Chapter 33: Carrot and Stick

Two security guards from Dongling High-Tech's Security Department stood at the entrance of Dongling High-Tech's laboratory building. Dongling High-Tech was not a state-owned enterprise and had no security section, but it had also established a Security Department.

The people in the Security Department were all selected by Yang Zhi Gao. Basically, they were all people who had had a military career, and some were even veterans who had been on the battlefield before.

Li Dongling established Dongling High-Tech's Security Department mainly to guard the laboratory. In domestic companies, in terms of product R&D, whether it was patents or technology, there was no sense of confidentiality. Even if a new product was really developed, it was finally "borrowed" by foreign companies, and even the patents might be registered by the other party first.

Li Dongling didn't want to make such a mistake. Digital cordless phones and scroll-wheel mice, in fact, had more creativity than technology. Compared with those products now, the technology was not too far ahead. The difference lay in who broke through that layer of window paper first, who registered the patent first, and who launched the product first!

Entering the laboratory, the laboratory built by Dongling High-Tech certainly couldn't compare with those top-level laboratories, but within his ability, Li Dongling had brought the laboratory to the best level now, at least in terms of experimental hygiene levels and specifications, exceeding a large number of company laboratories in China.

Chen Tao's ability was definitely there. Although he had wasted a few years in the original research institute, he hadn't put down his professional technology, and his foundation hadn't fallen behind.

Now on the laboratory side, it was divided into two projects. Chen Tao led a part of the R&D personnel to focus on the scroll-wheel mouse, which he thought was the "easiest" to develop. The other part of the technical personnel developed the digital cordless phone.

Chen Tao's plan was that after he solved the scroll-wheel mouse project, he would lead people to the digital cordless phone side.

"Junior Brother Li... Chairman Li!"

After the words came out, Chen Tao immediately reacted and changed his address. If it were when he was at Hanxi Jiaotong University, Chen Tao probably wouldn't have cared about anything.

But after grinding and wasting a few years in the research institute, his temperament had been tempered, and he also knew what to say on what occasion. Even if he was a fellow school brother of Li Dongling, and Li Dongling valued him highly, in public, Chen Tao still knew how to address Li Dongling.

"Chairman Li, this is the first test version of the mouse shell we made!"

Chen Tao proudly took out the experimental mouse shell that he and a group of technical personnel had developed over these days. This efficiency was already quite astonishing.

The praise he expected didn't come. Chen Tao saw that the face of Li Dongling, who always had a gentle expression and occasionally showed a warm smile since he met him, turned black visibly.

"What is this?!"

"What I designed and requested was a scroll-wheel mouse that conforms to ergonomics, not a plastic shell that hurts the hand!"

Not only Chen Tao, but all the R&D personnel of the scroll-wheel mouse project team looked at the furious Li Dongling in shock. At this time, Li Dongling was almost a different person from his usual self.

"What is the size of this mouse? It's almost over 117 millimeters, right? What I want is a standard home and office size for a mouse, absolutely not exceeding 100 millimeters!"

Chen Tao was sprayed until he was a bit confused, and said somewhat hesitantly, "It's just a few millimeters more..."

"With me, there is no such thing as a hair's breadth of difference. What I want is a standard, the most ergonomic mouse. It's that when a user holds this mouse, they recognize that this is the mouse they need. It's to make users feel that work is not smooth when they leave this mouse, and for gamers to regard it as a treasure, feeling that games are tasteless when they leave it!"

"Materials also need to be improved. The materials used now have too strong a sense of cheap plastic after being held. Develop a few more materials for trial use.

By the way, new materials and technologies discovered during the R&D process must be recorded!"

Li Dongling told Chen Tao, pointing out the shortcomings of the mouse from time to time, such as fingers and palms needing to be completely fitted to the mouse, the weight of the whole mouse needing to be around 90 grams, not too light or too heavy, etc.

A technical person on the side recorded all these that Li Dongling pointed out. Chen Tao felt that he was sprayed by Li Dongling, who had turned into a technical tyrant, until he doubted his life. But after being sprayed, he felt that what Li Dongling said seemed to make sense. He didn't know why he had such an idea, as if reality had been twisted.

"If we continue to develop like this, the expenses will probably far exceed the standard!"

Chen Tao came back to his senses and said to Li Dongling with worry. According to Li Dongling's requirements, constant experiments and trial and error were needed, and even new materials needed to be developed, new mouse sensors needed to be designed, etc. The consumption of funds was too large. When he was in the research institute before, Chen Tao had encountered this kind of thing. When the R&D was halfway through, the funds were gone, and finally, the project was left unsettled, so he was very sensitive to funds.

"The technical department doesn't need to worry about the expenses. That's what I should worry about. What you need to do is to develop what I need according to the requirements. The rest of the problems will be solved by me!"

