On the front wall of the conference hall is a huge freehand painting titled "Clouds Rising in Jiangnan" by Xu Wenchang.
Painter Gudan integrates the wild and unrestrained lines of cursive script with the vivid and unrestrained ink and wash, making people feel as if they are in the misty rain of Jiangnan, feeling the profound artistic conception and being shocked by the magnificent mountains and rivers.
"The mountains and clouds are like a dream, and the sails are not clearly visible elsewhere." This is the poem on the painting.
In front of this magnificent painting, Mr. Zhao delivered an important speech to the group representatives attending the conference.
After a brief praise, he focused on the outlook for the fourth year of Longqing, and asked the group and all its subsidiaries to do two things well in the new year - setting standards and increasing production capacity!
Because the main contradiction facing Jiangnan Group at present is the contradiction between the rapidly growing market demand and the extremely low production efficiency.
In his speech, Zhao Hao pointed out that if this contradiction could not be resolved as soon as possible, or at least alleviated, the huge wealth brought by overseas trade would instead cause the collapse of the Jiangnan economy.
Because if production cannot be increased quickly, the export of large quantities of goods will only lead to a shortage of domestic goods, and the influx of huge amounts of silver will further push up prices, causing the depreciation of domestic silver and soaring prices, making people's lives difficult, and then triggering unrest and even leading to the collapse of the commodity economy in the south of the Yangtze River.
This is called inflation.
Therefore, the group and each company must focus on improving production efficiency at this stage. The key to improving production efficiency lies in the "quantitative management" that Mr. Zhao repeatedly emphasized.
Not only should the manufactured products themselves be standardized to facilitate division of labor, but all basic elements of production should also be standardized and tabulated with numbers to solve the problems of chaotic production operation methods in manual workshops, inefficient allocation of personnel, finance and materials, discrepancies between workers’ labor income and their labor contribution, and lack of effort.
When these problems are improved and coupled with continuous improvement in production processes, production efficiency will naturally be greatly improved and output will also increase.
Therefore, Zhao Hao required that all managers of the group and its subsidiaries should go to Jiangnan Vocational and Technical College for training starting from the 20th day of the first lunar month, and he would personally teach relevant management courses. After the short training, each company should complete the formulation of the standardization plan by the end of June next year.
He and the Strategic Decision Committee will spend a year reviewing each company one by one until all companies have achieved quantitative management.
"This is the top priority of the group's work next year, and it will also be the main project for your assessment at the end of next year! Don't worry that the reform will waste time. Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood, and the lost time will be made up soon."
The delegates at the meeting were taking notes quickly while they were already thinking about shortening the workers' Spring Festival holiday and starting work on the eighth day, no, the sixth day...
But Zhao Hao saw through their thoughts. Finally, he emphasized: "In addition, I want to remind you not to blindly increase the working hours of workers. A worker who gets enough rest and motivation will be much more productive than a worker who works overtime all day, has no rest, and has his income over-exploited - there is no way out for involution!"
Everyone looked confused.
"If you don't believe it, why not give it a try?" Zhao Hao smiled faintly.
"How could we not believe what the young master said?" The people in the audience laughed.
"That's right, you can't be wrong."
"What nonsense! I am also wrong sometimes." Young Master Zhao laughed and then said seriously:
"This is a scientific conclusion drawn from a large number of experiments. You can go back and try it. Divide the workers into four groups. One group works seven days a month and has one day off, and is paid incentive piece-rate wages. The second group also works seven days a month and has one day off, but is not paid incentive wages. The third group is paid incentive wages but does not have any rest. The last group has neither rest nor performance. Observe like this for two months, and you will have the answer yourself..."
"Yes." Everyone hurriedly wrote it down.
"I still say the same thing. You should be nicer to our employees. They are the foundation of our existence." Mr. Zhao finally said to the audience with deep sincerity: "Let's talk about it from afar. At the ceremony that day, I said that the goal of Jiangnan Group is to eliminate poverty. This is not just empty talk, but a matter of life and death for our group. If we can get most of the people in Jiangnan out of poverty, then the foundation of Jiangnan Group will be unbreakable. By then, no one can destroy us!"
After a pause, he looked around the field and said in a more serious tone: "Then, let's start by lifting our employees out of poverty."
Amidst warm applause, the second conference of Jiangnan Group came to a successful conclusion.
~~
After the group meeting, we will finish up the work and then it’s time for vacation.
In this day and age, ordinary people are busy from the beginning of the year to the twelfth lunar month without a single day’s rest, but they must take a break during the New Year.
"Huh, I'm finally done!" After signing the last document, Mr. Zhao threw away his pen, stretched, and leaned back in the large boss chair covered with top-grain calfskin.
"Sister Xianglan, after the holiday, we can sleep in, right?"
Secretary Ma carefully dried the ink and put the documents into folders one by one. Her face turned slightly red when she heard this, showing her shyness.
But she secretly sighed in her heart. Since she came back, she has never slept in the same bed with the young master, nor has she had the chance to kiss and hug him.
