1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 261: Showing Your Clumsiness
Although he had been the section chief of MoMoBaiTou for less than a month, Yang Mo had shown his subordinates through his actions that he was a man willing to delegate power.

Just as the special working group was disbanded, a small civilian visiting group from the island country arrived in Linyi County as scheduled.

It stands to reason that for a job that deserves such attention, as the main party of the cooperation, Yang Mo, the silent and thoughtful section chief, should accompany the team throughout the process, and then promote the cooperation as much as possible to add a highlight to his own list of achievements.

However, this was not the case. The young section chief who had been the most popular in the company this year, just attended a courtesy reception with Wang Yinuo and two company executives on the night of the delegation's arrival, and then quietly disappeared behind the scenes.
There was no "three-day hospitality" full of Chinese flavor. After a hearty but not exquisite breakfast the next morning, a group of business backbones headed by Bao Shuxian, Zhang Bo and Li Ming appeared in front of several island country corporate delegations. Then, with an attitude neither humble nor arrogant, they led their own corporate delegations to the locations of various projects.

It has to be said that if at the beginning the attitude that Yang Mo showed through Zhang Bo, "With me, you will get as much reward as your ability", made the employees of Mo Mo Bai Tou doubt whether he was putting on a show, now almost no one doubts it.

You know, these days, receiving foreign inspection delegations is a top priority.

Although whether these projects can finally reach cooperation depends on how Yang Mo, Mu Liya, and even Wang Yinuo and others finally negotiate with the other party; but no matter what, the people responsible for accompanying and introducing the projects have in fact become the deputies of these docking projects; with so many people watching, under the process sheet system, if the deal is really successful, you can't escape the credit... Of course, if it fails because of you, you will still be punished.

But no matter what, the attitude displayed by Yang Mo is undoubtedly a shot of stimulant to the employees of Mo Mo Bai Tou... State-owned enterprises are a place where hidden dragons and crouching tigers are everywhere, and there is no shortage of truly capable young talents. The only thing they lack is a display platform that can get positive feedback.

………………

In a corner of the living room, an iron stove left by the previous owner of the house was burning hot with natural gas.

Forced by the double heat waves from the radiator and the iron stove to change into a thin T-shirt, Tugou classmate was holding his stomach, listening with difficulty and reluctance to the jokes that someone had read from the Internet in the future.

Yang Mo, wearing only a long-sleeved shirt and long trousers, stirred a bowl of lotus root starch that his young apprentice had brought over as a gift, and then sighed heavily, "It's so cold, it's too painful to run outside to get water. Whether it's boiling water for lotus root starch or making tea, it's so inconvenient!"

“So…why don’t we boil the whole bucket of water at once so we have ready-made hot water;”

"Then we can put the hot water into bottles and store them in the refrigerator, so we don't have to worry about the water going bad;"

"When we need to make lotus root powder or tea, can't we just take a bottle out of the refrigerator and heat it up a little?"

At this point, Yang Mo rubbed his chin proudly: "How about it, this method is convenient, right? Hehe, one life hack a day, take it and you're welcome!"

Put the hot water in the refrigerator and take it out to heat it up when you need it?
So we don’t have to worry about the water going bad?

Listening to this joke that only someone with a 10-year cerebral thrombosis could come up with, Tugou classmate laughed so hard that he was out of breath: "Convenient?"

"If you think it's too troublesome to go out to get water, then why not just bring a bucket of water into the house?"

“Also, we don’t have to worry about the water going bad?…Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter!”

"Sheep, sheep shit, this couldn't be the same stupid thing you did before, could it?"

Seeing this guy laughing so hard that he pounded the sofa with his fists, Yang Mo snorted stiffly and reservedly: "What do you mean by stupidity? This is called the wisdom of life! Wisdom!... Do you understand?"

Seeing Yang Mo's panicked look like Kong Yiji, Tugou laughed and fell directly on the sofa: "Yes, yes, you are right, wisdom! Wisdom! This is great wisdom!"

Looking at the girl who was about to laugh herself into a puddle of mud, Yang Mo had a face full of sorrow. After thinking for a while, he leaned his head closer mysteriously and lowered his voice: "Girl, I remember you were born in 69, right?"

