this man is not calm

Chapter 487 Dreams and Reality

The images in many mythological stories that appear in history are not static. Before the Tang and Song dynasties, Erlang Shen was not called Yang Jian, but the legends of Guankou Erlang and Qingyuan Dao Miao Zhenjun have always existed. He is one of the most important gods in folk worship for nearly a thousand years.

Stories such as splitting the mountain to save the mother and carrying the mountain to catch up with the sun, etc., would not be affected by their circulation even if the world originally did not have masterpieces such as "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods" written in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

One of the most important goals of creating the universe of classical mythology is to systematically compile its characters and give them richer connotations.

Erlang Shen Yang Jian's presence in "The Investiture of the Gods" is not very high, but he was given many roles in "Journey to the West". As the TV series has been rebroadcast again and again, his influence is almost comparable to that of the main cast of the journey to the west.

"You're really polite. If you want to take something, take the best one."

"For a special effects blockbuster, of course you have to choose the best from the best. Everything starts with difficulty. Once the first one is done, the rest will follow."

"If you really want to do it, you can be the producer and promoter, but I'll assign someone to control the direction of the screenwriter and supervisor. Now... it's actually a little early. I originally planned to wait two years until there are more 3DiMAX theaters before starting. I have a complete plan for IP development, and I can't mess around with it."

"How can that be called fooling around? I personally checked it. With hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, who would dare to be careless?"

Nan Dalong patted his chest and assured:
"I don't really understand cultural people's business, but I am absolutely serious about business. Besides... you are also the art consultant of Changdi Culture. Isn't it natural for you to control the direction of subject matter development?"

“Okay, you ask the company to issue a formal letter, and I’ll have the content development team evaluate it.”

Xiao Biao is indeed good at talking. After a few years in the entertainment industry, he has become more and more adept at socializing. However, it is of little use to Jin Shang.

With the current domestic annual box office of over 1 billion yuan, two or three blockbusters are enough, there is no need to make more.

Investing in movies is extremely risky, and only a small portion of the cost can be recovered.

Movie tickets are expensive, there are few moviegoers, and ordinary people have no money in their pockets. Spending twenty or thirty yuan is really a bit of a stretch.

Another problem is that the industry chain is immature, and theater chains' publicity and promotion control is basically unconventional. The clarity of current digital cameras and digital projectors is far inferior to that of film, and copies are extremely expensive, resulting in the main means for producers to recover their investment being to sell copies.

As for the box office sharing model, it can only be piloted in a few modern cinemas.

In small towns in remote areas, there is no online supervision and no energy for on-site inspections, so the prices, attendance rates, actual box office and so on are all left to others to decide.

Implementing the profit-sharing model under such circumstances would be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth, from which there would be no return.

It's already very conscientious of them to be slow in stealing the box office revenue. There are even more ruthless ones who directly report the losses and then insist on returning the second-hand copies. Will you accept them or not?

Even in another ten years, it will probably be difficult to achieve perfection and accuracy, so let's not demand too much now.

As for investing in TV dramas, it is hard to say that it makes money. The country is currently in a stage of insufficient demand overall, but not all TV dramas can be broadcast.

It is difficult to release the film, the unit price is low, and the payback period is long.

If it weren't for Jin Shang's endorsement, despite his acquaintances in TV stations and the entertainment industry, it's hard to say whether he could have grown big and strong quickly.

No one says hello, it's not easy to settle the bill and pay the final payment, the payment period is too long, the profit is low, and the turnover is slow. After a year or two, a film and television company without strength will collapse.

Of course, for investors, it seems too difficult to make a profit, but for practitioners, there is a lot of room for operation.

As the saying goes, a poor temple but a rich abbot.

Jin Shang and the Nan brothers have been very considerate. This is not a one-time deal, but a long-term business, so they need to be careful about their manners.

In addition, Jinxi Culture does not have any direct or in-depth entanglement with the actual projects of the Nan brothers. After all, they are two independent corporate entities.

Sometimes Jin Shang also thought that if Changdi Culture seriously sought to be listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, it would have to choose a good time to cash out.

If an individual holds too much stock, it is likely to trigger related-party transaction risks, which is also quite troublesome.

After seeing off the satisfied Nan Dalong, Jin Shang took a rare moment to carefully consider Jin Xi Culture, its various shareholding companies, and Jin Shang's personal assets.

"I need to set up some "firewalls". It wasn't necessary before, or it wasn't urgent. But now... the film and entertainment industry is a place of fame and fortune under the spotlight. I personally need fame to speak for myself, but I can't let the public know too much about my worth!"

