simple. As for calling everyone to hold this meeting today, there is actually only one purpose, which is how to sell our company's canned products. This is everyone's expertise and strength. I'm here to talk to you about the characteristics of our company's new product, the black bean chili sauce series canned products, as well as the company's strategic planning layout for this year. I hope to help you broaden your thinking and make better plans."

Zhang Yunqi continued, "In the past, the main material of Longjingyuan canned food was meat, which was costly and naturally expensive. Only middle- and high-end consumers were willing to buy it frequently, and the audience range was small. What about now? The price reduction of the Longjingyuan black bean chili sauce series canned food we launched is very large. Although there is not much meat, it is just a condiment, but everyone has eaten it. It is delicious and suits the spicy taste of people in southern Hunan. So what is the core competitive advantage of our new canned food compared to other canned foods? What is the pain point? I think it is that the price is low enough while the taste is good! In this way, our audience will be wider and ordinary people can afford it. So, who are our potential main consumer groups?"

"Ordinary people." said an employee.

"Yes, ordinary people, hundreds of millions of ordinary people from cities to rural areas. Therefore, our marketing and advertising strategies should not be fancy. You should change your mindset. The canned food we sell should have high-end quality, but it is not a high-end thing. It is just a condiment, and its bottle is a practical product. It is friendly enough, delicious and practical, and ordinary people can afford it. This is the core competitiveness of our Longjingyuan hot sauce series canned food. If one day, Longjingyuan hot sauce canned food can become a must-have in the kitchens of ordinary people all over China, just like firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, then we will be successful."

Zhang Yunqi continued, "Now let's talk about the company's strategic goals for the new year. In the past, Longjingyuan was only operating in a few cities and counties near Jiangchuan. Now, our goal is to target the national market. We must become the leader in this industry! Therefore, our top priority right now is to build up the distribution channels in Xiangnan Province as soon as possible, so as to expand beyond Xiangnan Province."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi glanced at the new faces in the conference room, but he did not sense any pressure or urgency from their expressions. He said, "I hope that some of the employees present here will not be suspicious after hearing this, thinking that I am just like the bosses of the companies you have worked for before, who always brag and talk big in meetings and do not take things seriously. Mr. Li and Mr. Zhang are here too, and I can tell you directly that in terms of building distribution channels, other provinces are counted separately, but in the two major markets of Southern Hunan and Northern Hunan, the minimum goal I have set for them is to take more than 80% of the market share within this year."

The conference room became extremely quiet, with only Zhang Yunqi's voice: "If I remember correctly, there are 13 prefecture-level cities and 122 county-level divisions in Xiangnan Province. The data is here. As for how Zhang Qiulan will divide your performance targets, I don't know yet, but we can let the results speak for themselves. Those who complete the performance targets will be rewarded according to their merits. For those who fail to complete them, I will not deduct the basic salary, but please take the initiative to submit your resignation report."

******
(End of this chapter)