Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  Today, since he was in the mood, he sent all the waiters away and worked as the waiter himself. Since there were no customers around at this time, he decided to try out the newly-developed fitness meals.

  Half of the transparent, glass lunch box was filled with sliced, stir-fried beef garnished with onions, carrots, and green peppers. The other half was filled with banana oatcakes and fried codfish.

  There were fish, meat, and vegetables. Not only was this meal healthy, but it also met all nutritional requirements.

  Deposit Fitness had already released the fitness meals that Fish-Catching Take-Out had developed earlier. The feedback was quite good.

  Yet, Rui Yuchen did not stop there. Instead, he continued working hard to develop new fitness meals.

  That was because he knew full well that, even though the Chinese fitness meal satisfied the customers’ taste buds, they would get tired of it after eating it for a long time.

  Thus, he had to ensure a greater variety of cuisines. That way, they would be able to keep changing the meals and maintain the sense of novelty for customers.

  The fitness meals project would only be completed when customers looked forward to eating and no longer saw it as just another task to be completed.

  Now, they had only achieved initial success. They still had to come up with greater variety.

  Rui Yuchen had just picked up his chopsticks when he saw a familiar figure.

  “Brother Lin, you’re here. Take a seat,” said Rui Yuchen warmly.

  Lin Canrong sat down at a random seat and then scanned his surroundings. This was his first time at Fish-Catching Take-Out’s Gourmet Laboratory. Rui Yuchen said to the chef, “Serve one more fitness meal.”

  Lin Canrong looked emotional. “Fish-Catching Take-Out’s Gourmet Laboratory looks pretty good.”

  Rui Yuchen stood up and got a drink for Lin Canrong. Smiling, he answered, “We renovated it according to Boss Pei’s instructions. That’s right, Brother Lin, didn’t you say earlier that you wanted to set up a Gourmet Laboratory for Ming Yun Private Kitchen as well? How’s it going?”

  Lin Canrong shook his head. “Boss Pei didn’t

  agree.”

  “He didn’t?” Rui Yuchen was stunned. “Why not? Setting up a Gourmet Laboratory for Ming Yun Private Kitchen would be more appropriate, so that high-end customers would get a better dining experience, right?” Lin Canrong took the fruit juice from Rui Yuchen and then took a sip. “That’s what I thought at first, too. However, after a lot of consideration, I finally understood what Boss Pei intended.

  “I felt very confused before about why Boss Pei allowed me to spend more money, but not to expand or set up a Gourmet Laboratory. Where was I to spend all that money, then?

  “After some time, I finally decided to spend the money on training employees!”

  Rui Yuchen was stunned. “Training your employees?”

  Lin Canrong nodded. “That’s right. I can spend more money recruiting graduates from Handong University, who know how to speak multiple languages

  “At the same time, I can put all of my waiters through a common training program, so that they can memorize all the dishes on the menu, including how they’re prepared, how much heat to apply, what they taste like, et cetera. That way, they can easily answer any questions that customers may have.

  “I also signed the waiters up for some classes. Once we have more manpower and I come up with their working schedules, I can arrange for them to take turns to learn foreign languages during working hours.” Rui Yuchen: “Huh?”

  Lin Canrong explained, “I thought hard about the clues Boss Pei gave to me before I decided to do this. Boss Pei didn’t allow me to expand the restaurant because Ming Yun Private Kitchen is a high-end restaurant.

  “There are limited ingredients, and the chefs were hired from different parts of the world with large sums of money. They are considered rare talents. If we open more branches, we won’t be able to ensure the quality of the food. That would be akin to destroying our own reputation.

  “That means what Boss Pei cares about is our reputation!

  “If I must continue spending more money, what should I spend it on? Of course, I have to increase the influence of our golden signboard!

  “I kept thinking along those lines. We already have excellent chefs who would only improve with time; spending money on them would be pointless. We already have the best of the best ingredients. That means the only thing that can be improved is our service. “That was why I worked on the waiters!

