I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

So it wasn't a mentally challenged kid, but President Shen... what a joke!

Zhong Weiting remained silent.

"..."

On his way here, he had imagined countless scenarios of his first meeting with Shen Kang:

Perhaps, Mr. Shen was busy in a store, assigning tasks to his employees. When they came forward to "pay their respects," Mr. Shen paused, smiled kindly at them, and said, "You've come."

Perhaps, after they arrived at their destination, sat down, and waited for a while, Mr. Shen hurriedly came over with his books, put them down, smiled with youthful exuberance, and said, "Teacher, you've gone overtime."

It's even possible that Mr. Shen, with a woman on each side, was leisurely sipping coffee. When he saw them arrive, he patted the two beauties on the butt, telling them to go have fun on their own, as he had important business to attend to...

Zhong Weiting even anticipated the extreme scenario of "one dragon and two phoenixes".

But he never expected that there would be even more extreme situations.

This kind of first encounter was something Zhong Weiting could never have imagined, no matter how hard he racked his brains.

So shocking...

Earlier, Li Su found Shen Kang's abstract behavior of standing by the roadside disciplining a female dog quite acceptable, asking, "What are you doing?"

Shen Kang's attention was temporarily diverted from the little female dog in front of him.

He had just arrived from Ma Liang's place and was waiting for Li Su and the others.

Since I had nothing to do for the time being, I started to wander around. When I got here, I saw this little female dog and started interacting with her.

When Li Su asked him, Shen Kang remained calm and serious, replying, "Looking for business opportunities and inspiration."

"..."

Li Su remained silent.

After a moment, he finally spoke: "Brother, if I'm not mistaken, you were just chatting with a dog because you were bored out of your mind?"

Shen Kang corrected the fallacy in his statement, "Talking to a dog doesn't mean I'm just bored. Is it possible that this is actually a way for me to find inspiration?"

Before Li Su could answer, he magnanimously decided not to dwell on the topic and instead looked at the group of people behind Li Su.

"Is this the new Yangcheng team?"

Li Su stopped worrying about whether Shen Kang was just bored or looking for inspiration, and quickly called over the others to introduce them to Shen Kang one by one.

"She is Cai Jiaying, now the training supervisor at Yangcheng. He is Li Haoping, now the maintenance supervisor at Yangcheng..."

When they first met, Shen Kang didn't have time to pay attention to that little female dog.

When the little female dog realized he wasn't going to play with her anymore, she tucked her tail between her legs and ran away in a flash.

As Li Su was introducing himself, he also introduced Zhong Weiting.

"...He is Zhong Weiting, and he is now the manager of Yangcheng."

Shen Kang nodded to Zhong Weiting as if he had met the previous people, said "hello," and gave Zhong Weiting another look.

Although he had never met Zhong Weiting in person, he still knew of the person.

He knew about several other people, including Cai Jiaying and Li Haoping. After all, their promotions were all reported by Kang Zhengyang and ultimately approved by him, the boss.

Therefore, Shen Kang also knew that Zhong Weiting came from 58.com.

This is quite rare within Anjia Home Services' system. It shows that Anjia Home Services has become attractive, which is great.

After getting acquainted, Shen Kang beckoned everyone to follow him and led them to a coffee shop.

Zhong Weiting followed behind, his gaze fixed on the back of Shen Kang's head, his expression complex.

The shock he felt from that first encounter is still lingering.

So much so that Zhong Weiting felt a similar sensation to a line from the movie "The God of Cookery":

He is arrogant, yet kind-hearted; he is unassuming, yet respected. He can transform the traditional, declining industry of "domestic service" into something entirely new, creating a business model that can be described as a work of art. He can also be like a mentally challenged person, chatting animatedly with a dog on the street.

Is he an incarnation of a god? Or a messenger from hell? No one knows. But one thing is certain: everyone gives him a title—President Shen!

Zhong Weiting felt that this line of dialogue could well summarize his complex feelings at this moment.

The others, unlike Zhong Weiting, did not focus their attention on Shen Kang.

They were all long-time employees of Anjia Household Services and had met and known Shen Kang before, but Shen Kang probably didn't know them very well.

Now that they've arrived at Yangko University of Science and Technology, their attention is more focused on the students passing by on campus and the shops on Xiaodong Street.

They were whispering among themselves.

"This is university. This is my first time here."

"Me too."

"College students are different; they carry books everywhere they go."...

