Return to Hong Kong Island for a Century

Chapter 232 Talent Selection (First Update, 3400+ words)

"Mr. Li, you flatter me," Yan Zhengxian quickly replied.

"Mr. Li, this way please!" Director Gao then led Li Song on a tour of the Shanghai Fine Arts Factory.

"This year, our factory has added more than twenty positions," Factory Director Gao said.

Li Song nodded, not saying much. It was their first meeting, and there were some things he couldn't say.

The employees at Shanghai Animation Film Studio had only heard of Li Song's name, after all, he had earned over 100 million Hong Kong dollars from a single novel, which would amount to tens of millions of mainland currency.

The fact that the novels were still about tomb raiding puzzled many employees.

Some of these employees didn't care, since they only made that much money a month, whether it was good or bad; some were envious; and some had other similar feelings.

“Shanghai Animation Film Studio has a long history, and we can cooperate on more levels. I just opened a new TV station, and I hope your studio can produce more works similar to Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mother, combining traditional techniques with animation to carry forward our traditions.” Then came the symposium, and Li Song spoke first.

"Besides animation, we should also learn from foreign countries and make some animation-related products, that is, turn animation characters into toys, so as to make the influence of animation more profound."

"Just like the robots in Mercenaries World, we plan to make intelligent multi-dimensional combat units into toys in the future," Li Song said. He explained that they are like Transformers, which are called intelligent multi-dimensional combat units in Interstellar Mercenaries. They can transform into space fighters, atmospheric fighters, and land combat robots, adapting to combat in various environments.

Director Gao also spoke up, saying, "Mr. Li is right. We are also learning some foreign technologies to bring our animations to the world."

"There are also puppet shows, shadow plays, and so on, which also have great potential for development," Li Song added.

Factory Director Gao nodded, and then said a few other things.

However, Director Gao did not respond to what Li Song said, and even the Shanghai-based leaders in charge did not say anything.

Li Song knew he couldn't easily give an opinion, and starting a new project or direction was a different story. Success would be great, but failure was another matter entirely.

After the meeting, Li Song declined Director Gao's offer to stay for dinner and then left.

Li Song is here to make his name known. If Shanghai Animation Film Studio doesn't change, he can always poach people himself in the end.

Some people cling to tradition and refuse to let go; it's hard to comment on Li Song.

Some things have been preserved because of the persistence of these people, but some things have declined and eventually disappeared because of their persistence.

In the decades that followed, domestic art could be summed up in two words: sycophancy! Some academies even went so far as to further promote art that satirized the Chinese people.

On Friday, October 10, 1980, Li Song returned to Guangzhou, and Ma Shengli took out a thick document, which was what Li Song had asked the candidates from the Semiconductor Research Institute to write, as Li Song had mentioned on Monday.

“Mr. Li, these are what they wrote. Please take a look,” Ma Shengli said.

"Let me see!" Li Song nodded. He would first check the age, and then reject those who had been in the workforce for more than a certain number of years. These were all old hands in the company, always scheming about their own trivial matters.

Don't accept people who are too young, because these days, people have finally graduated from university and gotten jobs, so they'll definitely feel resistant if they come to your private place.

They're looking for middle-aged people with elderly parents and young children, who aren't high-ranking employees. These people are willing to work hard as long as the pay is high enough. They won't be as attached to their jobs as younger people, nor will they be like older people who have no pressure and whose children are all grown up, just coasting through their days at work.

Finally, and most importantly, we must recognize the importance of independent innovation.

Nearly two-thirds believe that the main approach should be to introduce and learn from advanced foreign technologies.

Only one-third of them believed that they should still do things themselves.

In the end, Li Song selected twelve people, six of whom were between 30 and 45 years old and were nobody in their respective companies.

Why would someone who's an official in their workplace give up so many years of business to come to your private research institute?

Also, avoid those arrogant, boastful guys, because these tech gurus all have their own opinions and are unlikely to listen to your layman boss's advice later on.

In the early days of the research institute, Li Song needed obedient workhorses, even if their technical skills were lacking, because his own technology was copied.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Ma. We'll ask these twelve people if they're volunteers, and then we'll recruit the rest from the school," Li Song said.

Although he knew that college students were precious these days, Li Song could throw money at them. He would give them a settlement allowance of 10,000 yuan at a time, then sign a five-year contract to arrange jobs for their parents and spouses, and sign a fifteen-year contract to allocate housing. After working for fifteen years, the house would be theirs.

Motorcycle factories, outboard motor factories, and automobile factories all have countless people just sweeping the floors, not to mention other factories.

When the time comes, the parents of these people will sign contracts with the factory for a certain number of years and will also be allocated housing. They will be able to obtain the property rights of the house after working for a certain number of years.

The whole family is tied together; they refuse to believe they can fly to the sky.

Ma Shengli hadn't expected that there would be so few people left, even though he had information on hundreds of people.

"it is good!"

"Mr. Li, how do you select people? This way we can do a preliminary screening in the future," Ma Shengli asked.

“We don’t want the young ones. They’re new to the organization, and even if they’re forced to come to a private research institute, they’ll still have a resistance. We don’t want the older ones either. Most of them are just coasting along and waiting to retire. We don’t want the officials either, since these people are running…” Li Song said.

"If these people agree, we'll give them a settlement allowance of 10,000 yuan first, then they'll sign a three-year housing contract with our research institute, a ten-year housing contract, and for fifteen years their parents who haven't worked, we'll arrange jobs for them too. Anyway, there are so many factories that can provide housing for many people."