True or false rumors are not a big deal, but if the net worth of a billionaire is confirmed by the annual report of a listed company, it will more or less affect the image of Jin Shang as an opinion leader that he is trying to create.

……

The northernmost end of the Grand Canal, which runs through the north and south, is Tongzhou, southeast of the capital.

The rise of shipping has seriously affected local development. The diversion of the Yellow River to the north more than a hundred years ago caused serious siltation in the northern section of the canal. For various considerations, in the dispute over "diversion" and "restoration", the "diversion" that was left to nature was finally chosen. It took a long time to slowly recover, but the capacity and importance of the canal are no longer as good as before.

Even so, the logistics company under Jinxi Culture still chose to acquire a port terminal here as a freight hub connecting the north and the south.

At this time in the previous life, the northern section of the canal had been completely abandoned. After receiving water from the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, it was completely cut off due to siltation of the Yellow River and the rise of the riverbed.

It's not so bad now. The northern section has become a tourist route during the dry season, but it is still usable most of the time. At least cargo ships over 500 tons can pass, and most of the time ships of 1,000 tons can pass. The long-term vision is to control the Yellow River, let the river flow north, dig deeper waterways, and allow large ships of more than 2,000 tons to pass. This goal has already been achieved in the southern section.

Under the current conditions, for Jinxi Mall, it is basically equivalent to enjoying the transportation capacity of a double-track railway. The timeliness is slightly worse, but the cost is much lower than that of a train car.

It only takes a little more time to reduce logistics costs, and there is no need to wait for large ships to deliver goods. This is indeed suitable for small and medium-sized batches of goods with low costs, low terminal selling prices, which are very sensitive to fluctuations but do not require a high shelf life.

Jiang Long, who had just returned from an on-site inspection, walked into the logistics headquarters office carrying a pile of documents waiting to be signed and approved. He saw General Manager Wei Shuangping standing in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, gazing into the distance. Unfortunately, her view was blocked by the buildings, and she could not see the container trucks coming and going or the dock in the fog and haze.

"Mr. Wei..."

"Manager Jiang, thank you for your hard work."

The large quantities of tea seed oil, rapeseed oil, iced black tea, white wine, and rice wine that are unloaded need to be properly stored and planned for delivery.

Every once in a while, a large amount of supplies from the south will be delivered, including huge amounts of beef, milk, milk powder, mutton and wine. This back and forth transportation has been going on for almost a year. The routes are familiar, the ports are quite sophisticated, and everyone is accustomed to such efficiency.

It’s just that the value of the goods this time is particularly outstanding, so there is no need to worry too much about the nectarines, watermelons and seasonal vegetables from more than two months ago.

After putting the documents down, Jiang Long sat opposite the desk, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and let out a long sigh.

"It's already September, and it's still so hot..."

"It's the hottest autumn season, the weather this year is very unusual..." After sighing, Wei Shuangping reached out to pick up the teacup, but found that the water in it had already gone cold. After putting it down helplessly, she said slowly,

"The workload is getting bigger and bigger. Central China has added another 500 medium-sized box trucks, the Yangtze River Delta has added another 800, and the capital has added another 1,200. It's a huge expense."

"Fortunately, I didn't take it out all at once."

Speaking of this, Jiang Long also took a breath of cold air.

With the establishment of warehousing, most of the cash flow of Jinxi Mall was absorbed. Fortunately, most of it was turned into movable and immovable properties such as land, warehouses, infrastructure, commodities and trucks. Money must be spent in a valuable way, otherwise it will be wasted.

Even so, Wei Shuangping has a heavy burden on her shoulders.

While balancing human resources and expenditures, it is also necessary to ensure the smooth operation of the e-commerce platform. Then there are the big revenue drivers - the self-operated mall, which is also plagued by problems.

Fortunately, with the passage of time, the cost has dropped a lot. For example, white goods, game consoles, brand assembled computers, mobile phones, PHS, laptops and MP3s have finally crossed the break-even line and started to make money.

Only by shipping in large volumes can we spread out costs and thereby suppress suppliers, purchase goods at low prices or extend payment terms.

Then, the R&D department has begun to have actual output. A small part of the mainboards, circuit boards, sensors and low-end chips can already be self-produced, designed and outsourced or replaced by domestic products, which has gradually reduced the manufacturing cost. Although the yield rate has been slightly reduced, it is acceptable.

Another thing that makes Jin Shang happy is that the brand value of the "Today and Tonight" series has begun to add a premium to its products, and more and more old customers are beginning to accept it.

Jinxi Mall is now also enjoying some of the benefits. The popularity of the brand flagship store has skyrocketed, and the authenticity sign has been put forward. Compared with other mixed and unknown peers, it is obviously much more legitimate.