  “For all we know, foreigners might visit Ming Yun Private Kitchen in the future. If our waiters can speak foreign languages, foreign customers would be even happier. Investing money into this would be very meaningful.”

  A realization dawned on Rui Yuchen. “I see. Boss Pei has such a globalized view. Ming Yun Private Kitchen is indeed very famous in the country already. It’s time we prepared to welcome friends from all over the world.”

  Lin Canrong continued speaking. “On top of that, I signed all of Ming Yun Private Kitchen’s waiters up for sessions at Deposit Fitness.

  “Boss Pei knew that any gym in Ming Yun Villas would incur losses, and yet he still set Deposit Fitness up there. I guessed that he probably did that for the employees! “I spent some time observing the situation, and I was right. He even signed DGE Esports Club up for gym sessions. Thinking that Ming Yun Private Kitchen cannot fall behind, I arranged for the waiters to train there.

  “A few of the waiters have serious problems with managing their physical fitness. That might leave customers with a bad impression. It’s another area to work on.”

  Rui Yuchen nodded. “I see… but I still think it’s possible to set up a Gourmet Laboratory for Ming Yun Private Kitchen.”

  Both men chatted, and the fitness meals were finally ready.

  “Come, Brother Lin. Try the fitness meal that the Gourmet Laboratory just developed.” Rui Yuchen stood up, walked to the kitchen, and served a fitness meal to Lin Canrong.

  Lin Canrong tasted it. “Mm, it’s not bad.” Rui Yuchen smiled. “Brother Lin, you taste Ming Yun Private Kitchen’s dishes every single day. A ‘not bad’ from you is enough to satisfy me.”

  Lin Canrong continued eating. “I really think it’s not bad. For a fitness meal, it’s extremely delicious already.

  “What were we talking about earlier?” Rui Yuchen said, “I was saying that it’s possible for Ming Yun Private Kitchen to set up a Gourmet Laboratory to improve its dishes.”

  Lin Canrong nodded. “That’s right. Boss Pei has thought of that as well.

  “He didn’t allow Ming Yun Private Kitchen to set up a Gourmet Laboratory. He said he would only allow me to use the research results from Fish-Catching Take-Out’s Gourmet Laboratory’.”

  Rui Yuchen was stunned. “Use our research results? They’ll be useless to you. All of them are averagely-priced dishes; you can’t sell them at Ming Yun Private Kitchen.”

  Lin Canrong smiled and shook his head. “That’s what I thought at first, too. However, I later realized that there was more to Boss Pei’s words!

  “Both of our departments are in the food and beverage industry. On the surface, one is a high-end restaurant, and the other is an averagely-priced take-out business. However, both of them are brands under Tengda Corporation!

  “If we each started a Gourmet Laboratory to work on our own projects, we would not be able to maximize common resources. In fact, we would be wasting resources. “What’s more, it makes sense for Fish-Catching Take-Out to set up a Gourmet Laboratory, given its size. Ming Yun Private Kitchen is a small-scale restaurant. No matter how popular it is, there is only one restaurant. Running a Gourmet Laboratory would be exhausting-it would be biting off more than it can chew.

  “However, what if we combined our resources?

  “Boss Pei said he would let Ming Yun Private Kitchen make use of Fish-Catching Take-Out’s research results. He was hinting to us not to draw such a distinct line between us. We ca
n research together and share the results. One Gourmet Laboratory is more than enough!”

  A realization dawned on Rui Yuchen. “Oh, so that’s it!”

  Lin Canrong continued speaking. “That’s why I planned to send chefs to the Gourmet Laboratory regularly. They will try out new cooking methods and new dishes, and your nutritionist and professionals can help to give their feedback.”

  Rui Yuchen nodded decisively. “Of course, I would love that! If you discover new dishes, we would be able to use them as well. It could even inspire those working at the laboratory!”

  Lin Canrong could not help but feel emotional. Boss Pei always had the clearest view of the problem!

