Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

Mu Qizhong didn't quite understand what Lu Yang meant by the standard.

How should this be implemented?

Fortunately, he didn't ask any more questions, and Lu Yang didn't explain much to him either.

Because if he were to try to explain it, Lu Yang himself wouldn't be able to, he only knew what to do...

"First, the core strategy is to establish a differentiated advantage through the 'technology + brand + sustainability' triangle model. Simultaneously, by participating in the construction of the industry ecosystem, we can enhance our influence, gain industry-wide recognition, and become a major trend."

"Industry standards are the 'entry ticket,' while popular trends = solving technical pain points × creating emotional value × viral social dissemination. We need to be rooted in local compliance, such as GB standards, and also align with international ESG trends, such as plastic reduction and carbon neutrality. At the same time, we need to ignite consumer demand through a three-pronged approach of 'product + content + channel'..."

"Ultimately, becoming an industry benchmark like Red Bull, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola is essentially about the ability to continuously define the category... Boss, that's all I have to say."

Xu Siqi closed the folder in her hand in front of Lu Yang.

These were all assignments her boss had given her a few days ago. After going back, she researched and asked many senior students for advice. She stayed up for two nights in a row, which resulted in several more pimples appearing on her face. She created a plan on "how to become a giant in the beverage industry and participate in setting industry standards".

however……

The response she received was from Lu Yang, who lay back in his executive chair without even lifting his eyelids, "Speak like a human being."

"hiss--"

Xu Siqi clenched her fists and took a deep breath.

"Okay, boss."

"I think the first thing we need to do is change the current disorganized situation within Tianfu Cola, and unify management, production, and taste, with a particular emphasis on unifying the taste..."

"We absolutely cannot continue like before, with 108 joint venture factories, each producing products that are somewhat different..."

"This will lead to a lack of consensus among consumers regarding our products."

"As per your instructions, boss, we have brought back more than 745 different Tianfu Cola products from various production locations and batches across the country, resulting in significant differences in taste..."

"They're all outside now, boss, would you like to try them yourself?"

Lu Yang became interested and jumped up from his chair.

He walked around the desk to his eldest niece, who was watching him nervously as he stood up and walked over. He patted her on the shoulder and said, "Well done, you've improved since before. Hmm, lead the way."

At this moment, Lu Yang could only pretend to be unfathomable, and he absolutely could not let the little girl in front of him realize that he, as the boss, had never thought of this aspect beforehand.

"Wow!"

"How strange!"

"How can 108 joint venture factories produce more than 745 different flavors of cola using the same formula?"

"How did they do it?"

Just as his mind was screaming incoherently, his expression remained calm and his steps were steady.

This is called shrewdness and composure.

It was a composure he cultivated over the years, as he accumulated wealth, that allowed him to remain calm even when faced with a collapsing mountain.

After Lu Yang patted her shoulder, Xu Siqi blushed, turned around, and followed Lu Yang outside.

He thought to himself: "It really is the boss. So he already knew all along. I thought that after all the hard work I put into investigating these results, and then bringing the actual product back to the company for the boss to taste, it would definitely surprise him."

Yes, Lu Yang was indeed taken aback, but he put on a very convincing act and she didn't see through him.

So Xu Siqi, who should have been feeling proud and elated, could only obediently bury her head in the sand and follow her boss, Lu Yang, to the headquarters staff office area outside.

On a temporarily cleared floor, there were piles of Tianfu Cola bottles from different production locations and batches all over the country.

A large group of company headquarters employees were watching, but when they saw Lu Yang, the big boss, arrive, they quickly dispersed and made way for him.

Some people even hesitated and wanted to back off, lest they be caught slacking off by the big boss and then be publicly criticized.

Lu Yang frowned. "Where is your CEO, Wei?"

As the president, Wei Shu should have stepped in to stop such a chaotic situation.

"President Wei has gone out..."

Someone in the crowd whispered.

"Alright, since President Wei isn't here and you don't have anything else to do, then you can all stay. Don't be afraid, I'm not going to eat you. These are drinks that I had brought over to help you cool off. But before that, we're going to do a little experiment with them."

Lu Yang waved his hand and said.

With so much cola, how long would it take him to taste it all by himself? But if the whole company takes turns helping to taste it, then it won't be a big problem.

The group was shocked to see that the big boss not only didn't criticize them for not working hard, but was actually slacking off.

And we also have to buy them Cokes.