Tugou nodded: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

"Hey~you mortals!"

Yang Mo sighed deeply, with an indescribable look of fear on his face: "Girl, haven't you discovered a terrible fact yet?"

Lu Yingying was frightened by his appearance, and immediately rolled over and propped herself up: "What terrible truth?"

Yang Mo was dazzled by the greasy whiteness in front of him, but he did not remind this guy. His expression became more serious: "Don't you realize that, so far, no one born in the 60s has lived past 30 years old?"

Lu Yingying was startled and her face turned pale.

But he reacted immediately...

Eh...Eh?

This year is 1989, and people born in the 60s are only 29 years old at most. Didn’t they fail to live past 30?

Realizing that he had been fooled, classmate Tugou was so angry that he wanted to give this bad man a beating, but he found that he had completely run out of strength after laughing for more than half an hour. He could only lie on the sofa like a puddle of mud, glaring at Yang Mo angrily.

………………

"Hey, Yang Shidan, didn't you spend a lot of effort on this cooperation? Why are you and Sister Mu sitting on the Diaoyutai when the island country's inspection team comes?"

After a long while, Tugou, who had finally recovered some strength, seemed to be afraid that he would laugh to death if he continued like this, so he gently kicked Yang Mo and began to change the subject.

In fact, this was also a question she was quite curious about. Unlike others, she knew how much preparation Yang Mo and Miss Mu had made for this cooperation. Moreover, among these projects, there were quite a few large projects with promising market prospects... For example, Chinese medicine facial masks, deer antler facial cream and other medical beauty projects;
Logically speaking, other projects would be fine, but for key projects like these that were initially judged to have a market potential of tens of billions of yen, Yang Mo and Mu Liya should have personally stepped forward to monitor the entire process. However, Yang Mo still handed them over to his subordinates, which made her a little confused.

When Yang Mo heard the girl ask this, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I remember I told you before that if you want to be a qualified manager, it is necessary to show your incompetence and give your subordinates room to perform... I am not good at welcoming and seeing off guests, and I am not proficient in those pharmacological knowledge. Wouldn't it be better to let other people do the initial inspection and accompanying work? Anyway, the people in our company may not be reliable in other aspects, but they are good at dealing with people."

The so-called showing one's weaknesses means that managers show their weaknesses, and then partially delegate power and hand over related work to subordinates.

You can say that this is a small management trick or that the leader is just being lazy, in short, this method can indeed more or less stimulate the work enthusiasm of the employees from the side and improve the cohesion of the team to a certain extent.

Upon hearing this, Tugou rolled his eyes and said, "You have also emphasized that showing off your clumsiness should be determined according to the actual situation. Momo Baitou is a department that has just been promoted to the level of a regular section chief, and you, the head, are a young man with no background. If you want to show off your clumsiness, you shouldn't do it at this time when you just took office!"

The amount of exposure varies depending on the nature of the job and the unit. Some leaders even deliberately disguise themselves as idiots who know nothing about business.

Take classmate Tugou for example. She has been very good at showing off in recent months. It is obvious that she is no longer the same as before in terms of publicity creativity and event conception, and she even has more ideas about store management details. But she still looks like she is not very smart. Whenever there is work in this area, she asks her subordinates to submit proposals. Then, when her subordinates submit proposals that meet her psychological expectations, she reveals the kind of honest and slightly admiring eyes that are unique to rural women in the north... Because Qingfeng Food is very particular about clear rewards and punishments, and classmate Tugou has always been generous in asking for credit for her subordinates, after a series of combined punches, the backbones of the quality control department are now like howling little wolves, wandering at the forefront of various work links as if they were injected with chicken blood. Their work enthusiasm is so high that even Liu Xianfu feels creepy.

But Momo Baitou is different. For a department like this with financial attributes and strong autonomy, leaders are very reluctant to show off their incompetence, because if they accidentally let their subordinates think that you are a boss who is easy to fool in some aspects, it is easy for them to do something weird to you in private. Therefore, in any unit of this nature, the leaders of the business department always look omnipotent, strong and harsh to the point of being unkind. Upon hearing this, Yang Mo first moved the round and powerful jade leg away with disdain, and then looked like a teacher looking at a poor student: "Please, you have to understand that in the entire Momo Baitou, from top to bottom, except for your sister Mu who has a little foundation in investment, the remaining more than 70 good people are all rookies... Facing a bunch of rookies who know nothing, do I have to put on that omnipotent appearance to establish my business authority?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yingying reacted immediately.

