“Old Li, do you think we should buy shopping cards for the Mid-autumn Festival and National Day holidays? Do our company have spare cash?”
“it’s fine. But the cities where our factories are in do not have Tai Hua Supermarkets. The workers will not be able to use those cards.” Li Mingde replied.
“You can decide about this by yourself. Anyway, I heard that our workers are unhappy about getting the usual items. Oh, you can also give the workers shopping vouchers from other shopping malls. But don’t worry. By next year, those cities where our factories are located will have Tai Hua Supermarkets. I will let the person in charge of Bing City speak to you. You can also recommend him to other companies.”
Feng Yu would definitely support this shopping cards. All his companies will be giving our holiday gifts to the workers, and Feng Yu wants them to replace the gifts with shopping cards. His main priority now was to raise cash for Tai Hua Supermarket. This way, Tai Hua Supermarket can get a higher loan amount at the end of the year.
In this era, to get a bank loan, connections, and the cash flow for the past 3 months were required.
Now, Fu Guangzheng and the rest were scouting for suitable locations again. Once again, Feng Yu had nothing to do. He only needs to sit in the Beijing Headquarters. But if there were any issues at Tai Hua Supermarket, he will have to settle it.
A Deputy General Manager knew Feng Yu had a lot of companies and approached him to ask him to buy or reserve some shopping cards. As long as the money enters the accounts, then the banks will take note of it. This will also set an example to other companies and increase the sales of shopping cards.
Feng Yu agreed. All this while, his workers had been receiving excellent benefits and welfare. It might not be the best in China, but it should be one of the top few companies. Feng Yu also realized one problem. His companies were too scattered around China. It was still okay for the factories in the outskirts of the cities. But what about the factory in Guancheng? How are the workers going to use Tai Hua Supermarket shopping card?
Ride a train to Shenzhen or Guangzhou to visit Tai Hua Supermarket and then ride a train back?
But Fu Guanzheng had started sourcing for a suitable location in Guancheng. He believes that the population of Guancheng will increase and will become a top industrial city in the future.
Factory workers’ lives were tough, and most of them were thrifty. They like to save money by getting cheap items. They do not mind traveling a long distance to buy items only to save 10 or 20 cents.
Feng Yu continued to make phone calls.
“Manager Liu, I am Feng Yu. Are you in Beijing? I want to ask you something. Does Lenovo give out gifts for the staffs during mid-autumn and National Day holidays?”
“Ah…… We give out mooncakes and fruits during the mid-autumn festival and some groceries for the national day holidays. We also give out cash sometimes.” Liu Chuanzhi replied. He wonders why Feng Yu was asking him about this.
“Mooncakes? Do you like to eat?” Feng Yu asked.
“It’s not about whether if I like it. It is a tradition. We must eat mooncakes during the mid-autumn festival and rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival.”
“What I mean is, do you think if cash or Tai Hua Shopping cards is a better gift? The workers can go and get mooncakes themselves. I have seen last month’s financial report. Our company is doing well. We must treat our staffs better.”
“Manager Feng, I know you have shares in Tai Hua Supermarket. You want to sell your shopping cards, just say so. There is no need to beat around the bush. I will discuss with the rest and will buy a batch of shopping cards. Oh, you are in Beijing now? If you are free, can you make a trip to the company? I need to discuss something with you.”
“Ok. I do not have lessons this afternoon. I can go to the company.”
……
This was not the first time Feng Yu went to Beijing Lenovo. He does not like to come to the place. Liu Chuanzhi was too stingy. He did not even allocate an office for Feng Yu here!
Fine. Feng Yu also do not work there. He did not even attend the monthly meetings. He had only been to Beijing Lenovo once to look at the annual financial report in the meeting room. He left immediately after that. Most of the staffs there do not even know Feng Yu was the biggest shareholder of the company. They thought he was just Liu Chuanzhi’s relative.
Feng Yu arrived at Beijing Lenovo. The receptionist brought this “Mr. Feng” to the meeting room and left after pouring a cup of tea. If she knew this “Mr. Feng” was the company’s biggest shareholder, she would not show this attitude.
“Manager Feng, you are here. Do you have spare money now?” Liu Chuanzhi entered the room and asked.
Feng Yu looked at Liu Chuanzhi curiously: “What’s wrong? The company is short of cash? But I saw last month’s report. It is doing well. Is there someone selling off his shares? How much? I will buy it.”
Feng Yu will surely buy Lenovo shares if anyone sells it. Lenovo PC business was getting better, and after Win95 is introduced next year, PC will be easier to use. That’s the time when PC became popular all over the world. All government agencies, banks, companies, etc. will be purchasing PCs in large quantity. That’s the opportunity for Lenovo to take over the Chinese PC market.
Also, Lenovo PCs were equipped with optical drives much earlier than Feng Yu’s previous life. It was not an ordinary CD drive. Lenovo PCs were fitted with VCD drives. With just this feature, Lenovo PCs will be selling like hotcakes.
This was the time for Lenovo to shine. Why would anyone choose to sell their shares now?
“It is not anyone selling their shares. It is some entrepreneurs who want to set up a non-government bank. One of them is my friend. He asked me to contact you. He wants you to join them. Are you interested?”
Set up a bank? Damn! These people were crazy.
But Feng Yu suddenly remember that in his previous life, there was a non-government bank set up in China. Could this be that bank?
“I am interested. But can you let me know who the ones are in this partnership? Also, can they get all the approvals, and will the higher-ups agree?”
“The Central Government supported this. If not, I will also not ask you. The ones who suggested this are well known in the business circle. They are New Hope Group’s Liu Yonghao, Oceanwide Holdings’ Lu Zhiqiang, China Life Insurance Company, Giant Interactive Group’s Shi Dazhu and a few more. All the companies and people involved are reputable.” Liu Chuanzhi explained.
“Then how did they know about me?”
Feng Yu was also curious. He had not met most of these people mentioned by Liu Chuanzhi before. The only person he met once was Shi Dazhu, but they did not even speak to each other.
“Actually, it is Lu Zhiqiang and Liu Yonghao who approached me. They want to invite Lenovo to join them and let us take care of the bank’s software and systems. But this is a crucial time for Lenovo. All our funds have been invested back into the company, and we do not have spare funds to invest in the bank. But I think this is a good opportunity. So, I recommended you to them. I think in terms of finances, you should be one of the richest among them.”
Liu Chuanzhi had been guessing how much money Feng Yu has. Although he did not have any figure in mind, he knew Feng Yu was the third biggest shareholder of Microsoft.
Feng Yu also owns factories and companies all over China. He should have lots of connections. If Feng Yu joined this venture, then the bank should be able to develop smoothly. This was the reason why Liu Chuanzhi called Feng Yu over to tell him.
“What will be the name of this bank?”
“China Minsheng Bank!”