Suddenly, everyone calmed down, their legs stopped trembling, and they no longer had the urge to run away. Instead, they started clapping enthusiastically.

Lu Yang raised his hand to signal them not to clap yet, then turned around and called over his secretary, Xu Siqi, instructing her to have the cola bottles opened in batches and to tell them exactly how to taste them.
He doesn't need to worry about these things.

Xu Siqi stepped forward, called over two receptionists she knew, and asked them to open the Coca-Cola packaging according to the form she had just given them, take out cups, pour out a little from each bottle of Coca-Cola produced in different batches and at different production addresses, and then serve it to Lu Yang.

Lu Yang drank about a dozen or twenty small cups, and then he started to frown. Even though each cup was just a little bit, he started to feel bloated after drinking too much.

Then I saw that the headquarters employees had also started drinking.

He then approached a female employee who he had just witnessed drinking at least three different colas and asked, "Tell me, what are the differences between these three colas you drank?"

The female employee named by Lu Yang was in her early twenties, with a decent temperament and a slightly plump figure. She clearly loved sweets and carbonated drinks, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to finish several large cups so quickly while others had only taken a small sip.

He touched his bulging little belly.

Just as she was about to pour another glass, she was suddenly called upon by the big boss, Lu Yang. Overjoyed, she panicked for a moment, quickly releasing her hand from her lower abdomen. As she inhaled, her lower abdomen instantly disappeared. Blushing, she looked expectantly at the big boss, Lu Yang, and said, "Boss, I... hiccup... I think it all tastes good... the texture... the texture..."

In her excitement, she forgot that cola is a carbonated beverage, and she even burped halfway through. This immediately caused a large group of her colleagues to burst into laughter.

The young girl was shy and immediately felt ashamed, standing there dumbfounded, stammering and unable to continue speaking.

Lu Yang shook her head, not blaming the people around her who were mocking her.

In the workplace, you don't even have this much self-control...

His time was precious, and he wasn't going to waste it like this, so he randomly pointed to a male colleague and said, "You speak."

This male colleague was much more composed than the female colleague from before. Seeing the opportunity, he quickly took a deep breath.

In a standard, broad-spectrum style, he said, "Chairman, I drank seven cups earlier and found that each cup tasted a little different, but what exactly was different?"

I suspect there's a slight discrepancy in the amount of Chinese medicinal herbs inside.

I'm from Guangzhou, and I usually like to drink herbal tea, which is made with medicinal herbs.

Compared to international brands like Pepsi and Coca-Cola that I've drunk before, this cola has much less foam, is less sweet, and has a medicinal flavor, somewhat like the taste of Cantonese herbal tea.

However, the proportions of the medicinal herbs seem to be inconsistent, sometimes more and sometimes less. If someone isn't used to drinking herbal tea or cola, and there's a lot of herbs, they might find it a bit bitter. But if someone likes herbal tea, and there's too little herbs, they might find it completely tasteless…

Lu Yang nodded, his brows relaxing. "Very good answer, but your Mandarin needs some improvement. You may leave now, next..."

The young man was immediately delighted and said he would definitely study Hong Kong-accented Mandarin properly.

Another female colleague stepped forward and said, "Boss, I also noticed the different flavors of these colas. They must have deliberately made different adjustments to the formula. So I tore off the labels from the bottles of colas I just drank and found that they were all from different manufacturers..."

Therefore, it can be concluded that either this was an order from headquarters, with local production bases making minor adjustments to the product to suit the tastes of local consumers, although this possibility is unlikely...

Either there are loopholes in management, or there is a lack of strict oversight regarding the collusion process...

This is a cola flavored with herbal tea. I suspect that the people who produced it may not have realized that the varying levels of Chinese medicinal herbs it contains could lead to a huge difference in taste, causing its original customers to choose other brands of cola when they find the taste unpalatable…

Lu Yang nodded; he had also just drunk some.

"Very good, write down everything she just said, next one..."

"Boss, I think..."

"Chairman, I...I...I just had more than a dozen drinks, and I also have something to say..."

The boss not only paid close attention to each of their speeches, but also praised the colleagues who had taken the initiative to speak.

Such a good thing, of course, had to be fought for. So, even before Lu Yang started calling out names, more and more people rushed to the huge pile of Coke, drank until their bellies were bulging, then pretended to do a lot of analysis and ran to Lu Yang to claim credit.

