Sail across the sea

Chapter 391: Even if I sell everything I own, I can’t get it

At noon, Xiao Ping instructed Song Xingkang to arrange a sumptuous yet low-key lunch to entertain Gao Fan and Xu Dan. More than a dozen institute leaders and the directors of the eight research labs under their jurisdiction were notified to attend. Two tables were set up in the small canteen of the Zeyan Institute.

When everyone arrived for dinner, they were quite surprised and disdainful to see that the so-called "VIPs" were just two young boys, whose combined age was less than their own. However, when they learned that one of the boys was the much-discussed prodigy from Luping, who had made hundreds of millions of yuan for the province with ease—a rumor, of course—and had even helped his father get promoted three times in two years, everyone was shocked.

In the afternoon, the Zeyan Institute held an expanded meeting of institute affairs. Xiao Ping first introduced Gao Fan's suggestion to transform the rare earth laboratory into an operating entity and conduct a pilot enterprise operation. Then, he asked Gao Fan to introduce the operating experience of Canghua Science and Trade.

People's understanding of Canghua Science and Trade is limited to the lavish praise in newspapers and the anecdotes that have been passed down seventy or eighty times. Now, hearing the person in charge's own words, they realize that it's really nothing special. They just have some technology, sold it, and made some money...

"Our Zeyan Institute also has this technology!"

"Our pulsed high-gradient magnetic separator is admired even by the Japanese."

"The last time the Japanese said they wanted to cooperate with us, but I don't know how it fell through."

"I heard that the head office couldn't reach an agreement with them."

"In my opinion, it was lucky that the deal didn't go well back then. With the traitorous spirit of those people at the head office, they would have definitely given away the technology for free and even helped them count the money."

"Manager Gao is really amazing. He managed to get a cleaning agent into the Japanese market. That's incredible."

"In my opinion, we should just hire Manager Gao and have him help us make some money."

"That's right. Last time, a boss from Takasu told me that we're sitting on a mountain of gold and begging for food."

"..."

A murmur of discussion broke out in the conference room, growing louder and louder until it drowned out Gao Fan's voice. Seeing that everyone had started their own little meeting, Gao Fan simply stopped talking and looked at Xiao Ping with a helpless expression.

Xiao Ping merely gave Gao Fan an apologetic look, without stopping the discussion. After everyone had chatted for a good ten minutes, having said what they needed to say, they gradually stopped talking. Only then did Xiao Ping tap the microphone in front of him and say:
"Comrades, the discussion just now was very lively. It seems that the valuable experience that Manager Gao shared with us has given everyone a lot of inspiration."

"Before the meeting, a few of us leaders met and came up with a preliminary plan: to follow Manager Gao's suggestion, split the rare earth laboratory, establish a separate entity, and conduct a pilot operation."

"Other research labs will maintain the old model for now, but each lab must take stock of its own technology inventory to see which technologies can be developed and commercialized, and come up with a practical business plan. Our approach is to launch each research lab that proves commercially viable as it matures, operating on the principle of independent management and self-financing. In other words, as the newspapers say, we're going to go surfing and ride the waves."

"Our ultimate goal is to transform the entire Zeyan Institute into a technology-driven enterprise, so that we will no longer need to ask the government for money."

"Manager Gao's labor service company only has about 200 unemployed young people. Not only can they not rely on their original factories for funding, but they can also pay tens of millions of yuan in taxes to the state. Our Zeyan Institute has more than 400 people, nearly 200 of whom have intermediate or senior professional titles. How can we not support ourselves?"

“Director Xiao, our environmental protection department doesn’t need to check any technical inventory. The mining wetting agent we’re developing is already a very mature technology. If the department can invest around 100,000 yuan to build a factory, and the annual profit is less than 500,000 yuan, I, as the department head, will resign voluntarily.”

Zhu Jian, director of the Environmental Protection Research Office, stood up and said to Xiao Ping.

He was clearly agitated; his speech was somewhat slurred. He'd probably been pondering this for a long time, and today he simply had to get it off his chest.

Upon hearing Zhu Jian speak, several department heads also wanted to stand up and speak, but noticing others making similar movements, they opted to raise their hands to ask permission to speak. Everyone present was experienced in meetings and knew how to handle this situation.

Xiao Ping glanced at the hands raised high, but didn't call on anyone. Instead, he smiled and said to Gao Fan, "Manager Gao, the power of your example is truly boundless. Zeyan Institute hasn't had such a lively meeting in many years. Look, everyone wants to speak up."

Gao Fan said, "The country has proposed that the socialist economy is a planned commodity economy, so research institutes must also move towards the commodity market. This is an inevitable trend. Those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. The Chinese market is still a market with shortages, and there are opportunities everywhere. The sooner you go out, the sooner you can profit. Once the market is saturated or even in surplus, it will be too late to go out."

"Manager Gao is absolutely right. No wonder you're a top student from Peking University; your vision is much broader than ours, the technicians from these remote mountain villages." Xiao Ping praised Gao Fan, then changed the subject, saying, "However, we do face some difficulties. For example, Director Zhu just mentioned the need to develop a wetting agent for mining."

“I am familiar with this technology. I can say without hesitation that it is absolutely leading in China and also quite advanced internationally. However, building a factory to produce this wetting agent, although the investment is only a few hundred thousand yuan, is a huge burden for our Zeyan Institute. We can't afford it even if we sell everything we own.”

Upon hearing his words, everyone turned their attention to Gao Fan. Everyone knew that the director wouldn't feign poverty in front of a young man for no reason; his words clearly indicated he saw Gao Fan as a fat sheep and intended to take advantage of him.

Zeyan Institute is a poor institution. The annual funding allocated by the province is only a little over one million yuan, most of which is for personnel expenses, namely staff salaries and some necessary office expenses.

Sometimes, undertaking national research projects can bring some special project funding, but that money is earmarked for specific purposes and can only be used to buy equipment, raw materials, or pay for external collaborations. If the institute wants to squeeze out a little bit of it for bonuses, they have to come up with clever pretexts and risk being criticized by superiors.

This young man in front of me manages a company that generates tens of millions of dollars in foreign exchange annually. He has plenty of money; even a hair on his leg is thicker than Zeyan Institute's arm.

(End of this chapter)