Sail across the sea

Chapter 515 Perhaps I should treat you to a big meal?

Despite their complaints, Gu Kunquan and Fu Yiming felt energized after listening to Gao Fan's plan for the five business groups. As senior executives, seeing their business thriving brought them indescribable joy.

At this time, China was in the process of transitioning from a planned economy to a market economy. On the one hand, the market was full of opportunities, and as long as you worked hard, you could succeed. On the other hand, many traditional enterprises were facing challenges brought about by the transition, especially a large number of old state-owned enterprises, whose operations had fallen into serious difficulties.

Gu Kunquan and Fu Yiming both had friends who worked in old state-owned enterprises, including many of their leaders. When they occasionally ran into these friends, they would always hear them sighing and lamenting the bleak future.

In contrast, their own companies were thriving, and the young chairman could name just a few products with enormous market potential. They only wished they had three heads and six arms to turn all of Gao Fan's grand vision into reality.

Seeing the burning gazes in Gu and Fu's eyes, Gao Fan smiled and said, "Let's settle on these five business segments for now. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and I can't let you work yourselves to death."

Fu Yiming smiled wryly and said, "President Gao, if we can get things done, a little hard work is fine. To be honest, I share the same thought as Lao Gu, hoping that the company can have more business groups."

"However, to be realistic, this is all we can do right now. If we expand any further, I'm worried we might neglect one thing for another, which would be counterproductive."

Gu Kunquan chimed in, "Yes, I agree with Lao Fu's opinion. Let's do this for now. Once we've streamlined the operations of these five business groups, we can explore new directions."

"Then I'll leave things here to you both." Gao Fan clasped his hands in a fist salute to the two men.

"Don't rush!" Gu Kunquan blurted out. "President Gao, you're not thinking of just leaving after explaining all this, are you?"

Fu Yiming chuckled, looking at Gao Fan without saying a word. Gu Kunquan had been cooperating with Gao Fan since Canghai Chemical was just established, so he could speak to Gao Fan more freely.

Fu Yiming was a newcomer, and although Gao Fan addressed him as "senior brother" repeatedly, he couldn't really put on airs of being the senior brother in front of Gao Fan.

Gao Fan looked at Gu Kunquan and asked, "What, am I not going to just pack up and leave? Do you expect me to treat you to a big meal?"

"We can postpone the big meal for now," Gu Kunquan said. "You've set up five business groups like this; have you considered the manpower issue?"

"Shouldn't the manpower issue be your responsibility?" Gao Fan asked, puzzled. "You just mentioned that you've conducted extensive training exercises and that the younger generation of managers are quite mature. Why are you asking me for manpower again now?"

Gu Kunquan gestured to Fu Yiming, who coughed lightly and said, "Old Gu and I can handle the workers and managers; General Manager Gao doesn't need to worry about that. However, it's not easy to find technical personnel in Cangtang."

“In recent years, Lao Gu has emptied out the original provincial chemical engineering design institute and poached many engineers from other companies in the province. However, the common problem with these people is that their knowledge structure is somewhat outdated. They have no problem with conventional process flows. But we are worried that the new directions you have proposed this time will involve some new process methods, and these older engineers may not be able to handle them.” A new product cannot be manufactured simply by design. From design to finished product, and from small-batch to industrialization, there are many technical hurdles to overcome.

The new products that Gao Fan just listed were all researched and developed by him in Beijing. They included raw material formulas and process flows, but in actual production, many new problems still arise that require on-site engineers to solve.

This is similar to rare earth refining. The principle of the cascade extraction method proposed by Mr. Xu is not complicated, and the process is also public. However, decades later, European and American countries still cannot establish their own rare earth refining industry.

The reason is that many parameters in the extraction process need to be explored in practice. The concentration of aqueous and organic phase solutions, the liquid flow rate in different extraction sections, and the temperature control during the displacement process are all determined by the engineers on site through repeated experiments during production. These are the company's closely guarded secrets.

Western countries have been pursuing "deindustrialization" and haven't refined rare earths for decades. How easy is it to rebuild their rare earth industry chain in a hurry by simply following a few principles?
Gu Kunquan and Fu Yiming weren't originally in the chemical industry, so they didn't understand these things. But after working at Canghai Chemical for so many years, they gradually came to realize that product development is one thing, and mass production is another.

Gao Fan gave them a formula and told them to start production. How could they not be furious?
"Could you contact the Industrial University, Lao Gu? People don't care about job security as much these days. If we offer good enough terms, recruiting a group of chemical engineering graduates from the Industrial University shouldn't be a problem, right?" Gao Fan asked.

Gu Kunquan said, "We've been working on this. Just like you said, it wasn't easy for us to recruit people a few years ago because everyone cared more about job security. But in the last year or two, more and more people are looking at compensation. As long as the compensation is right, we can still recruit some people."

"But what about it?" Gao Fan asked with a smile.

Since Gu Kunquan said that, there must be a "but".

Hearing Gao Fan ask this, Gu Kunquan grinned and followed Gao Fan's words, saying, "But people recruited like this can't take on important responsibilities in a short time."

Fu Yiming added, "There are many reasons for this. First, newly recruited college graduates are bound to lack experience, that goes without saying. Second, Cangtang is a bit remote, so people with good qualifications are generally unwilling to come. Many of those who are willing to come are less capable and cannot find better jobs after graduation."

"Why don't you just say we recruited a bunch of academically challenged students?" Gao Fan couldn't help but say.

Fu Yiming said, "They're not exactly academic failures. We do select candidates when we hire. Generally speaking, if these people are properly trained and gain experience in production for a few years, they can still be of use."

Gu Kunquan said, "In general, it's a slow starter. Most people lack potential. They can follow the example without much problem, but it's very difficult to get them to think outside the box and come up with their own original ideas."

"To put it bluntly, compared to your brother-in-law Dr. Yang Kai, he is simply far inferior," Fu Yiming remarked.

(End of this chapter)