Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 1096 The Drawbacks of Overly Rapid Development

The new mayor of Dalian is rather easygoing and carefree, while the new party secretary is the opposite, with the typical demeanor of a veteran state-owned enterprise cadre. Perhaps it's because he's from the south and has only been in Liaodong for a short time, making him somewhat out of place here.

Leaders who come from the corporate world and those who rise through the ranks of the government are essentially two completely different biological systems, with significant differences. The regional differences between the South and the North are even greater, creating a feeling of several cultural backgrounds being fused together.

However, this had nothing to do with Xiaowei; he didn't want to get involved in things he didn't understand. Besides, in the short term, the company's main goal was to complete the construction and connection of logistics warehouses and to supplement the construction of shopping malls in various cities, with a focus definitely on Kyoto.

The distribution network in Liaodong is almost complete, with Xidu already open. The next step is to start the distribution network in Jibei. Even if we continue to invest in Dalian, it will be after the overall framework is in place, which is estimated to take at least three or five years.

The two provinces of Jibei and Heilongjiang are very different from Liaodong. There are few large cities, especially in this era. To put it bluntly, many cities are actually similar to the larger county towns in Liaodong.

Like Beixi, which ranked fifth in Liaodong Province at this time, it was a relatively large city, but in fact it was no smaller than Xidu and Bingcheng.

So after discussion, the three decided that in Jibei, they would only visit Jibei City, Yanbian Prefecture, and Baicheng for the time being, and put other places aside for the time being. In Longjiang, they chose Daqing, QQHE and JMS.

With the Xidu and Bingcheng projects underway, Chen Hui and Xiao Wei no longer need to personally go to the prefecture-level cities below; Hao Dawei's development company can handle everything perfectly well.

That's why Xiaowei sent Chen Hui to Xidu while he went to Dalian.

Construction in Harbin is still a long way off; the demolition work hasn't been completed yet, and Xiaowei even doubts the possibility of construction starting in 93.

After the shopping mall and hotel opened and he spent a few days entertaining officials in the city and district, Xiaowei returned to Fengtian.

Chen Hui returned a day earlier than him. Geng Hui, on the other hand, returned later than Xiao Wei. She took the opportunity to check the accounts of the restaurants, food factories, and other establishments over there.

"So? What did you find on this trip?" A few people sat on the sofa in Xiaowei's meeting room and talked.

Chen Hui shook his head: "What a load of rubbish! It's just constant dealing with people, so exhausting. Now I really know what my parents feel every day. You know it's meaningless and fake, but you still have to listen to it as if it were real."

Li Na said, "I'm alright. Everyone knows I'm just an employee, and they didn't say anything difficult. They were just testing me, but I didn't understand. Now we've become a hot commodity, and it feels like everyone wants to take a bite out of us."

Chen Hui said, "Fortunately, this foreign investment came at the right time. My husband Chen is indeed wise."

Geng Hui said, "We don't have enough finance staff, so we need to find a way to recruit some. Could we talk to relevant universities about sponsored training programs? We could select some people to go there for training. That way, we'll have a much higher chance of retaining those who come back, and their loyalty will be much higher."

Xiao Wei asked, "Are there any age restrictions?"

Geng Hui said, "No, we're not a state-owned enterprise. As long as we have the ability, that's enough."

Xiao Wei said, "Let's recruit a group from the families of military personnel and police officers, basically between twenty and thirty-five years old, and we'll pay for them to study accounting at a finance and accounting school for a year."

Chen Hui said, "Okay, let's set up a separate training program. But isn't that too slow? A year? How can we manage in just one year? This year won't be enough, and next year there will be another surge. We can't just slack off, can we? We have to be able to get by."

Geng Hui said, "Could we find a way to first poach a group of people from state-owned enterprises, and then select a group of people with some basic skills from all the employees below, and put them in an expedited course for three to five months to fill in? We can also run a one-year course here at the same time, and switch them. After the one-year course is over, the people in the expedited course can go back to catch up."