They were all long-time employees of Anjia Household Services, and none of them had a high level of education.

People with low levels of education often have a certain degree of academic worship.

In addition, most of the company's senior executives, such as Kang Zhengyang, Li Su, and Zhong Weiting, are university graduates, and these people are indeed very capable.

Not to mention, their boss is also a college student.

This gave them a profound feeling—college students are awesome, college students are all elites.

Therefore, their words were full of admiration for college students.

However, they didn't get to watch for long.

The coffee shop was just a few steps away from one end of Xiaodong Street, so they followed Shen Kang inside.

Guo Pinyan is still at Thousand Min University, not at the coffee shop, but that's okay.

Shen Kang is now the second largest shareholder of the coffee shop, and all the employees have been informed of this. So, when they saw Shen Kang come in, the waiter still greeted him as "President Shen".

Shen Kang nodded to him and said, "Make some coffee and bring it in. Check the number of people; one classic latte per person will do. Put it on my tab."

The waiter replied, "Okay."

Shen Kang then led a few people from the An family to the private room in the coffee shop—this place had almost become his private meeting room as the second largest shareholder.

After entering the private room, Shen Kang arranged for everyone to sit down, and the group sat in a circle.

"I've called everyone here today because, as you all know, I'm launching a website called Huanhuan.com, and I need Anjia Household Services to coordinate and cooperate on some specific matters."

Shen Kang started the conversation, but then abruptly changed the subject.

"However, while I was disciplining that little bitch, I suddenly had a new idea, so let's not talk about today's scheduled meeting topic, but talk about this new idea I just had."

"?"

Li Su was astonished.

He thought that "finding inspiration" was just his older brother's excuse, but he didn't expect that he would actually have inspiration.

Zhong Weiting was also surprised.

He thought that Mr. Shen had some strange habit of pretending to be mentally challenged. Unexpectedly, Mr. Shen's seemingly abstract action actually contained a deeper meaning.

Cai Jiaying and Li Haoping were also surprised, and then they sighed inwardly: President Shen is indeed a college student. College students are terrifying. He can even find inspiration by talking to a dog.

Ignoring everyone's reactions, Shen Kang began to talk about his new inspiration.

"This idea suddenly came to me when I was disciplining that little bitch and talking about 'socializing upwards'."

"Do you usually keep up with the latest business developments in other industries?"

After raising this question, Shen Kang looked around.

Everyone looked at each other, wondering what Shen Kang meant, and no one spoke up for the time being.

Seeing this, Shen Kang didn't wait and continued, "Intel has just launched its official fan community in my country, and Marriott Hotels is also building an online travel community exclusively for its members..."

He cited examples of large corporations starting to build various communities.

"...In general, some large companies are working on building 'brand vertical communities.' I call this concept 'brand community building.'"

"I believe that brand community building will be a very important thing, or even a powerful tool, in the future. Once successfully built, it will greatly increase customer loyalty, enhance brand appeal and strength, and extend brand life. These large companies are clearly thinking the same way as me."

After Shen Kang finished speaking, he looked at the people present.

Zhong Weiting was deep in thought, his brow furrowed.

Li Su seemed to be deep in thought.

Li Haoping and the others looked somewhat bewildered.

In general, I either only half understood or didn't understand at all.

Shen Kang then changed his approach.

"This concept might be a bit abstract, so let me give you an example to make it easier for everyone to understand. Let's take our Anjia Home Service as an example."

"If Anjia Home Service creates a branded vertical community and succeeds, and many of our users join, then this scenario might occur."

"Client A posted a message in this community saying that their child is preparing to learn piano and asked which institution offers the best piano training. Client B saw this message in the community. Coincidentally, Client B's child had learned piano and was very satisfied with the service quality of a certain piano teaching institution. So, Client B recommended it to Client A. Client A and Client B got to know each other, and after visiting the institution recommended by Client B, Client A was also very satisfied with the teaching quality there."

"Client C posted a message in this community, asking how the newly opened French restaurant on Handong Road tasted and if anyone had eaten there. The customer had just tried it and saw the message, so they contacted Client C and told him about their experience at the restaurant. That's how Client C and the customer got to know each other."

"Through these and other methods, more and more Anjia Home Services clients have gotten to know each other in our Anjia community."

"This changes the relationship between Anjia and its clients."

At this point, Shen Kang gave a mid-section summary.

