Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Obviously, Qiu Hong felt resentful towards his failure and was able to keep calm at the beginning. However, his tone gradually changed from stating facts to complaining.

Pei Qian could hear Qiu Hong's humiliation from his tone.

Qiu Hong's game designing ability was definitely no problem as someone who had done successful projects.

Of course, his design abilities were specifically referring to his ability to design domestically-produced games with paywalls. He could not produce other types of games.

However, the problem with that was that Qiu Hong had never thought of making other types of games. He always had a very clear goal, which was to earn money by making games with paywalls.

Obviously, his venture failed not because of his design ability as well. He had not been a good boss.

Qiu Hong repeatedly emphasized that 'project management' was the most critical issue for his failure. He had so many things he wanted to say on that topic.

Qiu Hong shared a series of measures that could be taken to strengthen project management aspects with 'Ma Yang'.

For example, forcing employees to clock in and out, arriving early every day, and leaving late to supervise employees; dedicating 10% of game profits to the employees as bonuses.

These measures had indeed improved the company's situation and improved efficiency, but they still could not save them from the doom of failure.

Pei Qian felt a bit estranged.

It sounded like a factor for failure indeed. However, all these were useless to him…

My employees were already a bunch of crazy workaholics. I deliberately decoupled bonuses from profits and linked them with word-of-mouth to prevent them from thinking only about making profits.

Would there not be an explosion if bonuses were given to his employees based on profits?

The key was here; Qiu Hong said that the main reason why he failed was that his employees were lazy.

However, Pei Qian's problem was that he had been encouraging his employees to be lazy, but they refused to do that!

What should he do then?!

He might know the right answer, but he did not know of any feasible methods to solve the problem!

Qiu Hong became more emotional as he spoke. Pei Qian was too embarrassed to interrupt him.

Finally, Qiu Hong stopped to take a sip of coffee, probably thirsty from speaking too long.

"Then, can I just ask… do you know what kinds of company regulations would cause employees to be lazy and for the project schedule to get out of control?" Pei Qian tried to ask.

Qiu Hong was taken aback. "Eh? Isn't it innate human nature to be lazy? You don't need to do anything for them to be lazy."

Pei Qian: "…"

That wasn't right; that did not match my experience.

There were times when I really did not bother with the company. I was in the office for only two to three hours a day, but wasn't my game project produced as scheduled?

Pei Qian asked again: "Then, if I let all employees not check in at all, have enough snacks and beverages, prohibit overtime, project bonuses have nothing to do with project profitability, and never ask about the development progress of the project… is it possible for the game to be produced as scheduled and still be profitable?"

The expression on Qiu Hong's face was very exciting as if asking 'is this some kind of joke'?

"Impossible!

"Boss Ma, if you want to daydream, then I suggest you buy lottery tickets. It might be easier to realize."

Pei Qian clapped, feeling as though he had found his best friend. "Yes, I feel the same! It should be impossible!

"But as far as I know, the gaming department of my companies seems… to be doing exactly this."

Qiu Hong did not reply immediately. He shook his heart slightly and took a sip of coffee.

"Boss Ma, that is what you see on the surface," Boss Ma said bitterly.

"That would mean that the project management ability of the Tengda Games department had reached a godly level and had achieved a 'back to the basics' effect.

"Such top-level project management was not something that everyone could learn from.

"It's just like how in certain martial arts novels, the protagonist would be able to win against others even if he did not have any techniques. However, you would be defeated pathetically if you tried to emulate him.

"Boss Ma, my advice is to forget about the Tengda Games department. You will not be able to learn such an ability.

"Of course, that is not to spite you. I won't be able to learn it either. Most of the people in this world would not be able to learn it, too.

"A business genius like Boss Pei is one in a trillion. The experience of such a person cannot be used as a reference."

Pei Qian: "…"

Forget about the Tengda Games department?

Impossible, I am here to solve the problem of the gaming department. How could you try to persuade me to give up?!

What did you mean by 'return to basics'—what godly level? What sh*t were you talking about?!

Pei Qian was speechless; what about sharing his failures? Why did he become a whip corpse again!

Qiu Hong looked at his watch. "Oh, time's up.

"Boss Ma, it has been such a joy talking to you. I have not had such a great conversation for a long time. The distress in my chest had been completely wiped out!"

Pei Qian: "…"

The distress in your chest had been completely wiped out? What about my distress? It has increased again…

Pei Qian asked, "So, you will talk about new failure factors when the time comes, right?"

Qiu Hong nodded "Of course, I can vaguely feel that I can be very good friends with Boss Ma. We both have similar traits."

"What is this trait…?"

"We both have grievances with nowhere to air; we have a goal, but no one cooperates.

"Boss Ma, don't worry, we'll definitely be able to get through it!

"In short, I'll share all I can and will! We'll make progress together!"

Have goals, but no one cooperates?

You are so right!

Pei Qian thought in silence. He and Qiu Hong might have different goals, but they were both working hard to break free from the quagmire of failure and move towards a better tomorrow!

It seemed as though they could really become good friends from this point, eh?

Pei Qian was moved as well and clasped Qiu Hong's outstretched hand tightly. "Okay, let's do our best together!"

