National Tide 1980.

Near Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto, there is a very famous "Nanrin Onsen Ryokan".

In addition to hot springs, the place features a dry landscape garden and a new building has recently been added to the main building.

One afternoon in mid-October 1989, a suite called "Falling Snow," consisting of three rooms of about 10 square meters, was rented in the new building of "Ranrin Hot Spring Hotel." This was the hotel's most luxurious room.

The group of nine guests was transported in a mid-sized Toyota station wagon.

Shortly after dark, the group of guests were drinking and dining in the "Snowfall" suite, creating a lively, banquet-like atmosphere.

Because of the language barrier, the shopkeeper only knew that the customer was from the Republic.

Everything was normal at first; the customers were happy, and the shop owners were happy too.

However, as they spent more time together, the shopkeepers discovered the guests' unconventional lifestyles, which marked the beginning of a deeply painful nightmare for them.

First, these adults smoke regardless of the occasion, litter cigarette butts, and spit on the ground.

The children recklessly picked flowers and pulled up weeds, and littered carelessly.

Secondly, these people don't know the basic principle of cleaning their bodies before bathing in hot springs.

Moreover, while soaking in the hot spring, they even used towels and soap to scrub themselves, severely polluting the pool water. As a result, the hot spring pool had to be cleaned and the water replaced after they finished bathing, which caused other guests to complain.

What's most unbearable is that these people make loud noises without any restraint, seriously affecting the rest and experience of other guests.

It's one thing during the day, but the real problem is that they don't rest at night either; they play mahjong all night long.

The once quiet night was filled with the sounds of them playing mahjong, so much so that the restaurant owner had to change rooms for the new guests overnight, or send them drinks and food, and apologize.

So the next day, the hotel refused to let the inspection team stay any longer and forcibly sent away the guests who had booked rooms for three days, causing a very unpleasant situation.

As for who these reckless and undignified guests are?
It was none other than one of the investors of the Kyoto Tangong Restaurant, a mainland inspection team led by Gong Mingcheng.

They came to Japan at the invitation of their new partner, the Guo Group.

However, it needs to be clarified that although they were officially there to inspect the operation of the Kyoto and Osaka Dangu restaurants after the handover, they were actually just using official business as an excuse to travel in Japan.

This can be seen simply from the list of people going abroad.

In reality, only three of these eight people were actually on official business.

The only staff included the kindergarten director, Gong Mingcheng, the deputy director of the service bureau, Luan, and an accompanying translator.

The other four members were simply relatives and family members of Gong Mingcheng and Director Luan.

It's easy to imagine what kind of mentality these people, who always rely on Gong Mingcheng and Director Luan's official positions to act arrogantly, had when they went abroad, and whether they were even aware of their own problems regarding their inappropriate behavior.

Furthermore, the Guo Group had no experience with this invitation.

Unlike Ning Weimin in the past, they did not make sufficient preparations before arranging for the inspection team to go abroad.

First, we need to distribute a booklet and have someone give a few lessons to introduce the basic situation of Japanese society, so that everyone can at least understand the differences between Japanese customs and those in China, and learn some basic precautions in advance.

They didn't consider this aspect at all; they simply thought that entertaining these people and groups, giving them food, drinks, and entertainment, and providing some gifts would be enough, and that it wasn't a big deal.

If the invited person is ignorant and arrogant, and the inviter is unprepared, then it is only natural that various problems will arise and troubles will ensue during the reception process.

It can only be said that the Guo Group brought this upon themselves. They overestimated the personal qualities of Gong Mingcheng and Director Luan, which is why they invited these stubborn and troublesome "big shots" and "grandmothers" from Beijing.

Therefore, compared to the "Ranlin Hotel" owners who cut their losses in time, the one who was truly feeling the most headache and increasingly distressed was the person who represented the Guo Group and was responsible for receiving them—Wu Yunjie, the current manager of the two Tangong branches in Japan.

Wu Yunjie is a Singaporean.

Although he studied hard from a young age, he lacked natural talent, and his grades were neither good nor bad.

In addition, given his ordinary family background, he knew he had no chance of attending a prestigious university or pursuing a career in high-end fields such as medicine, law, or finance.