"In the past, customers were like pieces on a Go board, filling the entire board. Anjia Home Services is like a single point in the air above the board."

"Each customer's chess piece grows a line that leads to our Anjia Home Service in the sky. The overall shape is somewhat like a pyramid."

Shen Kang gestured.

With a little imagination, it's easy for anyone to come up with such a model.

"In this model, if a new housekeeping company emerges that does a better job and is cheaper than us, it could potentially steal our relationships."

"Our relationship with our clients will be like this."

Shen Kang stretched out his right hand, made a V-sign, and made a horizontal cut in the air, as if severing the lines of countless chess pieces extending towards the settlement point in the sky.

"It's broken."

"Those customer pieces become isolated pieces again. A new point on the board will extend lines that connect to these customer pieces, creating new connections with them."

"This new point, together with the customers who originally belonged to us, will form a new pyramid. And Anjia Home Services will only become a lonely point on the chessboard, with no customer pieces connecting to it."

"This is the vulnerability of our old model."

Zhong Weiting's eyes lit up.

He had actually understood Shen Kang's meaning to some extent before, but it was still somewhat vague. However, once Shen Kang's "theory of Go" came out, the whole concept became completely clear to him.

Li Haoping and the others, who were initially confused, finally understood Shen Kang's meaning and gained a better understanding of the current state of the An family's model.

For the first time, they saw so clearly the true nature of the relationship between homeowners and their clients.

Seeing that everyone understood, Shen Kang continued.

"But this model changes after the brand becomes a community."

"Brand community building is like this: the original 'home point' above the chessboard shoots out a line, connects to the chessboard, and then spreads, turning the entire chessboard into part of the home."

"The function of the chessboard is to create new horizontal lines on it. Client pieces can use these lines to connect with other client pieces."

"The chessboard of Anjia is like a dense spider web. The customer chess pieces are like little insects stuck in the spider web."

At this point, Shen Kang extended his right hand and made a scissor gesture. Then, just like before, he made a parallel cut in the air, shortening the lines connecting all the pieces to the "settlement point" in the air.

"If a new housekeeping company emerges at this time, offering better service and lower prices, these advantages will still act like a pair of scissors, severing the connection between customers and us."

But it didn't work.

"Those customer pieces are still stuck in the spider web of the Anjia chessboard. They need to take scissors and cut all the lines connecting those customer pieces one by one to free those customers and then turn them into their customers."

Shen Kang laughed as he said this.

"This is a huge undertaking; let them cut it down slowly."

Just then, the waiter knocked on the door and brought out all the freshly made coffees, placing them one by one in front of everyone.

Shen Kang then paused the topic to give everyone time to digest the concept, saying, "Let's take a break and digest this concept."

While everyone was digesting the concept, Shen Kang picked up his latte and took a sip.

Before he could even put it down, Li Su, who was sitting to his right, spoke up.

"Brother, I was a little skeptical at first, thinking you were just making things up, but I didn't expect you to actually have a new idea!"

Li Su was deeply moved.

Shen Kang's brand community building and chessboard theory truly broadened his horizons and earned his high praise.

But at the same time, Li Su was also puzzled, "Can you really gain inspiration by talking to a dog? What's the principle behind that?"

Shen Kang put down his coffee and said seriously, "Hegel once said something that I don't know if you've heard: 'Even the greatest genius, though he may lie on the grass day and night, letting the breeze blow and gazing at the sky, will never be visited by gentle inspiration.'"

Li Su scratched his face, thought for a moment, and asked, "What do you mean?"

He's very good with computers, but he's not so good at literature.

Sitting to Shen Kang's left, Zhong Weiting spoke up, "What I mean is that even the greatest genius won't have inspiration come to them if they just daydream and wait."

Shen Kang nodded. "That's exactly what I mean. What you do isn't important. You can talk to your dog, go shopping, or even take your grandfather on a blind date. What you do isn't important; what's important is that you take action."

Li Su seemed to understand something, nodded silently, and pondered: Should he also develop this habit? When he has nothing to do, should he go to the school, catch a dog, and chat with it? Taking his grandfather to a blind date is out of the question, his grandmother would beat him to death.

Zhong Weiting, after explaining what he had just said, fell silent, his head slightly lowered, as if he had something on his mind.

On the other side, a pair of eyes were watching this side.

The owner of those eyes was Li Haoping, the newly appointed maintenance supervisor of Yangcheng.

