Rebirth 04: Starting from Taking an Unconventional Approach

At six o'clock in the morning, Zhang Qiming woke up in his hotel room with a stomachache. He knew he shouldn't have drunk so much at the banquet the night before, but there was nothing he could do about it.

At yesterday afternoon's meeting, Chen Yuanshan announced the key support areas for the second half of the year during the "Policy Interpretation and Next Steps" session, which included content-based SPs, so Zhang Qiming was in a good mood.

At the dinner, Wang Hongxin and Sun Weimin sat on his left and right sides, showing unprecedented enthusiasm for cooperation. Amidst the cheers of their colleagues and glasses of Wuliangye liquor, they finalized some directions for future cooperation.

Zhang Qiming tossed and turned in bed until 7:30, finally giving up on falling back asleep and getting out of bed. He leisurely ate the hotel breakfast and drank a cup of coffee, immediately feeling much better about his stomachache.

Just after eight o'clock, Chen Yuanshan called and asked him to come to the company for a meeting. Zhang Qiming arrived at the mobile headquarters building, by which time his stomach pain had completely subsided. He took the elevator to the small conference room on the sixth floor.

There were already seven people sitting at the table in the conference room. Besides Chen Yuanshan, there were Liu Zhenhua, Fang Jing, Zhao Guoqiang, Wang Hongxin, and Sun Weimin, as well as a young man that Zhang Qiming did not recognize.

Everyone had a cup of coffee in front of them, and a pot of fresh coffee was steaming on the coffee machine. Suit jackets were hanging on the chairs, seemingly to create a relaxed and lively atmosphere for the meeting.

"We've been waiting for you," Chen Yuanshan said. "Come and sit down."

Zhang Qiming nodded to everyone and sat down next to Chen Yuanshan. Wang Hongxin poured him a cup of coffee.

"Everyone's here," Chen Yuanshan said. "Mr. Liu, may we begin?"

Liu Zhenhua nodded: "Let's begin."

"Okay." Chen Yuanshan sat up straight. "Today's meeting is small in scale, but very important. There's only one topic: the Bluebird Reading project—what support can headquarters provide, how will they provide it, and to what extent...?"

"Uh," Zhang Qiming interrupted, "before we officially begin, I'd like to report something. There were too many people at yesterday's meeting, so it wasn't appropriate for me to bring it up, but I feel that headquarters needs to know about this."

"What is it?" Liu Zhenhua asked.

"In terms of promotion channels, the Qingniao team initially adopted a lightweight pilot model. They conducted small-scale business cooperation tests with mobile service centers around Shanghai, leveraging the service centers' advantage of reaching grassroots users to verify the effectiveness of SMS promotion. The advantage of this approach is that it is low-cost and quick to produce results, making it suitable for startup teams. It was through this method that they quickly ran the entire process from sending SMS messages to users paying, verifying the feasibility of the model."

A few seconds of silence followed. Zhang Qiming knew that everyone else was thinking the same thing as him: Was this practice in accordance with the regulations?

Zhang Qiming's answer was "it doesn't fit," but he had to do it, and there was no time to lose.

If headquarters decides to support Han Fei's project, there will definitely be people who oppose it, and the source of Qingniao's initial phone numbers will be traced and found out sooner or later.

Rather than waiting until then to be caught red-handed, questioned, or even held accountable, it's better to disclose things honestly now. This will not only mitigate potential risks but also eliminate information asymmetry, deepen the trust of headquarters, and send a clear signal to headquarters: the cooperation between the Shanghai branch and Qingniao is sound and there is nothing shady about it. It will also demonstrate Han Fei's entrepreneurial wisdom and execution ability.

Zhao Guoqiang took a sip of coffee, his face hardening: "Qiming, how exactly do you mean by 'business cooperation testing'? Do those branch offices have the authority to do that?"

"To be honest, this model is indeed outside the formal procedures. Local branches don't have the authority to sell numbers directly, and relying on this method long-term is risky. But Mr. Zhao also knows that cooperating with China Mobile in a formal way requires corporate qualifications, a deposit, and an approval process that takes at least a month. For a publishing house in dire straits, going through formal channels is simply a pipe dream. It's not that they chose to break the rules, but that formal channels simply aren't open to them, forcing them to resort to unorthodox methods. Moreover, Qingniao was able to obtain numbers more based on personal connections and workarounds at the grassroots level. This is why I said this model is unsustainable and requires support from headquarters."

Seeing everyone turn to look at him, Zhang Qiming cleared his throat. He felt his voice fading away, so he cleared his throat again: "But we must also see that it is precisely this flexibility that has given a publishing house on the verge of bankruptcy the opportunity to validate a business model that could potentially change the SP (Service Provider) landscape. Now that the model is working, they are constantly standardizing their operations, assigning people to establish ledgers, recording the source, location, and activation time of each number, and keeping the accounts clear. They are more willing to completely abandon this gray channel and take the legitimate route. I think this is the best time for our headquarters to intervene and help them transform from a guerrilla force into a legitimate one."

Zhao Guoqiang crossed his arms in front of his chest, his neck muscles contracting and relaxing repeatedly.

Liu Zhenhua exchanged a glance with Chen Yuanshan, then smiled and shook his head.

Wang Hongxin and Sun Weimin looked completely bewildered.

"Qiming, you don't need to be so nervous," Liu Zhenhua said with a smile. "I understand the situation you're describing. Grassroots levels have their difficulties, and innovation has its costs. The key is whether people are aware of the problems and willing to correct them. Since Qingniao is willing to go through the proper channels, we should give them that opportunity."

"Yes," Fang Jing said, looking down at the document, "this is normal. Almost all successful startups have gone through a gray area in their early stages. For example, Microsoft bundled its own Internet Explorer browser with Windows and restricted computer manufacturers from pre-installing other browsers. There's also Alibaba's promotional strategy for its B2B membership services. But these companies later 'cleaned up' their image, became compliant, accepted regulations, and became giants. Without that early period of rapid, unregulated growth, they wouldn't have survived to the day they 'cleaned up' their image."

Zhang Qiming breathed a sigh of relief: "So, esteemed leaders, the reason I'm bringing this up today isn't to excuse Qingniao. What I want to say is that this small publishing house succeeded not because of violations, but because of the survival wisdom it developed under duress. Now..."

Liu Zhenhua raised a hand, interrupting his incessant talking, a helpless smile on his face: "Qiming, I've already said I understand, are you still not reassured? Do you want to continue the discussion?"

"I do!" Zhang Qiming said immediately. "It was my fault, leader."

The crowd burst into laughter.

"Alright," Liu Zhenhua said, "Let's begin formally. Fang Jing, you start by telling us about the strategic department's assessment."