  Before this, Lin Canrong had been throwing a minor tantrum. Why should Fish-Catching Take-Out be allowed to rapidly expand despite incurring losses? Why should Ming Yun Private Kitchen remain stagnant despite generating profits for so long?

  Was Boss Pei biased? Now, it was clear that Lin Canrong had misunderstood Boss Pei.

  Boss Pei was emphasizing the fact that Ming Yun Private Kitchen and Fish-Catching Take-Out were both important food and beverage businesses in Tengda Corporation’s plan. Thus, they should work together without being calculative!

  Chapter 537 - Found a way to Backstab Ruan Guangjian!

  June 4th, Saturday…

  At the Management Trainees’ regular meeting…

  Obviously, the Management Trainees had become used to the work that Boss Pei had assigned them. Everything from gathering information to reporting to Boss Pei came naturally to them. They were practically professionals.

  “The three new buildings for Sloth Apartments are being designed. Mr. Liang Qingfan seems to be designing the floor plans while in seclusion.”

  Pei Qian nodded. He already knew about this, and so he did not pay much attention to this update.

  The Management Trainee system’s main function was to keep Pei Qian in control of various departments’ daily operations and the potential to generate profits. However, it was obviously not a panacea.

  For instance, Pei Qian could personally keep an eye on projects that had just started out. That meant the Management Trainees would know even less than Pei Qian himself did.

  On top of that, the Management Trainees could only gather information during working hours. They would not know about whatever the department heads did in private.

  Pei Qian had no way of dealing with that.

  He could not possibly make the Management Trainees follow the department heads around and stare at them 24/7, could he?

  Yet, although the system was not perfect, at least it was an improvement from before.

  “Fish-Catching Take-Out is still investing huge sums of money into developing fitness meals and releasing different flavors. At the same time, it’s planning for the next batch of branches to expand its coverage.”

  Overall, this sounded like good news to Pei Qian. However, there seemed to be some hidden dangers as well.

  He had to admit that Rui Yuchen was daring when it came to spending money. Pei Qian appreciated this a lot. Everything from opening more branches and pouring money into the Gourmet Laboratory made Pei Qian want to clap his hands and cheer. In fact, he wished that Rui Yuchen would ramp up his efforts.

  After all, for Fish-Catching Take-Out, opening one more branch meant incurring that much more losses. Where could Pei Qian find anything better than that?

  As for developing new flavors for the fitness meals…

  That sounded like a hidden danger. However, Pei Qian mainly had two considerations: First, the gym was still incurring losses at the moment. Fancy fitness meals would only encourage those who had already registered at the gym to persevere.

  As long as the gym showed no signs of generating profits yet, Pei Qian could afford to keep an eye on the situation.

  Second, the Gourmet Laboratory was already open. Something had to come out of pouring research funds into it, right? If Pei Qian prohibited Rui Yuchen from developing fitness meals, he could work on researching new dishes to improve Fish-Catching Take-Out instead. That seemed far more harmful.

  Pei Qian had to choose the lesser of two evils; it would be much more worth the while to let Rui Yuchen continue developing new fitness meals.

  “The nameless restaurant is starting its employee training. Employees would be allowed to work out at Deposit Fitness and spend time learning a foreign language. On top of that, the restaurant has hired top students who are proficient in multiple languages directly from Handong University to serve as waiters.

  “New requirements have also been implemented for all waiters. They are now required to memorize the ingredients in each dish, how much heat is applied, how they are prepared, and the like.”

  Eh?

  This news piqued Pei Qian’s interest. He had stopped paying attention to Ming Yun Private Kitchen a long time ago. Now, it looked like Branch Manager Lin had learned a thing or two!

  Pei Qian fell into deep thought. Compared to setting up new branches, investing in waiters seemed to have a lower price-quality ratio. What’s more, he was making his waiters pick up more languages… How many international friends could find out about Ming Yun Private Kitchen?

  Jingzhou was not a cosmopolitan city to begin with. There were very few foreigners in the city, and Ming Yun Private Kitchen was located in a very deserted neighborhood.