This is a forty-year-old man with a junior high school education. He has a rough and somewhat simple face, looking much like an old farmer.

He was also a long-time employee of Anjia, starting from cleaning. Later, when Anjia Home Service expanded into appliance repair, Li Haoping, having worked as an unlicensed electrician before, had some experience and was recruited into the appliance repair department.

Because of his hard work, intelligence, and proactive learning ability, he quickly mastered skills and thus stood out from the crowd, succeeding Meng Dawei as the head of the Yangcheng maintenance department.

After listening to Shen Kang finish speaking, he closed his eyes and rested for a while.

He is ultimately no match for those cultured young people.

Even though Shen Kang had tried his best to explain it in a simple and easy-to-understand way and gave various examples, Li Haoping still needed a while to digest it before he could fully understand it.

Then, Li Haoping opened his eyes, somewhat excited, and couldn't wait to express his feelings to President Shen.

However, he saw that Shen Kang was talking to Li Su and Zhong Weiting, so he temporarily suppressed his anger.

As soon as Shen Kang and the others finished speaking, Li Haoping couldn't wait to speak.

"Mr. Shen, you explained it so well! I only knew how to work before, but after listening to your explanation, I actually understand what Anjia Housekeeping is all about!"

Shen Kang looked at him and chuckled, "So, what do you think? Should we fix this spider web?"

Li Haoping nodded firmly, "We have to do it, we definitely have to do this spider web!"

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Okay, it seems everyone has reached a consensus."

Shen Kang nodded. "Next, let's talk about how to build this brand community and how all parties can cooperate. Of course, you, Li Su, will have the heaviest workload in the early stages of this matter."

Li Su nodded, not surprised at all—as soon as he understood the concept of brand community building, he knew it involved a significant online presence. As the platform's technical lead, he was sure to have new responsibilities.

But he didn't expect the burden to be so heavy.

"I want to see the brand community launched within seven days."

Li Su stumbled and almost fell off the chair.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, grabbing the table and holding on.

Then, with a look of utter despair, he looked at Shen Kang and said, "Just kill me, brother."

Shen Kang chuckled, "Don't be so pessimistic, I haven't finished yet. I already have a community here, the Beiming Community, you know that, right? I'll call Ma Liang over, the two of you can coordinate and modify the Beiming Community's source code, that should reduce the workload a lot."

Reminded by Shen Kang, Li Su finally remembered the Beiming Community and thought, "Yes, that's right." So, he wasn't so hopeless after all.

Shen Kang immediately called Ma Liang and asked him to come over.

After making the call, while waiting for Ma Liang to arrive, Shen Kang continued to discuss other specific matters.

"Let me share my thoughts on this brand community, and I welcome your feedback. Please feel free to share your opinions or additions at any time."

"The first step is positioning."

"Everyone should be very clear about the spending power of our Anjia Home Services clients. They are middle-to-high-income groups, high-net-worth individuals. In other words, they are petit-bourgeois and above."

"These kinds of people crave a sense of superiority, so the first card I'm going to play is 'identity recognition'."

"Our first step is to set a threshold for this community. Not all users who have purchased Anjia Home Services can join this community. For example, if you've only purchased Anjia's routine cleaning service once, do you think you can join this community? No way."

"For example, you would need to be a stable, long-term customer of Anjia Home Services, and have spent at least 2,000 yuan with us to be eligible to join this community. Of course, this is just a figure I'm mentioning right now; we'll need to study the specific threshold more carefully later."

Upon hearing this, Cai Jiaying couldn't help but speak up, "President Shen, according to what you just said, shouldn't it be better for us to have more customers join this community? Why are you now raising the bar and pushing some people out?"

Shen Kang replied to her: "Theoretically, it would be best if all customers were tied to Anjia's branded communities, but in reality, we also need to consider the rate of return."

"Our first step is to attract our core, highest-quality customers and bind them to our community. Only after we've accomplished that can we consider expanding our reach."

Cai Jiaying then asked, "So, by adding a threshold, we can attract the most core and high-quality customers and keep them tied to our community?"

Shen Kang chuckled. "Of course. It's actually a kind of artificially created sense of scarcity, superiority, and identity—look, you poor guys can't get into this circle, right? But I can. The people in this circle with me are all elites, and correspondingly, I am also an elite, a superior person in this circle. This kind of mentality is a kind of attraction."

A supermarket in later years also used this tactic quite skillfully.