Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 414 Plans to Go Abroad
Besides Yan Hui, there are currently three other key figures in the tile factory.

Two technical shareholders and business head Pan Chen.

Since Yan Hui started cooperating with the mine, there have been no problems with raw material procurement. Previously, Pan Chen was in charge of the sales chain, but Yan Hui kept him on and put him in charge of it as well.

To Yan Hui's surprise, Pan Chen demonstrated remarkable abilities, not only reorganizing the existing business lines well but also leading the team to expand into new businesses recently.

That makes sense. Could someone who could maintain the company's business lines under such chaotic circumstances be incompetent? They just lacked the opportunity.

The accountant and cashier of the tile company were trained by Zhou Ping over the past few years. While their abilities may not be outstanding, they are capable of handling some accounting matters.

Many people don't understand what finance, accounting, and cashiering are.

In reality, an accountant is someone who keeps books, calculates accounts, reports accounts, and maintains the general ledger. They also handle tax issues and compile financial statements such as the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, focusing primarily on bookkeeping.

A cashier is primarily responsible for handling cash and negotiable instruments, including receiving and disbursing funds, settling accounts, safeguarding cash, and processing banking transactions. Their focus is on receiving and paying money.

Finance, especially for finance managers like Zhou Ping, involves many more aspects. He is involved in fund management, cost control, budget preparation, tax planning, risk control, and many other areas. He is the overall person in charge of "managing money" and "using money," and also belongs to the decision-making level.

Accountants and cashiers are both considered finance personnel, but Yan Hui believes that finance professionals must be specialized talents.

Yan Hui hosted a dinner party that evening, with only himself, Dai Lingfeng, Xu Jinze, Pan Chen, and Zhou Ping in attendance. During the dinner, Yan Hui promised Pan Chen a certain amount of stock options.

“Pan Chen, to be honest, I’ve been watching your performance these past few months. Before, when you stayed here, I gave you a 20% raise, which I know isn’t much. I’ve discussed it with the two technical shareholders and several long-time agents, and they all think you’re doing a great job. Before I bought the company, you were in charge of the existing 60 million RMB annual market. Now you’ve achieved a monthly turnover of 6 million RMB. Here’s my plan: while maintaining the company’s brand and reputation, if you can achieve a monthly turnover of 8.4 million RMB, which is about 100 million RMB annually, I’ll promise you 3% of the company’s equity, paid out over three years. After you reach that target, I’ll give you 1%, and then 1% annually thereafter. You should know that 1% of the company’s equity is valued at no less than 400,000 RMB.” Yan Hui promised.

He recently discussed with Zhou Ping that he plans to offer 5% of the chemical plant's shares as stock options, which theoretically could be received by both Song Zhiyuan and Zhou Ping. The same applies to the steel trading company and the tile company; each is preparing to offer 5% of their shares, intending to reserve them for suitable individuals.

Stock option incentives generally require clear written documentation, but Yan Hui's case is unique. On the one hand, he holds absolute control in all companies; on the other hand, his personal credit is sufficient, and no one would suspect that Yan Hui would break his promises.

"Huh?" Pan Chen never expected that this would be the topic of conversation during today's meal. He was completely unprepared.

Pan Chen actually worked for several bosses surnamed Pang in his early years. He was from out of town and climbed to the position of business manager in about ten years, earning a salary of over ten thousand yuan. During the company's shareholder disputes, he was conscientious and did his job well, but he was always very unhappy with it.

Forget about shares, it's difficult to even get the full commission; the annual income is only around 15 yuan. Pan Chen has a family to support. His income has always been considered high, but he's still far from successful.

“But there’s a prerequisite: you have to reach this level of business within six months, otherwise you won’t get it later. And you have to exceed 840 million for three consecutive months. You can’t just throw all your orders into one month to fool me,” Yan Hui suggested. He lacked business talent in the tile industry, and after observing Pan Chen for several months, he found that Pan Chen had the most potential.

“President Yan, I…of course I’m willing.” Pan Chen’s voice trembled slightly.

"Old Pan, why don't you offer a toast?" Dai Lingfeng immediately nudged Pan Chen. Yan Hui's share distribution this time was directly from Yan Hui's personal shares, without any equity dilution, so of course he was willing. He knew that increased business volume would only benefit him.

Over the past three years, Dai Lingfeng, Xu Jinze, and these shareholders have not gotten along well, but they have a good relationship with Pan Chen, as they were once considered brothers in misfortune.

"Mine, mine!" Pan Chen immediately filled his glass with baijiu. "President Yan, I would never fool you!"

With that, Pan Chen downed the entire glass of baijiu in one gulp.

Seeing this, Yan Hui poured Pan Chen another full glass, then raised his own full glass and said, "Everyone has worked hard these past few months, but I think it's not just for the company, but also for ourselves and for every family. Come on, let's drink to the future of the company."

Pan Chen had just finished a drink, his face slightly contorted, but he continued to stand, clinked glasses with Yan Hui and the others, and then drank another glass.

Yan Hui was busy for about a week, and Qing Lan, whose vacation was over, finally returned. Her family's passports had already been processed, and this time Qing Lan took some time to apply for visas for multiple countries with them.

In order to apply for visas to some "powerful" countries, Yan Hui also transferred some money to each of his family members' cards to make the visa application process smoother.

Once a company reaches Yan Hui's level, he can't stop, nor can he afford to. Resources in all aspects, once you're away for a few months or even longer, will never be yours again. Therefore, he had already arranged a very detailed itinerary before going abroad.

His initial plan was to take his grandmother and others to Brazil, but he felt Brazil wasn't very interesting, the flight was too long, and his grandmother's health might not be able to handle it. Ultimately, he decided to hire a cross-border tour guide to accompany his grandmother around Japan first, to help her acclimatize. If she can adapt, they can go to Europe and America next time.

Yan Hui will accompany his grandmother to Japan for two days, and then head to Brazil.

He had two main destinations on this trip abroad. One was Vale in Brazil, and the other was Henkel in Germany. Neither of these places was easily accessible. For the former, he needed his boss's local connections, but those connections were limited, making it difficult to gain access to the core mining areas. For the latter, he could rely on Chen Jian's academic connections, allowing him to join visiting groups for study tours.

In the past year or two, Heng Hui Chemical has received several academic visits, including visits from two or three science and engineering universities in Shandong Province. The relevant photos have also been posted in the company's brand promotion column.

Yan Hui is also considering building a factory abroad in the future. If that doesn't work out, he will consider foreign trade cooperation. Going abroad to explore opportunities is inevitable.

(End of this chapter)