…

…

May 3rd, Tuesday…

At Otto Technologies…

The holidays were just over, and it was the first day of work at Otto Technologies. They started working at full swing in no time.

Chang You walked past the office area into his own office. His eyes swept over everyone, obtaining a panoramic view of the state of employees.

"Could the influence of the Tengda spirit be so obvious?"

Chang You was slightly suspicious. He could feel the subtle change at Otto Technologies. Half a year had passed since Otto Technologies was established in November last year.

The key employees, including Chang You, were all from Hongcheng Technologies. Boss Pei had never intervened in the daily affairs of the company. Director Lin, who was airdropped in, had never made any comments on the management of the company as well.

Therefore, the working method of Otto Technologies was exactly the same as Hongcheng Technologies.

However, while the people were the same, everyone's working style seemed to be constantly evolving according to Tengda's working style.

One of the most notable manifestations was that everyone's working hours had shortened, but their workload had not changed.

That meant that their overall work efficiency improved!

Chang You still remembered his time at Hongcheng Technologies. He could always see someone lazing around as he walked through his staff area.

Of course, he also would not point it out since he felt that it was impossible for everyone to sustain an efficient work state. It was natural for people to laze around occasionally.

Now, however, everyone was working effectively with very minimal lazing around!

These two states could be distinguished at a glance.

Take today for example. If one was in Hongcheng Technologies, then most people would be sorting out one's work plan before lunch, reply to emails that accumulated last weekend, and then play with their mobiles for a while before the morning passed.

However, now, everyone was done with their work plan and emails in just after half an hour. They used the rest of their time for work, each more anxious than the previous one.

The most crucial was that Boss Pei seldom came over and had never requested them to learn from the Tengda spirit.

How did this subtle influence permeate and 'lubricate' everything?

The more Chang You pondered, the more he felt that Boss Pei had his way with project management!

Chang You always had to check attendance, set goals, and question from time to time. It was no longer necessary. The entire company acted like an entire arm. Everyone was very cooperative.

Chang You felt that he was simply too comfortable now with such a clever project management method. He no longer needed to waste any energy urging the staff on at all and could concentrate on the company's development direction.

"I have to ask Great Master Boss Pei about management when I have the time. How did he achieve this lubricating effect? Does he have his own set of philosophy for project management?"

Chang You continued his work for the week after completing his daily illusions about Boss Pei's Daily Life.

Today, he had to decode a mystery left behind by Boss Pei.

Boss Pei proposed a future plan for Otto Technologies previously: stop making new cell phones, extend the timeline to about 10 months to establish a software laboratory, make some useful applications, improve on the cell phone systems, and optimize the image algorithm.

Chang You had interpreted this point previously. He felt that Boss Pei's strategy was very correct after some serious reflection!

The Otto E1 cell phone was a very expensive high-end cell phone, but it was also a cell phone filled with defects at the same time. What would the clients who had already bought the E1 cell phones think if they were to work on a new phone immediately?

'I treat this phone as a baby while you treat me as rubbish?'

OTTO's pricing strategy was to never reduce the price. However, if new phones were released too frequently, what importance would customers with old phones be?

They might provide old-for-new services, but the frequent behavior of new phones would inevitably dilute the initial brand value of the mobile phone.

Therefore, Boss Pei wanted to use one year to polish the software, including the operating system, image algorithm, various commonly used applications, etc. There were at least three levels of meaning to it.

Fulfill their promise to their consumers…

Extend the release cycle of new cell phones to one year, to ensure that more advanced and mature technologies could be used at that point… so that the next mobile phone would have more gimmicks. At the same time, be able to better preserve the value of the E1 cell phone…

Invest a lot of time in software research and development to increase the value-add of the cell phone, make up for its shortcomings, and make consumers feel value for money…

Chang You immediately decided to spend a huge amount of money to set up an image algorithm laboratory after seeing the deep meaning behind Boss Pei's next stage policy. It would be dedicated to tuning cell phone lenses, optimizing image algorithms, and working hard on the software of photography!

However, Boss Pei's new directions came after hardly two days from when he decoded Boss Pei's meaning.

Chang You was confused this time.

Boss Pei actually asked Otto Technologies to develop an application for gym registration?

The functional requirements of this application were very simple. It was put forward by someone called Guo Licheng. Customers could view their fitness data, make appointments for fitness, etc. Nothing more…

Chang You was very confused. Did they have to get Otto Technologies to develop something so simple?

Our software team was capable of more complex applications. It's just a simple app for gym registration that could be done by any team. Why did Mr. Pei give us this task?

Moreover, this application was totally different from the general direction determined by Boss Pei previously.

The strangest thing was that Boss Pei emphasized that this software was not to be pre-installed in the cell phones.

Why?

Chang You arranged for someone to carry it out the moment he received this request. However, he still failed to understand the meaning behind it after so many days.

Someone with no ambition would complete the fitness software without any question.

However, Chang You was very sure that, after the success of the Otto E1 cell phone, the tasks Boss Pei personally gave seemed simple but definitely had other meanings to them.

Why would Boss Pei personally delegate the task out otherwise?