Yes, the drilling company is a production unit. Except for a limited number of people, everyone in the company is a complete outsider when it comes to business.

From this aspect alone, the drilling company's talent pool in the business field is far greater than that of its affiliated unit, Qingfeng Food... Otherwise, would everyone in the department watch Yang Mo transfer the previous project initiative rights to Xialiu Sales Agency?
And what about Yang Mo?

Although he is very young, so young that he is the youngest section chief in the drilling company, the series of big moves he made this year have all confirmed his title as "the number one person in commercial operations of the drilling company";

With such a reputation, even if he has no background at all, he does not need to deliberately create a sense of omniscience and authority in front of more than 70 rookies... A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Just if he sits in the office, the people below will not have the courage to tamper with the business.

Therefore, Yang Mo, who actually does not need to play the role of a new official, actually needs to let a bunch of people quickly leave the Novice Village to help him do some real work... Even if Yang Mo is made of iron, how many nails can he knock out of one person?
However, although this is the truth, as one of the people in the world who knows Yang Mo best, Tugou always feels that this guy asked his subordinates to be responsible for the early docking work of those key projects this time not just for the purpose of showing off his incompetence.

Seeing this girl resting her chin in deep thought, as if she wanted to think this matter through, Yang Mo stared at Lu Yingying's neckline for a long time, then he stretched out his hand with a smile and lifted up the round neckline of this girl.

Wow, the peonies are red in clusters, and the Mount Sumeru is an inch high.

The ancients do not deceive me!
When Yang Mo lifted his collar, Tugou woke up suddenly.

Even though she had actually been taken advantage of by this guy's eyes during this period of time and was almost accustomed to it, when she saw Yang Mo's look of pity, as if asking "How could a little girl be so careless?", Lu Yingying blushed but couldn't help but feel the urge to punch this guy in the face twice.

Seeing this guy's eyebrows raised, Yang Mo calmly changed the subject: "But you guessed right, the reason why I asked my subordinates to connect with the island country's corporate delegation for those projects is not entirely to show off my incompetence."

Or maybe Yang Mo, who has known Tu Gou for decades in his two lives, knows him better. Sure enough, when Lu Yingying heard this, she immediately threw aside her anger: "Sure enough, I knew you must have other thoughts... Tell me the truth!"

Looking at the slightly smug look on this Tugou classmate's face, Yang Mo sighed... This girl is so easy to divert attention!
Standing up, Yang Mo took two burnt sweet potatoes off the stove cap, threw one over, and started peeling it. “The reason why I dared to hand over the preliminary investigation and docking work of these projects to the subordinates right away was, on the one hand, out of confidence in the commercial value of those projects; on the other hand, it was also to gain more initiative in the negotiations.”

"Gain more initiative?"

Lu Yingying was a little confused. She couldn't figure out what this had to do with gaining the initiative in the negotiations.

Yang Mo stuffed a piece of sweet potato flesh into his mouth. After a few snorts from the heat, he swallowed it with satisfaction: "Under the premise that both parties have the need to cooperate, negotiation is actually a game of psychological warfare."

"It's just like falling in love. Whoever confesses first will be passive first, and then will be controlled by the fearless other party."

Hearing the word "confession", Tugou's face suddenly turned red again, and he kicked him fiercely: "What a messed up metaphor, can you change it to a more serious one!?"

Yang Mo rubbed his thigh, then gave the guy a knife on the head, not wanting to be outdone: "You know, our oil system has cooperated with foreign countries more than once or twice over the years, but in my opinion, we have been cheated so many times, mostly because of our own fault... They lowered their posture too much in the negotiations, and the information they revealed was too honest!"