  Even if a few foreigners went to Ming Yun Private Kitchen for a meal and discovered that the waiters could speak their language, it would only serve to improve their experience. How dramatic could the effects be?

  The price-quality ratio was indeed very low! Wait, was Lin Canrong only investing in something with such a low price-quality ratio to… spite Pei Qian?

  He had been watching Fish-Catching Take-Out expand rapidly despite not being able to generate profits. On the other hand, Ming Yun Private Kitchen’s request to expand had been decisively rejected.

  That’s why he’s spending all the money that he had earned on something meaningless just to spite me?

  If that’s true, I can only say ‘well done’! Please, work harder!

  “The plan for Thriller Hostel’s shopping mall is complete. It will be called the Golden Maze. Construction started on an urgent basis. This project will be extremely expensive, and Boss Li had to expend a lot of energy to convince other investors to invest in it.” Eh, they fell for my trick?

  Pei Qian was overjoyed. Chen Kangtuo is quite obedient.

  I only requested for them to make the shopping mall a luxurious maze to dupe Boss Li and the other investors. I wanted the renovation fees alone to give them a headache. Yet, he’s really working on a maze, and it’s called the Golden Maze at that. Just the name sounds expensive!

  It’s no wonder that Boss Li had to expend a lot of energy just to convince other investors to buy-in. They probably didn’t think I would go so far as to request that much out of them, right?

  Hmm, not bad… the cracks of dissension and discord are already showing. I only have to do this two more times before every single one of them would run away!

  “Deposit Fitness’s manpower is still largely the same, and there are very few new customers. Old customers are more loyal now, and the number of people who are giving up halfway is falling.

  “I’ve analyzed Deposit Fitness’s current data and discovered two main reasons for these trends: first, the improvement in the fitness meals has made it easier for people to persevere. More importantly, there’s survivor bias.

  “The customers who can persevere have already gotten used to such fitness plans, and that’s why they can be increasingly loyal. However, that doesn’t mean the gym is doing better.

  “After all, we can’t attract new customers. No matter how loyal these old customers are, they cannot help the gym to generate profits.”

  Mm, that’s good. This Management Trainee is truly a planner in Deposit Fitness. He could process all the gym’s data and analyze the situation so clearly and thoroughly!

&nb
sp; After all the Management Trainees had made their reports, Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction.

  “Good job, everyone. I want to especially praise Deposit Fitness’s Management Trainee. You’ve analyzed the situation based on objective data, and your entire report was built on the foundation of facts and figures. That’s more pragmatic than offering idealistic judgments.

  “Everyone else, learn from him and use figures in your observations. After all, numbers will never lie. Alright, our meeting will end here. Thank you for your hard work. Goodbye!”

  After the meeting, Pei Qian left the office, intending to go to the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe for a while.

  When he arrived, he ordered a cup of coffee as usual. Then, he retrieved the laptop that he left at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and continued working on the mind map of inter-departmental relationships.

  Half an hour later, Pei Qian decided to take a break by surfing the web. All of a sudden, he noticed an exciting piece of news.

  GOG’s new hero-Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan-had been released!

  This piece of news had been posted in the games section. The hero was to be released today, almost immediately after the Traveler Bao Xu. Pei Qian had to admit that the team was very efficient.

  They were just as fast as IOI’s designers in terms of updating the game’s content.

  Pei Qian scrolled down. This piece of news did more than introduce the Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan’s concept art, model, background story, and skills. It also gave readers a preview of the hero’s gameplay and commented on the ‘arms race’ between GOG and IOI.

  “Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan is a calligrapher, an artist, and a knight filled with romanticism. The artist’s lifelong mission is to inject life in his work and chase after breakthroughs.

  “As a lofty and unorthodox genius with painting skills that are way ahead of his times, he is the target of dissatisfaction and exclusion by other painters. Thus, he chooses to wander around the world, letting his paintings remain on tall mountains and in coursing rivers instead of trying to blend in among mediocrities.