"Manager Jiang, please take care of the warehouse. There are so many people and we don't know what will happen. By the way, have you dealt with the issues of returns and exchanges and goods that are due to expire?"

"Well, it's not a big problem. Some warehouse management has loopholes. There are no problems with large items, but there are some discrepancies in beverages, instant noodles, daily necessities and material losses."

"That's good. We should nip it in the bud to avoid a big problem."

Nowadays, the cheapest licensed large color TV costs three to four thousand yuan. Large items such as air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. are all in limited quantities, and there is no way to cheat. However, items such as laundry detergent, diapers, beverages, and non-staple food are not of high value per unit, and there are logistics losses, so there is a certain amount of room for manipulation, and one can get them by taking advantage of the time difference.

For example, returns and exchanges, food that is about to reach its expiration date, daily necessities that are improperly stored or contaminated, etc., can be divided up privately by a few people colluding, and the amount of money can be embezzled like ants moving house, and over time, the amount can amount to a lot.

Large items won’t work because they’re too conspicuous.

With the current prices, I don’t dare to buy things that are too expensive, but I do have the courage to be greedy for small things.

Generally speaking, senior executives don't care much about these things. The cost of strict supervision is much higher than the value of losing a few bottles of Coke or bags of laundry detergent. It is enough to plan the system and processes well, keep the losses within a certain range, and then carry out surprise inspections of a certain intensity.

This time, the loophole was discovered during the process of promoting paperless office, electronic order tracking, and full archiving.

"QR codes are really good, but the equipment for scanning them is very expensive, and operators need to be trained and become proficient before they can start working. Otherwise, the work efficiency is worse than traditional manual signing."

Jiang Long couldn't help but sigh,

"Currently, only one-fifteenth of the production line is in trial operation. It takes a novice half a month to a month to adapt. Moreover, those with a secondary technical school degree or below will take a much longer time to get started."

"Yeah! Maybe in the future, assembly line workers will have to have a certain level of education. Pure porters who can't read and don't know how to operate basic electronic equipment won't be able to operate it."

Wei Shuangping, who had expected this, affirmed the impact of electronicization and intelligence on front-line work.

"The newly built data processing department in our park has only about 20 people, but it eliminated more than 140 front-line clerical and sales positions."

Perhaps, once the process is smooth and the business is proficient, it will replace more manpower.

Hearing this, Jiang Long couldn't help but smile bitterly:
"In previous science fiction stories, it was always said that robots would replace humans in heavy physical labor in the future. However, the first jobs to be eliminated were those that required general intellectual labor and had low technical requirements."

The more I get involved in grassroots work, the more I can appreciate the impact of computers, paperless, remote work and intelligence on society.

"The principle of QR code is not complicated. Even I, a layman who is not from an engineering background, can understand it. It is not very useful before the maturity of computers, code scanning and recognition equipment, data processing and other technologies. But under certain conditions in the future, it will be a killer. I heard that it is not only in our e-commerce logistics, but also in remote payment, offline application scenarios and marketing promotion. Testing is being done. Maybe one day, we won't need to carry money..."

"Without money...wouldn't it be difficult to move forward?"

Wei Shuangping smiled and raised the mobile phone in her hand and said:
"Look, today's mobile phones can already listen to music, send text messages, chat, and read the news. If one day they can watch TV series and take photos, and integrate the code scanning function into it, plus wireless network and near-field sensing technology, wouldn't that be possible?"

"Hey! Is it possible?"

"You have attended the group company meeting, so you should know about Perlan, infrared remote sensing, WIFI, 3G technology reserves, wireless network cards, etc., plus QR codes, isn't it all? After all, the barcode scanner has been tried out..."

“It’s so expensive, how can it be popularized?”

"Three years ago, a laptop cost more than 30,000 yuan, but now it can be bought for less than 10,000 yuan. How much will the same model cost in five years?"

Wei Shuangping smiled leisurely.

"Our President Jin is really amazing."

Looking back on the development of the head office in the past two years, there is actually a main thread.

“Technology is the foundation, carrying the content output of culture?”

"Food, clothing, housing, transportation, food, drink, entertainment, our e-commerce platform accounts for half of it. In the future..."

So far, Wei Shuangping can only see this step.

"In short, the ideal is very grand. President Jin is not just talking, but is really ready to start working. Our task is very heavy and worrying..."

“Hasn’t the first phase of employee stock ownership been distributed?”

"Boss Jin is getting a little impatient. If the financing is not agreed upon, he will not wait any longer and will apply for listing directly..."

"what?"

Jiang Long asked in disbelief,
"Is Jinxi Mall qualified?"

(End of this chapter)