Lu Yang accepted all the offers without hesitation, thinking that free labor was a good use of. He instructed his secretary to write down all their remarks and compile them into a booklet for later summarization.

Finally, after everyone had drunk their fill, and some had gone to the toilet three times already, Lu Yang let them go and returned to his office with a satisfied smile.

Xu Siqi followed her in and asked what to do with the remaining cola outside.

Lu Yang waved his hand and told her to distribute all the Coke as a benefit to the employees who had spoken up earlier, and to also give an extra bonus to those who had performed well at the end of the month when they received their salaries.

When the secretary came in for the second time, Lu Yang tapped on the table. "You heard what happened just now. What are your thoughts?"

Xu Siqi thought carefully for a moment, then looked up and said, "The joint venture system is a local policy adopted when Tianfu Cola was still a state-owned enterprise. I think now that it's a joint venture, the system should be changed again. Either all ownership should be transferred to the Tianfu Group headquarters and subject to its vertical management, or the equity should be split with these local joint ventures, the formula should be taken back, the shares should be sold to them, and they should be prohibited from producing Tianfu Cola in the future... This is the best way to avoid the huge differences in taste between different Tianfu Cola products in different regions that we see now..."

Lu Yang nodded. This was easy to handle. In fact, he had already planned to have Lao Mou, who was in Sichuan, do it.

After dealing with the Tianfu Group headquarters, we will eventually have to go to each of the 108 affiliated factories across the country and deal with them one by one.

Just like the secretary just said.

They either obey headquarters' instructions and accept its vertical management, or they have to withdraw the formula and prohibit further production.

While strict enforcement can solve the problem of product differentiation at its source, it will also lead to a short-term inability to keep up with production scale. If a production base in a certain region is shut down, distributors in the surrounding area will have to source products from other production bases in other regions, which will increase logistics costs. Moreover, if the relocation is not handled properly, it may even lead to the loss of many customers in a short period of time, causing Tianfu Cola, which has already seen a significant decline in market share, to decline further.

"Boss, are you worried that if we not only fail to boost Tianfu Cola's sales in a short period of time, but also cause its sales to decline further, it might incur the dissatisfaction of some leaders in Rongcheng?"

Tianfu Cola is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of their Century Group.

Of course, they can't just make a decision here and then have the other side do exactly what they say.

There must be a suitable reason.

Lu Yang smiled and said, "I am the major shareholder. If I insist, who dares to object? It's just that there's no need to go too far. Why do we have to tear each other apart when we don't need to? We still need to find a way to achieve a win-win situation. How about this, I'll call Lao Mou and have him play the bad guy."

Xu Siqi nodded naturally. This was a good idea. First, let President Mu take the blame, and then her own boss would step forward to play the good guy. Anyway, as long as the final result was good, President Mu wouldn't have to take much of the blame.

She unknowingly started following Lu Yang's bad habits.

"Then boss, I'll go out and pull it out first."

Once the secretary left...

Lu Yang indeed called Mu Qizhong, who was far away in Sichuan.

"The problem is more serious than I thought, Lao Mou. I just drank more than a dozen bottles of Coke from our company, even though my stomach was about to burst. And guess what happened?"

Lu Yang said, feigning seriousness.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm surprised," Mu Qizhong said.

"The taste varies too much. Some have a lot of bubbles, while others don't. Some have a strong herbal tea flavor, while others have a very weak one. Some are even bitter. Too much herbal tea was added..."

Lu Yang shook his head and said, "Sigh, I'm so disappointed. I didn't expect Tianfu Cola to be like this. It's all show and no substance, and it seems to have a pretty high market share, but it turns out that it's rotten to the core. Lao Mou, we have to put the Sichuan matter aside for now. Your priority now is to go to these 108 joint venture factories, take back their rights, and kick out those who don't listen. If necessary, we can also threaten to shut down the factories. At worst, I'll build a bigger new cola production base in Pengcheng... and add a new cola formula laboratory... and we'll start from scratch here."

Mu Qizhong, in Sichuan, gasped and said, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate?"

Lu Yang chuckled on the phone: "Old Mou, you're not scared, are you? Doing these things might offend a lot of people, but who are you? They're just petty scoundrels. Are you afraid of them? Old Mou, remember, to reform, you have to take risks. If there's no growing pain, then it's not reform... Hurry up and get things done. I'll be waiting for you in Pengcheng to celebrate your success."

(End of this chapter)