Brilliant Years 1991

Chapter 153 Dough-like People

The next morning, Cao Yukun came to his company early to work.

For no other reason than to continue observing the company's current operating conditions - Ah Hao was always a candidate that he felt was good, but also someone he always felt was lacking in management ability.

To be honest, for a small company with just over ten people, as long as the level is not too bad, the company has such a mature business and almost completely established work processes, no matter who is in charge, the management will not be too bad. But if the company can continue to grow and develop, and develop other businesses, so that the scale of the company must continue to grow, then the candidate for the second-in-command must be carefully considered.

Management is a profound subject, and Cao Yukun admits that he does not understand it.

But since he did things, he basically adhered to a most basic principle - if you can guarantee to complete the task I assigned to you on time with quality and quantity, I will consider you qualified.

If you pass this thing, then I am willing to assume that you will be able to pass it when you go to do something bigger. So, I give you a chance - if you pass it, then I will assume that you can do bigger things!
That’s it, I’ll give you a chance and see if you can use it.

As for management, he doesn't care.

He is only responsible for observing and selecting the person to take the lead in doing things.

Well, Hongkong is different from the mainland at that time. It has already been a nine-to-five work system. From 8:50 a.m., people started to come to the company one after another. When everyone arrived, they were startled to see the boss and hurriedly greeted him. Cao Yukun nodded kindly in response.

By nine o'clock, there were still two people short of the time they were supposed to arrive, so Cao Yukun stopped waiting and returned to his office.

Cao Yukun didn't care about when the two people came, whether they came or not, and how to deal with them according to company regulations. He didn't even ask.

At half past nine, he finished reviewing several documents on his desk and stood up to leave, planning to visit the streets to see what the sales and reputation of sour plum juice were like in actual stores.

Before he could get up, the phone on the table rang.

He picked up the phone and just said "Hello" when he heard the voice on the other end: "Is this Mr. Cao Yukun? I'm Lin Liangjun from Wing Lung Bank."

Cao Yukun was stunned for a moment, "Oh, Mr. Lin, it's me! You can just call me A Kun!"

"Haha, great! Ah Kun, I was in a hurry last night and didn't have time to ask you for advice. I wonder if you are free today. I want to visit you at your company. Is that okay?"

This is really... a little unusual.

But Cao Yukun was only slightly stunned, and then quickly replied: "Of course you are welcome! I should visit you, welcome!"

So just over ten minutes after hanging up the phone, Lin Liangjun, chairman of the board of directors of Wing Lung Bank, arrived at the company. Cao Yukun received him very politely and sat down with him in his office to chat.

The more we talked, the more surprised we became.

To be honest, although he is not as much as Jin Zhijian who looks down on small local banks like Lin Liangjun, they have no business relationship with each other, so to be honest, it doesn't matter whether they look down on each other or not.

It would be good if everyone could just be polite and laugh it off, leaving a hidden clue in case it is needed.

But... this wealthy second generation who looked a bit wealthy really surprised him.

Very polite, very respectful, and will praise you.

Although they are not a top-tier wealthy family, Wing Lung Bank has more than a dozen branches in Hong Kong, with deposits of 10 to 20 billion and a market value of more than 4 billion. As the major shareholder of this bank, Lin Liangjun and his family should hold shares worth about 300 to 500 million. In addition, such an old family usually holds real estate, bonds, other investment stocks, etc. There is no doubt that even if his net worth is less than 1 billion, a fortune of 700 to 800 million Hong Kong dollars is probably not bad.

He is also a rich second-generation whose family fortune is inherited. According to Cao Yukun's experience, rich second-generations are generally more arrogant and tough, not as smooth as those who have struggled in the underworld.

But they don't.

Not only had they just met last night, but he took the initiative to visit today. After the meeting, his attitude was as humble as possible, and his words were as polite as possible. He looked to be around fifty years old, and at least at this stage, he was much richer than Cao Yukun, but he felt like a small businessman waiting for Cao Yukun to give him some money.

It's almost as if he had engraved the words "Help me make some money, bro" on his forehead.

At least for Cao Yukun, it would feel very strange - he is more familiar with businessmen like Song Hongxing, Xie Zhaofang, Jin Zhiqiang, and Jin Zhijian. These people have more or less domineering and overbearing sides.

Even someone like Guo Hongying, who is considered a rich second-generation, has an indescribable sense of dominance.

He would never be like Lin Liangjun in front of him, whose body was so soft as dough that could be manipulated at will.