After Li Dongling finished speaking, he became the gentle and elegant person with a warm smile on his face again, which made Chen Tao and others have an illusion that the technical tyrant just now was just a hallucination, but it really happened.

"I know the R&D schedule is very tight. This year, during the New Year, everyone might need to work overtime. So this year, those who are willing to stay in the laboratory to work overtime can receive two more months of wages.

In addition, after the R&D is successful, every technical person in the mouse R&D department can receive a reward of no less than 10,000 yuan.

The mouse industry is destined to leave your names. As long as someone is still using it, no one will forget that you developed a great product!"

Li Dongling said to a group of technical personnel including Chen Tao. A tyrant of technology and products could be played, but the carrot must also be fed. If some chicken soup was fed, the effect would be even better. Don't ask Li Dongling how he knew these. In his previous life, Li Dongling had also been fed a lot of this poisonous chicken soup in the design bureau.

Hearing Li Dongling's words, a group of technical personnel instantly became high-spirited. Even Chen Tao, who had just been sprayed, didn't have any unhappiness at this time.

People in this era were used to this set of poisonous chicken soup, especially for honor. Whether it was personal honor or collective honor, they were very pursuing. If they could really leave their names in the history of the tech industry, even if it was for no money and suffering more, Chen Tao was willing to do it!

After Li Dongling left, the design personnel of the mouse project team re-modified and designed an experimental draft according to Li Dongling's requirements. The person in charge of the design couldn't help but say to Chen Tao, "Boss Chen, it seems that the product designed according to Chairman Li's requirements is indeed better..."

Chen Tao looked over. Even if it hadn't been made yet and was just a draft blueprint, as an R&D person's intuition, some things could be roughly distinguished as good or bad at a glance.

After looking for a long time, Chen Tao said to everyone, "Start doing it!"

As a former genius of Hanxi Jiaotong University, Chen Tao had his own pride. He wouldn't easily admit that someone was stronger than him, but Chen Tao also had to admit that some people were indeed talented, the kind that God rewarded with food.

The competition for satellite dishes came faster than Li Dongling imagined. Before the end of the month, four or five brands of satellite dishes appeared in the Pingyang market, all of which were pushed out by state-owned enterprise factories in Pingyang.

When those brands of satellite dishes were pushed out, the price of satellite dishes in Pingyang immediately ushered in a big dive. In just a few days, it fell from an average selling price of 350 yuan per machine to below 300 yuan.

Even so, those satellite dish manufacturers were still willing to produce constantly, and even sell at a reduced price, because the profit of satellite dishes really exceeded their imagination. They didn't care about the market situation at all, just desperately producing. As long as they could sell, it didn't matter if they reduced the price.

In contrast, the Guanying satellite dish, which was unwilling to reduce the price, began to see its sales volume nearly halved in Pingyang. However, at this time, the focus of the Component Factory was on the southern market, starting to desperately produce satellite dishes to sell to the southern market, preparing to earn the last bit of money. As for the markets in Pingyang, or even Hanxi, and even the north, they actually didn't care that much!

And the Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1, which had been dragging its feet for a long time, also began to become lively again. The color TV production line that was purchased was finally about to be put into production.

But Liu Jiande, who was in charge of the production department, couldn't be happy. Looking at the director of the production department of Wireless Factory No. 1 before him, he said angrily, "What do you mean, the employees of the production department are unwilling to come back to work?!"

The production section director said helplessly, "Manager Liu, it's not like you don't know. Before, our factory stopped production, and people were pulled to the Component Factory to produce satellite dishes. Now the benefits and treatment there are high, and we are still in arrears with wages here. Why would they be willing to come back here to work?!"

Before, the employees of Wireless Factory No. 1 ran to the Component Factory and other factories to work. Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 was not unaware, but pretended to be unaware, and even wished that everyone would go there.

Because Wireless Factory No. 1 couldn't pay wages. If the employees made trouble, Wireless Factory No. 1 couldn't bear it either. Going there to get a salary, people wouldn't make trouble. The leaders of Wireless Factory No. 1 were also happy to be idle.

But who knew that people went there and were unwilling to come back. Liu Jiande slapped the table. "I don't care what your reason is. Tomorrow, the city leaders will come to participate in the opening ceremony of the color TV production line. People must be brought back for me. If they are unwilling to come back, transfer their work relationships away and let them roll up their bedding and leave. Our Xicheng Wireless Factory No. 1 has raised them for nothing for so many years!"

Hearing Liu Jiande's words, the production section director felt helpless. If he did this, he would definitely be poked in the spine, thrown with rotten eggs, and smashed with glass. It was even possible to be knocked unconscious on a night road and thrown into a sewer. But with Liu Jiande pressing him, he couldn't not do it. ===== CHAPTER 34 =====