So he chose a safer path and went to Switzerland to study hotel management.

After graduation, he successfully entered the Shangri-La Hotel of the Guo Group with the help of his overseas degree.

As expected, thanks to his youth, competence, and academic qualifications, he quickly stood out within the hotel, rising from a regular front desk receptionist to deputy general manager of the food and beverage department in just three years.

The fact that the Guo Group sent him to Japan to manage the two restaurants of the Tangong Restaurant can be considered a promotion beyond his usual qualifications.

According to the group's hiring standards, one must have worked for at least five years to qualify for such an overseas work opportunity.

Now this opportunity has been given to him, which undoubtedly shows that he is a talent worth cultivating, and it is equivalent to giving him a chance to be promoted from a middle manager to a senior manager.

Needless to say, this was a very celebratory event for Wu Yunjie. He was very excited and cherished it greatly.

Since receiving the appointment, he has been preoccupied with how he can make a big impact in Japan and how he can adjust and manage the two Chinese restaurants he has taken over according to true international standards.

They were thinking about how to quickly improve their business data to the next level in order to prove their abilities and value.

However, once he arrived in Japan, he never expected that during the transitional months before taking over, he would be the one whose eyes were truly opened.

Frankly speaking, Ning Weimin's business strategy and operating model for Tangong Restaurant were completely different from those of most Chinese restaurants of this era.

Its core competitiveness is not as simple as finding a reliable head chef, decorating the place more luxuriously, or having stricter service requirements.

The Tan Palace Restaurant he created is a themed restaurant that is entirely based on Chinese culture and uses Beijing imperial cuisine as a gimmick.

It has the skills, the style, the fun, and the entertainment.

You could say he wasn't running a restaurant at all, but rather an all-encompassing, diverse, and multi-dimensional museum of Chinese imperial cuisine. Not only was he meticulous in selecting his staff, but even the smallest detail in the restaurant was superfluous.

Including the tableware, each item has a history and cultural background, and is a special object that reflects the characteristics of Beijing in every aspect.

It's entirely fair to say that, as the manager of Tangong Restaurant, unless one is a Beijing resident with broad interests and a deep understanding of the Forbidden City, it would be impossible to understand the restaurant's menu.

How can we then talk about improving management and making better use of these cultural characteristics?
Take Wu Yunjie, a Singaporean who grew up eating Bak Kut Teh, curry crab, and laksa, as an example.

Despite learning the most advanced restaurant management experience in Switzerland, none of what he learned was actually of any use at the Tangong Restaurant.

It's important to know that the customers of Tangong Restaurant come here to experience the taste and cultural atmosphere of Chinese imperial cuisine.

He can't even distinguish between roasted hawthorn and dried fruit, nor can he tell the difference between double-skin milk and imperial cheese. How can he be a competent manager?

It must be said that imperial cuisine is not so simple; the cultural threshold is real and quite high.

This gap cannot be bridged by Wu Yunjie, who originally knew little about Chinese culture, through a few months of intensive study.

Therefore, the more he learned about the operating methods of the Tang Palace Restaurant, the more he admired the restaurant's founder and the more anxious he became about his own future.

As the actual handover of the restaurant approached, Wu Yunjie's previous arrogance and conceit vanished, and he became incredibly humble. Behind the scenes, he did his best to retain key personnel, especially outstanding chefs.

He was genuinely worried that if too many long-term employees left, he wouldn't be able to manage the situation.

Unfortunately, although he was self-aware and had a certain personal charisma, he could not compare to Ning Weimin, the restaurant founder.

Moreover, he and these mainland employees are of different nationalities, and the time they spent together was very short, only a few months. It was impossible for them to develop an aura of dominance that would make people bow down to him, or a sense of trust that would allow them to entrust their future to him.

So in the end, most of the people who were going to leave still went to Ning Weimin as agreed.

He either went to Tokyo, or he went back to China for a few days and then went to France.

As expected, after these people left, the operation of Tangong Restaurant became much more difficult, and various side effects began to emerge.

The quality of the food, the level of service, and even the morale of the staff have all begun to decline gradually.