After sitting and talking for twenty to thirty minutes and chatting about a lot of nonsense, Cao Yukun saw him off. He hesitated for a moment and decided not to call Jin Zhijian, so he simply called Sun Shangbin instead.

The person who answered the phone told me that Mr. Sun was in the mainland and that I should call him in the mainland - the Shanghai stock market has been rising like crazy recently, and all the people involved are almost crazy. Sun Shangbin has been staying in Shanghai for longer and longer periods of time recently, and he was in the mainland when we contacted him by phone several times.

So he had to call his mobile phone in Shanghai.

"Oh, I know this person. He is a well-known nice guy in the Hongkong rich circle!"

"Hahaha, you've never seen such a humble Hongkong tycoon, right? I've dealt with him twice. Small banks naturally have their own way of survival. They don't dare to gamble, and generally prefer to have long-term cooperation with their partners. It seems that Wing Lung's stock price has not had any major ups and downs for a long time..."

"Think about it, how has the Hong Kong real estate market grown in the past ten years? All banks are eating the big fat piece of meat from mortgage loans, and their stock prices are soaring, but Wing Lung's steps are very small. I seem to have talked to someone about this. Their mortgage loans are very cautious. Basically, they are only willing to lend to relatively stable industries, and they have to be relatively stable in all aspects, otherwise they would rather not lend."

"But he is a very interesting person, very attentive, and very willing to humble himself. So, it's strange that over the years, countless small banks in Hongkong have gone bankrupt or been put into trusteeship. Although his family is not rich, they have been living well. His reputation in the business circle... At least no one is annoyed by him. Even if the loan is not approved for you, you don't think he has offended you!"

"But Mr. Kun, you don't need a loan, right? I know your cash flow! Oh, hahaha, that's normal. He will visit every potential customer seriously like this, but he still can't make a fortune. Haha, he's too timid! The advantage is that he basically doesn't fall into the trap, but the disadvantage is that he is always neither dead nor alive!"

After hanging up the phone, Cao Yukun sat alone in the boss chair for more than ten minutes.

Obviously, his beverage business does not require any loans. Just as Sun Shangbin said, Yiren Kangyin's cash flow is incredibly good. And it's not just the beverage business. In fact, he now has over 50 million RMB in deposits in domestic banks. It can be said that he is definitely not short of money.

But a visit from a banker inevitably aroused many associations in Cao Yukun's mind:

There is no doubt that the next thirty years will be a period of rapid economic growth in the inland areas, but at the same time, we must admit that these thirty years of economic growth will also be a period of rapid depreciation of the RMB!
This is what later bloggers called "negative real interest rates" in their videos.

Why do domestic banks now offer interest rates as high as 9% for three- to five-year fixed deposits? In addition, due to different policies, each bank will also provide a very high subsidy, so that the actual interest rate can be as high as 12% to 15%?

To put it bluntly, it is because even with such a high interest rate, they still make a lot of money.

But that’s not the case with Hongkong.

The legal currency of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong dollar, is actually completely linked to the rice dollar. Even the issuance of the Hong Kong dollar is bookkeeping-based - that is, no matter how much rice dollars flow in, the several note-issuing banks designated by the Hong Kong government will issue an equivalent amount of Hong Kong dollars according to the rated exchange rate.

Of course, interest rates also almost blindly follow the Federal Reserve.

Now in 1992, the Federal Reserve is in the process of cutting interest rates, and Hongkong's five-year time deposit rate is only 3.25%!

After arriving at Hongkong, except for the initial period, Cao Yukun was indeed busy with various things. But when the commercial was aired and the sour plum juice sold well, he had some free time, but he did not spend all his time on picking up girls - for him, the actual situation was that picking up girls was too easy a thing.

He bought many newspapers and business magazines from Hongkong, and even managed to buy a lot of current or outdated English magazines. It was hard to say whether his purpose was to learn something, but he just wanted to analyze the current world economic trends from the current or past information.

As a reborn person, this is not a difficult task as long as you are given certain information anchors.

So, he knew from the newspaper that the American economy had already begun to decline. In the last two years of the 4.5s, their GDP growth rate dropped from 2.7% to 1991%, and even dropped to -1% in early 1990. Therefore, starting in January 1, the Federal Reserve started a downward interest rate cycle.

In just over two years, the deposit rate has been lowered 17 times, from 8% to the current 3.25%! According to recent news, the Federal Reserve is likely to continue to cut interest rates in the next window!

In other words, it is only in China that the economy is overheating and needs to be suppressed by raising interest rates!

(End of this chapter)