As he spoke, Yang Mo took off a few pieces of broken sweet potato peel from Tugou's head and threw them into the trash can along with the charcoal residue on his hands. "Strictly speaking, the island companies that came here to inspect this time are more eager to reach a cooperation than us... If we want to gain enough initiative and get the best conditions, we must do a good job of the smokescreen work in the early stage!"

Lu Yingying patted her head and said, "You want to cooperate with us more than we do? Why is that?"

Yang Mo shrugged. "Because some companies in the island country have already sensed the crisis beneath the prosperity. In fact, the island country's economic strategy has already shown signs of shifting from a GDP strategy to a strategy that emphasizes both GDP and GNP... And the Kampo medicine revitalization campaign they are carrying out is actually a concrete manifestation of this shift."

GDP+GNP equally important?

Lu Yingying thought about it for a while, and then she was a little confused: "But what does this have to do with us gaining the initiative in the negotiations?"

Yang Mo rolled his eyes: "Think about it, since they can take the initiative to stand up during this ice-breaking period, then these companies must be members of the GNP faction... In other words, their demands will definitely not just stay at the ordinary trade level, but more are seeking overseas investment and industry construction."

Lu Yingying nodded in understanding: "So that's why you say they actually want to cooperate more than us? After all, Chinese medicinal materials are the basis for the existence of their so-called Kampo medicines, and Chinese medicinal materials not only need enough land to grow, but many of them are also highly regional. Once they are not grown on that piece of land, the effect will be greatly reduced."

At this point, Lu Yingying reacted: "So, you think their main purpose this time is to seek to invest in a medicinal herb planting base in Qilu under the premise of private commercial cooperation?"

After all, she is half a junior in the medical field, so she naturally knows that the medicinal properties of the same medicine produced in different regions will be very different... just like a truly responsible doctor, if given a choice, will never use coptis chinensis produced outside the Bashu region in your medicine according to ancient prescriptions.

Yang Mo nodded. "Although they may discuss formula sharing, factory building and other cooperation, the planting base is undoubtedly the most desired cooperation project. We are one of the more influential units in the field of Chinese herbal medicine in Dezhou... You know, your sister Mu has been fooling local pharmaceutical companies and herbal medicine planting units with the successful export of Lianxiang Powder over the past six months."

"As I said before, from my personal opinion, I am not so opposed to the island country building a high-standard Chinese medicinal materials base here. After all, from an objective point of view, this can be regarded as leaving a way out for our Chinese medicine for the time being;"

"But if you want to build a medicinal herb planting base in Texas without paying any price, forget it!"

As he spoke, Yang Mo picked up another piece of sweet potato flesh and put it in his mouth: "Remember what I said just now? Most units in our country are too humble and too eager to succeed when negotiating with foreign companies. Those embarrassing things are almost becoming a joke."

"This is a major factor in their mistakes, but for us, this stereotype can be used to our advantage."

"Just think about it, if the island companies, who are definitely familiar with our country's performance in this regard, suddenly find that our attitude towards them is far less enthusiastic and positive than they thought, what will they think?"

Tugou scratched his head and said, "Of course he is unhappy. After all, according to Sister Mu, unlike in the TV series, the Japanese people also value face very much. Overall, we are the ones who need his help."

Yang Mo nodded: "But cooperating with us will make it easier for them to get what they want, so...what happens after they get angry?"

Tugou tilted his head and thought for a while, then his eyes lit up: "After getting angry, they must have figured out why the Chinese company, which has always been warm and hospitable, suddenly became so cold to them."

Yang Mo laughed: "Now I know why not only did our President Wang and several vice presidents only show up at the welcoming banquet as a courtesy, but the person in charge of the preliminary inspection work with those island companies did not even have a section-level cadre... Under normal circumstances, the company should at least have a vice president."

Thinking of the drilling company's schedule that had been flying in like snowflakes recently, Tugou immediately understood what Yang Mo and his sister Mu were planning. He blinked a few times and asked uncertainly, "Yang Shidan, can you really do this?"

After testing the temperature of the roasted sweet potato in his hand, Yang Mo tore off a large piece of skin and took a big bite. "If it's a European or American company, I can't guarantee it, but if it's a suspicious and cautious island company... I think I have at least 60 to 70 percent chance of success!"

(End of this chapter)