There's no way. The young county lady and Miss Jiang are keeping a close eye on me. It's better to be free when I'm overseas.
Alas, it's a pity that the young master has no plans to go to sea next year. I really miss the sea, the waves, and the big bed...
Zhao Hao saw that he had been holding the teacup for a while and she didn't add water, so he asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"
"I want..." Ma Xianglan was about to blurt out, but fortunately she was well-trained and changed her words abruptly: "Remind you, Miss Jiang is alone this year."
"Oh?" Mr. Zhao was stunned, then he remembered that Ye accompanied the old man to Guangzhou for the New Year. Although her uncle's family in Yangzhou and the Wang family in Huizhou came to pick her up to celebrate the New Year, Xueying certainly had no worries about where to go, but she was afraid that she would still be lonely.
Unexpectedly, Sister Ma would even worry about such a thing for him. Zhao Hao was deeply moved. Sister Ma was really capable. She worried about everything, whether it was necessary for a secretary or not.
However, after Ma Xianglan finished speaking, her heart was gloomy. Speaking of loneliness, who in this world could be compared to her? She was really alone and had no relatives, living like a floating duckweed.
Seeing this, Zhao Hua put his arms around her slender waist and let Ma Xianglan sit on his lap without saying anything.
"Be careful Miss Jiang comes in." Secretary Ma struggled.
"It's okay, she will knock on the door." But Zhao Hao didn't let go. He put his head on her chest and whispered, "Sister, you are the most precious gift God has given me."
"What nonsense are you talking about..." Secretary Ma immediately fell limp in his arms, her ears burning, and she said in a mosquito-like voice: "You can't put me too far forward..."
In the face of Mr. Zhao's increasingly sophisticated sweet words, she finally gave in and forgot the most important creed.
"That's how it feels in my heart." Zhao Hao gently stretched out his hand to hold her chin, stared into her misty eyes and said, "We are the closest relatives, so you will never be alone. Because didn't we agree to be together forever?"
"Yeah." Ma Xianglan nodded heavily, then with a red face, as if she had mustered up the courage, she took the initiative to kiss Zhao Hao for the first time.
Mr. Zhao responded enthusiastically. Well, kissing in the office, this is what he had wanted to do for a long time.
This is also what Sister Ma wants...
~~
At 4:30 in the afternoon, a melodious bell rang in the building, reminding employees that it was time to get off work.
According to the group's regulations, we start work at 8 am in the winter and get off work at 4:30 pm. The reason why we get off work so early is that it will be dark in more than half an hour...
Although Mr. Zhao designed and installed water supply and drainage for the Jiangnan Building, and even had toilets on every floor, he was completely helpless in terms of lighting and had to use oil lamps and candles.
This will not only result in poor lighting effects, but also pose a safety hazard. Therefore, the Group does not encourage overtime unless necessary.
However, after the beginning of spring, the working time will be adjusted to 5 o'clock. When the beginning of summer comes, it will be 6 o'clock. After the beginning of autumn, it will be changed back to 5 o'clock. After the beginning of winter, it will be 4:30 o'clock... So the half hour of work that was lost in winter has been doubled in the summer.
How can an employee take advantage of his boss?
Mr. Zhao walked out of his office immediately and knocked on the door of the president's office opposite.
Xiao Yuner opened the door and saw that it was him, and quickly welcomed Master Zhao in.
When Mr. Zhao entered, he saw that the glass lamp had been lit inside and Xue Ying was directing Mi Li to put piles of documents into a large suitcase.
"Brother, I'll be done soon." Jiang Xueying saw him and came up to him happily.
Zhao Hao couldn't do anything in front of the servants, so he coughed and asked, "What's this for?"
"It's vacation time. Take the documents and account books you need to look at back with you." Jiang Xueying replied with a smile.
"So many?" Zhao Hao was surprised.
"Two boxes have been sent back." Mi Li answered for Jiang Xueying. Although she was the director of the president's office, she had watched her grow up, so she spoke naturally and wrote casually. She also meant to remind someone on behalf of her young lady.
"So many? How can we celebrate the New Year?" Zhao Hao was shocked. This box of documents must weigh at least 100 kilograms.
He had been working so hard these days, but he couldn't review more than 10 kilograms of documents a day. If Xueying had to review 300 kilograms of documents, how could she celebrate the New Year?
"I was busy summarizing the opening before the New Year, and saved up so much." Jiang Xueying said as if it was normal: "Anyway, there is nothing to do during the New Year, I will go back and take a look at it slowly."
"Oh, right." Zhao Hao then remembered the purpose of his visit and scratched his head and said, "Xueying, shall we celebrate the New Year together this year?"
"Brother, this is not appropriate..." Xueying was very happy to hear that, but she would lose face if she agreed.
How can you celebrate the New Year at someone's house before you get married? That's too shameless.
Although I really want to...
p.s. I'm going to write another chapter, but it will definitely not be posted too early, so read it tomorrow morning.