In particular, Ning Weimin also took away the antiques and many decorations from the two restaurants, and cut off the supply of special ingredients such as Rouge Rice, Imperial Yellow Rice, and Chestnut Mushrooms.

This move greatly disappointed many of the restaurant's regular customers, who stopped visiting altogether, which negatively impacted the restaurant's revenue.

Of course, Wu Yunjie also tried his best to reverse this downward trend, such as introducing high-end European ingredients, using gold leaf to highlight the ingredients, and finding some new decorations to fill the gaps in the restaurant's decor.

Unfortunately, these measures had little effect, as there were some things he couldn't handle on his own.

And that's not all; as the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly.

Before Wu Yunjie could come up with a good solution, Takahashi Harunori's angry retaliation followed one after another.

As a result of Ning Weimin's actions, the Tangu Restaurant in Osaka and Kyoto were deliberately targeted by Takahashi Harunori's EIE Group.

Unaware of the situation, Takahashi mistakenly believed that the two restaurants were still under Ning Weimin's management. After purchasing the restaurant's real estate, he made things extremely difficult for the Tangong Restaurant in Osaka and Kyoto, almost forcing Wu Yunjie to make the decision to relocate the restaurant.

Fortunately, Wu Yunjie was not fighting alone; he had a powerful backer, the Guo Group.

At the most critical moment, Wu Yunjie reported the situation in Japan to the Guo Group headquarters.

Representatives from Singapore contacted EIE Group's real estate division to discuss the matter, and the misunderstanding was quickly cleared up.

Subsequently, as a form of apology, the EIE Group not only hosted several banquets for the Tangong Restaurant as compensation for "accidentally harming friendly forces."

Furthermore, Ning Weimin and his side reached a partial alliance, joining forces in the entertainment industry.

In addition, in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven Park and the district service bureau are also shareholders of the Temple Palace Restaurant.

Gong Mingcheng and Director Luan have been trying to find solutions to Wu Yunjie's complaints about the lack of manpower.

In May of this year, they finally managed to send more than a dozen excellent chefs to Japan by poaching staff from other long-established restaurants in the Chongwen District, which alleviated the chef shortage problem in Japan.

Furthermore, the reputation of the Tangong Restaurant has already spread throughout Japan, and Ning Weimin has been imitating Tokyo's practices in Kyoto and Osaka, having special commission agreements with many geishas and hostesses.

Wu Yunjie continued this practice, so the Tangong Restaurant still has a basic guarantee of customers.

Especially with the help of these "restaurant touts," the Dangu Restaurant in Osaka and Kyoto, despite encountering various difficulties and experiencing a decline in revenue of about 30%, still maintained a daily revenue of over eight million yen and a gross profit margin of 50%.

This means that the two restaurants have a gross profit of at least 250 million yen per month.

Compared to other high-end restaurants of the same level, Tangong Restaurant's profits are quite considerable.

Especially after October, the catering industry enters its peak season near the end of the year, and we have received many reservations for year-end parties.

As a result, Wu Yunjie's Tangong Restaurant gradually rebounded from its lowest point and began to show signs of prosperity again.

Therefore, whether it was a reciprocal gesture or a strengthening of ties, it was based on these circumstances that Wu Yunjie extended an invitation to the two investors in Beijing, inviting Gong Mingcheng and Director Luan to Japan for an inspection trip.

Although Wu Yunjie originally did not expect that bringing in investors would have any immediate positive effect on the operation of Tangong Restaurant, or provide any practical guidance.

However, given Ning Weimin's legacy, Wu Yunjie, who was not very clear about the founding history of Tangong Restaurant, always felt that the investors who could fund such a Chinese restaurant must be people with extensive knowledge and extraordinary insight.

He still has high hopes of seeking advice from investors on restaurant operation strategies in person, believing that listening to all sides will bring clarity and at least he can learn something.

Furthermore, he also wanted to discuss with the visitor how to establish a new supply channel as soon as possible to restore the supply of special ingredients such as Japanese rouge rice, imperial yellow rice, and chestnut mushrooms. This was his main objective.

But what was the result?
It just goes to show that the saying goes, "Seeing is believing, and not seeing is even better." (End of Chapter)