Having let Duan Jian go, Feng Haidong was left to handle the crayfish cooking at the restaurant that night all by himself.
Fortunately, Chen Zhiyong and Song Rui seemed to be affected by Duan Jian's departure. The two young men were very motivated. They not only worked very hard, but also went to the kitchen to humbly ask Feng Haidong for advice.
Feng Haidong could tell that the two wanted to learn how to cook crayfish as soon as possible so that they could help him with the cooking.
Although in Feng Haidong's mind, crayfish is no longer the restaurant's next focus.
But Chen Zhiyong and Song Rui were eager to learn, so he still gave them a serious and detailed explanation.
The crayfish restaurants weren't doing very well in the evening.
However, many regular customers were very happy to see Feng Haidong return, and some even made phone calls to invite friends to come and support him.
So although the business can't compare to what it was before Feng Haidong left, it's still better than when Yang Chengjian and his team were running it.
After closing time in the evening, everyone cleaned up inside and outside the restaurant.
Feng Haidong sent several new waiters back first, but kept Yang Chengjian and Dong Xia, as well as Chen Zhiyong, Liu Fang, Zhang Yongyan, and Song Rui behind.
For Feng Haidong, he couldn't fully trust the newly recruited waiters because he hadn't had much contact with them yet.
The people who stayed behind that night were those whom Feng Haidong could trust; they were essentially his original core group.
After everyone sat down, Yang Chengjian finally couldn't help but say, "Brother Feng, I'm really sorry, business at our restaurant hasn't been very good while you were away."
Feng Haidong smiled and asked Yang Chengjian to sit down first.
"Don't say that. I heard from Wanhong that your daily turnover is still very good. Although it has decreased compared to before, it's not your fault."
Although Yang Chengjian sat down, he still felt somewhat guilty: "Brother Feng, I haven't managed the restaurant well."
Feng Haidong patted Yang Chengjian and said, "Chengjian, what are you saying? I already said, this is not your problem."
Then Feng Haidong gave everyone an analysis.
"Actually, before I left, I had already been thinking about it. Our crayfish restaurant only serves crayfish, which is indeed too limited in variety. After eating crayfish for a while, people will definitely get tired of it, so the business will naturally not be as good as before."
After hearing this, Chen Zhiyong said, "Uncle Dong, it's true that everyone has been eating this for too long, and they might be starting to get a little tired of it."
Song Rui said, "I don't think we're tired of eating here, are we? I see quite a few people come every night."
Feng Haidong said, "Yes, Song Rui is right. Although it looks like our turnover has decreased, it hasn't actually decreased by much. In fact, there were a few days when our turnover even rebounded quite a bit."
So it can't be simply explained by getting tired of eating it, but I still think that only serving crayfish might be a bit monotonous.
Upon hearing Feng Haidong say this again, Yang Cheng immediately asked, "Brother Feng, are you planning to launch something new?"
Feng Haidong nodded and said, "Yes, I plan to launch a new product, which will be sold alongside crayfish."
Dong Xia then spoke up, saying, "Indeed, we should introduce some new products, because the quality of crayfish will gradually decline as we enter September, and by October and November, there will be almost no crayfish left. If we introduce new products then, it may take some time for customers to adapt."
Feng Haidong agreed with Dong Xia: "Xiao Dong is right, we must plan ahead."
Feng Haidong then said, "I made some new discoveries during my trip to other places. I've decided to launch some new products. One of them is already in contact with raw material suppliers. Once the raw material suppliers are secured, we can get started. The other one may need to wait a while longer."
Everyone was quite surprised to hear Feng Haidong say that he had made preparations, and more than one.
Chen Zhiyong thought for a moment and said excitedly, "Uncle Dong, you are really amazing. You can learn new things after just one trip."
Feng Haidong said with a smile, "Now that I'm out here, I'm sure I'll learn something new to come back with."
Recalling Feng Qifan's words, Song Rui immediately said, "No wonder Fanfan said at noon, Boss, you're not afraid. It turns out you were prepared all along."
Feng Haidong said, "I was already thinking about new dishes before I came back, but I didn't expect that I would encounter Duan Jian resigning from his job as soon as I got back."
Song Rui immediately said, "That kid Duan Jian, when you're not here, he's always like that. He acts like we all depend on him, and he's very arrogant towards us. If we urge him to hurry up, he gets upset. Every night after closing, he doesn't help with the cleaning and just leaves on his own."
Yang Chengjian said, "Brother Feng, it was my idea not to let Duan Jian clean up."
Feng Haidong asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why didn't you let Duan Jian clean with you?"
Yang Chengjian said with some regret, "At the time, I felt that without you, Brother Feng, the crayfish we cooked tasted much worse. Only Duan Jian's crayfish was barely comparable to your skills, so we needed him and I thought I would give him some preferential treatment."
Feng Haidong said, "Cheng Jian, you're doing something wrong. You're giving Duan Jian the feeling that he doesn't belong to you. And by doing this, you're essentially telling Duan Jian that he's very important to you, almost to the point of being irreplaceable. This will put you in a very passive position."
Yang Chengjian nodded and said, "Brother Feng, you're right. I've also realized that I might not be suited to be a boss."
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Feng Haidong said, "Don't be so self-deprecating. This incident has taught you a lesson, and you must be more careful in the future."
Feng Haidong said to someone in the room with a serious expression: "You must remember that if you are the boss, you must keep enough trump cards for yourself when doing business. In particular, you cannot be led by the nose by your subordinates. You must have your own methods."
Then Feng Haidong directly used Duan Jian as an example.
"Take Duan Jian's case for example. Cheng Jian told Duan Jian not to clean with everyone. Cheng Jian's idea was to give Duan Jian some preferential treatment, but Duan Jian might not think that way. He might feel that you are a small circle and that you are excluding him."
Furthermore, Cheng Jian's decision not to let Duan Jian clean with everyone every day made Duan Jian realize that he was indispensable in the restaurant, so he understood that you needed him.
If it weren't for the agreement we had before, or if he were more ruthless, he might have jumped ship before I even came back, or used the job-hopping as leverage to get Cheng Jian to give him a raise.
So Cheng Jian, you must remember this: you can't give your subordinates the feeling that you can't do without them.
After listening to Feng Haidong's words, Yang Chengjian and the others seemed to have something to think about, and for the first time, they had a completely new understanding of being a boss.
Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit tense, Feng Haidong chuckled and said, "Of course, you still need to have absolute strength to not worry about your subordinates jumping ship."
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