Sister Jin said, "Cooks, nowadays all chefs are recruited from the community, and it's not very stable. We still need to start our chef training program."

Xiaowei said, "A chef won't do; that requires experience, and training them yourself is too slow. But let's open one anyway, setting up a chef training class is better than nothing. Xiaohui, try to find some connections and see if you can bring back a few head chefs, the kind with long-term contracts, at least five years."

Chen Hui said, "I'll give it a try. These days, all the decent chefs with a bit of a reputation are aiming to manage the kitchen. They earn more and have more say in management."

Sister Jin said, "That's right. Good chefs are hard to find these days. If you're even slightly famous, they won't even look at you if you're offered a salary. Restaurants feel like they're inferior to others if they don't have a famous chef."

Xiao Wei said, "Don't listen to that. Famous or not, just make sure the food is good. We're not competing with that. Good food and good service are more important than anything else. We don't rely on any chef to gain fame. Otherwise, will it be your restaurant or his? That would be too passive."

Li Na said, "I think so too. We didn't have any celebrities before, but we were still very popular. In the end, it still comes down to the quality of the food and service."

Chen Hui laughed and said, "It's all nonsense anyway. Liu Jingxian is famous, he's right there. Do you think you can eat his cooking if you go there?"

Li Na said to Xiao Wei, "I'm also short-staffed here, especially in middle management. I've asked Wang Dawei to go to Hong Kong to see if he can recruit a few. We also need to think about recruiting here. Let's see where to look."

Xiao Wei turned to Chen Hui and said, "How's it going? All the bad things have come out, haven't they? We need to stabilize for the next two or three years, otherwise we'll collapse, and people simply can't keep up."

Chen Hui thought for a moment and said, "It's fine. We don't need many people in the real estate sector. Let's build houses. We can leave the areas for our own use empty for now, so it won't tie up much capital. In the future, we can separate office buildings from residential buildings. We need to increase the number of office buildings, as there are more and more companies and enterprises now."

Li Na said, "Anyway, I can't keep up. The occupancy rate of high-end hotels is not high right now, and there is indeed a shortage of staff. I need to get things sorted out first, so don't rush me."

Sister Jin put her arm around Li Na's shoulder and swayed her back, saying, "I can keep up. My biggest problem is the stability of the chefs. It's not that hard to recruit them, so I feel it's most cost-effective to train a batch myself."

Xiao Wei said, "The restaurant can't expand blindly. In fact, the risks here are much greater than those here for Li Na. The restaurant needs people to come and eat. Our business isn't for mass consumption, so we need to be more cautious."

Actually, the least restricted sectors for us are shopping malls and supermarkets. As long as the logistics are in place, there won't be any problems. So I feel that in the past two years, real estate has been leading the way, followed by shopping malls and supermarkets, while hotels and restaurants are left to their own devices.

"Is that alright? We don't need to worry about Oguri Min's side; she's developing her own business. Right now, that's the only area where we don't need to be too concerned. As for real estate, I feel that in the current market, could we do some low-end housing?"

Li Na said, "It's definitely going to work, go for it, really. There's a housing shortage right now, and the company isn't building any more. There are plenty of families in our area who can't afford the apartments with elevators and can only look on helplessly. If you had a regular apartment worth 10,000 or 20,000 yuan right now, try it and see, it'd be a huge hit."

Chen Hui said, "Nonsense, if elevator apartments are already this crowded, do you even need to tell me about regular ones? It is indeed a bit fast. To be honest, it's thanks to your excellent leadership, Xiao Wei, that I have to give you credit, otherwise it would be even worse. I really never thought about the human element."

Xiao Wei said, "It's easy to recruit people, and managing the upper management is actually relatively easy. The middle management, however, has the highest requirements for employees and is the most difficult to manage. Let's take it slow. Once our training center is up and running, it will solve some of the problems."

(End of this chapter)