"In addition, most of these people come from rural areas. They not only have families to support, but they may also have parents, brothers and sisters in the countryside who need help."

“These people will serve as the core members and will work together for a while. Then, we will select some college graduates from schools, preferably from rural areas, and provide them with a settlement allowance upon signing a contract.”

After listening to Li Song's words, Ma Shengli said, "Mr. Li really understands human nature very well." "Hehe, it's natural to be cautious at the beginning of the research institute. Once it develops, we can recruit some outstanding talents," Li Song chuckled.

“Okay!” Ma Shengli nodded. Now that he understood Li Song’s idea, they could screen a batch of people first if they needed more later.

Tian Jiahui is already in Guangzhou. More than 20 factories have signed joint venture agreements with Baisheng Company to produce excavators, loaders, cranes, dump trucks, etc. Baisheng Company contributes its technology as equity.

In fact, these twenty-odd factories have not yet been fully renovated.

Then, Baisheng Company signed a supervision agreement with a service company under the Yangcheng Science and Technology Commission, entrusting the service company under the Commission to supervise more than 20 factories. In addition, it signed an agreement with the Yangcheng Audit Department to conduct audits on these factories every year.

Because there are currently no private accounting firms in China.

Of course, Baisheng's technology is exclusively authorized to the company by Li Song, and the company extracts a certain service fee from these fees.

In other words, most of the money ended up in Li Song's pocket.

On October 15th, Li Song returned to Hong Kong Island because he had finally finished his work, mainly the technology investment agreement, as well as the prohibition on transferring the technology to any third party and the ban on exporting some equipment.

In other words, to date, dozens of large enterprises have been helping Li Song make money, including authorized motorcycle factories, home appliance factories, and construction machinery manufacturers. In addition, there are technology licenses for some materials. These materials are purchased by the relevant authorized units, namely enterprises authorized by Li Song or those that have invested in the technology, without having to pay patent licensing fees.

For example, if this steel mill supplies motorcycle chain materials to any other company authorized by Baisheng Company, it will not charge a licensing fee. If other factories want them, they will have to pay extra. As for exporting, even higher patent licensing fees need to be paid to Li Song.

In fact, this is a huge circle of interests. Products in this circle are more competitive than other products, and the technology patent licensing fee is 5%.

In other words, for any other factory to compete with the factories in this industry, this 5% is the life-or-death line.

Li Song knew that someone had noticed this, but so what? Unless a newer technology was developed.

However, another problem arises: production. The equipment in steel mills is designed for the latest technologies. Changing the process flow, stopping production to update the process flow, and even affecting equipment would all result in losses for the steel mills.

Not to mention, many of the processing equipment technologies are also authorized by Baisheng Company, such as core products like aluminum alloy die casting machines, honing machines, and CNC quenching machines.

Therefore, breaking out of this circle of vested interests is extremely difficult.

In addition, once the embedded chip is completed, Li Song will upgrade the technology of these devices, including home appliance production equipment, and digitize and automate various products.

This has not only enriched the semiconductor ecosystem but also made it more stable.

After returning to Hong Kong Island, Li Song first went back to his house in Federal Garden and looked at the Hong Kong newspapers about Ah Long, Boss Zou, Xiao Si, Danny and others doing a roadshow in Hollywood. He pondered how to start taking action after Ah Long and the others returned to Hong Kong Island.

Boss Zou and Ah Long went to Ame on the 12th and have already started their roadshow.

Then Li Song arrived at Taikoo City. Knowing that Li Song was coming, A-Lin sent the servants away again.

"You own a TV station, can I become a host?" Arlene thought about what she wanted to do and finally came up with this idea.

“A host needs to be quick-witted. Let me test you: what would you do if you put an elephant in a refrigerator?” Li Song asked, putting his arm around Alin.

"Impossible, the refrigerator is so small."

"Look, you're questioning someone else's question. What you need to do is answer it."

"The answer is to open the refrigerator door and put the elephant inside..."

"Okay, ask again."

"Excuse me, should I put the giraffe in the refrigerator...?"

"I know, it means opening the refrigerator door and putting the giraffe inside..."

"Wrong, it's opening the refrigerator door, taking the elephant out, and then putting the giraffe inside..."

"You're bad!" Arlene bit Li Song, and was then fiercely attacked by Li Song.

On Thursday, October 16, 1980, Li Song arrived at the magazine office.

"Mr. Li, someone published an article in the newspaper criticizing you for endorsing a bad director. What do you think of that?"

"Mr. Li, Director Wang's film has been criticized for being a scatological film. What do you think?" Li Song was surrounded by reporters downstairs at the Hong Kong Island Magazine office.

"I'll definitely be there to endorse what I've invested in."

"Isn't it normal to have poop and pee in casinos? If you don't believe me, go to a mahjong parlor and see for yourself. I even doubt the IQ of the people who write these articles." Li Song shrugged after getting out of the car.

"Same as always, each person will give fifty Hong Kong dollars to treat everyone to dinner," Li Song said again, this time the bodyguards were distributing the money.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Zou went to Hollywood for a promotional tour, and I heard it didn't go very well. What do you think?"

"You said you heard it too!"

“Mr. Li, someone has boldly predicted that Temple Run will fail, and even said that it’s neither accurate nor accurate.”

"You said you made a prediction! I even predicted that the whole family of the person who wrote this would die. Do they want to die too?!" Li Song started cursing without restraint. This is how traffic is generated.

(End of this chapter)